the UK is a shit hole
polycounter lvl 19
I could just leave it there.
But this news article kinda re-affirms my views of the UK, and I'm glad I decided to move to another country:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6108302.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6074252.stm
Nearly all my friends families self imploded when they were in their early teens, including my own. My school was over-run with what we now call chavs. And it's true, it's not always been like this. I have been mugged on various occasions in various cities by gangs of kids, even with my height and build. Nearly every professional I know in London tells me of similar experiences.
Something bad has happened to society in the UK and I'm not sure anyone knows how to fix it.
Are we beer swilling thugs reproducing clones who never asked to be born in the first place? I often get refused alcohol on flights.
But this news article kinda re-affirms my views of the UK, and I'm glad I decided to move to another country:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6108302.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6074252.stm
Nearly all my friends families self imploded when they were in their early teens, including my own. My school was over-run with what we now call chavs. And it's true, it's not always been like this. I have been mugged on various occasions in various cities by gangs of kids, even with my height and build. Nearly every professional I know in London tells me of similar experiences.
Something bad has happened to society in the UK and I'm not sure anyone knows how to fix it.
Are we beer swilling thugs reproducing clones who never asked to be born in the first place? I often get refused alcohol on flights.
Replies
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Britons are also more immersed in consumerism than American youngsters, the research claimed.
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haha, woot!
Some thoughts:
1) The UK media has a distinct tendency to fixate on and exaggerate this stuff. The British pubic are definitely prone to doing the same self loathing 'oh woe is us' shit too. They're not happy unless they're unhappy. People have been saying stuff like 'the country is going to the dogs' since WW2.
2) Personally I think same shit, different country. There are disaffected youth everywhere. Their anger just manifests itself in different ways. Fuck, I was in downtown SF last night and the fuckers started shooting each other: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/01/BAGF0M3UOQ5.DTL
The crowd was distinctly menacing and aggresive.
3) I've never been refused booze on a flight, nor in all the many many years that I was in London was I ever mugged. The luck of the draw I suppose.
I for one still have fond memories of the place, and I had a fantastic couple of weeks there recently, but who knows, perhaps its easier to romanticize it now I no longer live there. Plus all my family are still there so I have a sense of wanting to look out for them. Im not saying crime and alcohol and youth behaviour isn't a huge problem, but I just think theres a tendency to exaggerate it.
I've been mugged 4 times and they've all happened in the past 3 years, always chavs either armed or in a sizable group that even mike tyson couldn't pummel his way through even though they're all a bunch of pussies (hence the rediculous numbers... 1v1 my ass).
Crime and angry youths has always been a problem throughout the history of man but that's not to say that the situation hasn't got a hell of a lot worse in the recent few years.
Just last week my mate was walking home from work and was completely annihilated by a group of 10 "chavs", he's lucky to be alive as it was only the fact they were interrupted by police that they stopped in the first place. The amount of times I get on the bus and pass numerous sightings of piled purchased flowers where someone has died from stabbings is beyond a joke.
A large problem is, the law is on their side and they aren't clueless about that fact. Nanny-Cultured idealists in the media constantly claim that crime has not increased and that it's just a negative perception created by news channels and the government, supposidly they're just bored children that need something positive to do and don't really understand what they're doing or the consequences... It's complete bullshit, crime figures won't increase as most (including myself and friends) will not bother to report them due to either being too afraid or the knowledge that nothing will come of reporting it as the law really can't do anything other than give verbal warnings.
All I can really say is the law is out-dated, police actually being on the streets instead of being a call centre half the time would also help somewhat. (though my town's council and police have officially been named as the worst in the country and is funded by the limitless numbers of bars/clubs.)
It should also be noted that this is city life, not 100% of the UK altogether, there are perfectly safe small towns and villages that I'd retreat to tomorrow if i could get a worthy job.
It's also a part of the reason why, when I finally land a job in the industry.. I don't want it to be here.
I've ranted too much and I could go on for another hour
It's a damned shame we can't arrange an intercontinental battle royale re-enactment of The Warriors. Wouldn't it be great to see a posse of London chavs try to fight their way from Inglewood to Compton? My money's on the Bloods.
Chavs are just the majority representation of this lifestyle choosing to act this way in the UK. Doesn't make a difference what color they are. We have mexican/asian ghettos in and around d.c. as well. Once again all centered around vulgar media and a total lack of self respect or education.
I've been mugged, beaten up, had my stereo stolen out of my car, tires popped, and house egged, just for being the only white guy left in my old neighborhood. I'm lucky i wasn't killed, many people were in that area. And it was considered a good place until it was overrun with this stereo type. Took about 1 year for it to go from suburban middle class to total drug infested ghetto. And nothing will ever be done about it.
UK may be making a fuss about it because it's new to them. Just stop it before it gets as bad as it is in US cities.
A few months ago, I read a report on violence in train stations, and the operators were thinking about installing these devices which if activated, deafen people under 20. I wrote to them and asked them why they don't just put police boxes in every train station?
Although I'm biased. Here in Japan, crime is very sparse. They have awesome deterrents though, considering the Japanese police force is the biggest by ratio in the world. Here, there are police boxes manned by two beat patrol guys 24 hrs a day, in every train station across the country. There's no need for CCTV, and in fact, I've never seen a camera anywhere. (I live in central Tokyo!)
the BBC's article is getting to the heart of things though: the parents and schools are to blame. Maybe the media, but thats not a persuasive entity that parents are un-able to control.
Again back to Japan, as it's my centric point for (over the top) what society can do to curb bad behavior; in Japanese schools they have this class once a week where you are taught how to feel your way though the world once school is over, almost like a re-habilitation center for inmates about to leave jail
When I was in school we still had corporal punishment!
OK lets have a preaching moment:
1. Teachers should be able to punish students with minimal force.
2. Parents should be penalized financially or with community service for the wrong doings of their kids.
3. all kids should have to do national service for 1 year at the age of 16!!
(number 3 sounds crazy, but maybe without the military element, and some kind of harsh but fair life training exercises, away from their own town, yeah yeah now I'm bloody Hitler!)
I've lived in enough countires to know that if you get lost down the wrong road you are fucked, doesnt matter who or where.
I would argue that its not imitation of other cultures though, no country has the market covered on poverty, frustration and ignorance.
The problem in the uk is more to do with the fact that the government is trying to bootstrap the society to the US ideal by privatising everything and running down that was previously 'government provided'.
It can no longer afford education, transport, health or environmental services and thats a harsh reality. Put a struggling lower working class youth in the middle of that and its easier to be swayed by the uprising in hate movement political parties and societal swings.
The government is going around starting wars, why should we not do the same? They're spending all the money on the americans war and ignoring our problems, why don't we take the law into our own hands?
Teachers don't give a damn about us, why should we care about learning? I wanna be a football star and marry a spice girl, much better than work.
Bringing back the cane and fining parents , sending kids off to the army? That's really not going to make an improvement in anything.
Anger at injustice is fine, I wouldn't go spouting off from the nearest soapbox in response though.
The UK has always been wild, maybe its the ley lines.
Belgians are mostly scared to walks the street at night because of the turkish youths, at lights out its a ghosttown in places like Mechelen, Hofstade and so on.
Walk into the wrong bar in germany and you run into aggresive xenophobic skinheads stuck in the past.
Speak up too honestly about the stupidity of living your life by a book or and blowing up nations of little brown people who you know nothing about and get slapped around by good ole boys in the south of america.
And so on..
Let's not pretend that anything other than 82.64 percent of statistics are not made up on the spot and ignore the fact that nowhere has the market cornered on ignorance and stupidity because its everywhere and it spreads the minute you start pointing fingers.
Oh yeah, and yer aw a bunch of fookin cock jockeys areet?!!
r.
I also don't like the sound of "get rid of public vulgarity." That sounds like a nice way of saying "repression of free speech." Vulgarity is such a subjective term, who's going to be the one who defines what is vulgar and what is not? Saying something as simple as "I believe Jesus Christ was a normal man who was never resurrected from the dead" would be considered "vulgar" to many, while others would see it as a completely innocent statement of a person's belief.
it'll work!
...it'll work!
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It will, couldn't agree more. Now, to round off, perhaps we could have a hoodie hunting season or perhaps just a 'shoot on sight' approach
I severely disagree with point 2 though, it's the kids themselves that need punishing, making their family poor (or even poorer) won't change anything, these kids make these decisions upon their own free will and DO understand what they're doing but they literally just don't care, it's just a total lack of conscience & respect which may indeed be partially the parent's fault though it isn't usually them who are carrying out these acts.
Verm, yeah, they are fucking pathetic and laughable but that's why they're armed with sharp objects and in groups of 5-20.
I couldn't really put it better myself Ror, I'm with you 100% on that one but in honesty, most "chavs" aren't politically motivated cos they're too wrapped up in themselves to even give a damn how their country is run apart from what's directly in front of them.
I'm more in agreement with Motz on the motivation of our pathetic thug youth and I'm not gonna say it's just the white youth either cause I've seen otherwise, in my opinion shit comes in all hues just as good people do, it's the lifestyle you chose & the actions you take that make u an asshole.
You can't pinpoint the blame on any one thing as such but certain things do all have a large attraction to chavs, mostly being rap/hip-hop wannabe weed smokin gangster drum&bass bling bling rubbish that promotes nothing but makin a livin throu stealin and "killin a man like it aint no thing" which is rife on tv, music channels and shops at the touch of a button.
But obviously there are plenty of human beings that listen to that stuff or smoke this stuff or wear that stuff and are unaffected by such mindless drivle which I spose is why you can't blame it soley on that as most people have their own free will to go down whatever road they choose.
Oh and Entity... *sigh* yeah, the 90's genuinely were beautiful as far as my town is concerned, ofcourse there was still crime and the little assholes in school but nothing like these days when making it home is starting to become a blessing in itself.
i think problems like those described in the articles are only visible in big town/city centres. If you head out into smaller places in the countryside it's nice and peaceful, and there's a much stronger sense of community.
it is getting into a vicious cycle now though, morons just tend to create more morons (people get drunk, have unprotected sex on the spur of the moment, end up with a kid they didn't want, at age 16-20)... then that kid will grow up with parents who lack common sense. Now and then the unsuspecting parents-to-be will figure things out and get back on track and bring up a good kid in a good household, but I reckon in most cases the guy will run off in fright leaving a young girl the sole responsibility of taking care of a child she didn't want in the first place... which is not a good thing to have.
One day though, there'll be a revolution. It won't be pretty, but one day we'll prevail, and we can once again install Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal as king and queen of our pleasant middle class utopia, where amiable men in jumpers swap comments about the quality of ale and the shag in their pipes, and women sit in lambing chairs flicking through the Ragdoll catalogue ...
... actually, that sounds pretty vile. But infinitely more preferable to the current world of abrasive and uncomfortable vomit that swamps the streets and pours out of my fucking TV screen
This so called labour government has done nothing to right these wrongs and in fact seems worse than any of thatchers junta.
Its easy to poke fingers and blame the chavs, but you have to wonder why this happened in the first place.
anyway, gangs are nothing new. Back in the seventies, it was just as easy to get yer heed kicked in on a saturday night.
I think stabbings are out of control though and the law needs to be changed , particullary on murder, whre they only seem to serve a couple of years now and then they are let out.
The other day that guy set fire to his girlfriends house and killed four of the family.
bizarrely he had been jailed previously for hammering to death his previous girlfried. WTF. 3 years for hammering soemone to death!!
alright
theres absolutely nothing wrong with this country, im JUST trying to leave it
i agree with ruz about weapons, i live in one of the scariest places in the UK for gun crime (mossside manchester) but bizzarely serious gang culture seems to keeps small street crime (muggings etc) down. I know of more people getting mugged etc in "middle class" white areas than here. just have to be a little more carefull and streetwise.
1. Media (footballer players are the awseomnestest! Ivrywun else sukz!! I wanna be a footballer!). There is little encouragement to go for actual useful jobs, the pay relects that too.
2. Education (or lack thereof). Not enough teachers, teachers trying to teach with their hands tied behind their back and a cocked pistol jammed halfway up their arse. How the hell are you supposed to control these little tossers when looking at them funny can get you in prison (and the kids KNOW this). I reckon bringing back corporal punishment and giving teachers the power to do their feckin' job would help (and probably get more teachers). Yes, some would abuse that power (which I'm very against), but on the whole I think it would be a benefit).
3. The more of this shit I see going on, the more inclined I am to think that obligatory military service is needed. Though that wouldn't have much effect on the chavs below that age. Or perhaps have something like it where young offenders are sent instead of juvenile detention (assuming their crime isn't that serious).
4. Unemployment. Part of the problem being that large number of immigrants. I do NOT mean that in a racist way, and understand why many of them come here. It's just that the UK is a small country, and we can't even cope with what we already have, let alone the huge influx of more people coming in.
It can be bloody hard to get any job here (as many other places), whether you are a have, have-not, immigrant or your family has lived here the past 45 generations. And education doesn't seem to help much considering the way they hand out university degress nowadays.
Then there is how expenisve the UK is in general, which doesn't help matters.
And I agree with the others above too.
And then there is alcohol. For the most part I really don't like my generation here. I like drinking a bit with friends here and there, but everone else (and people a fair bit younger and older) get rat-arsed whenever they possibly can. Booze in nightclubs too expensive? Down 5 shots of vodka before you head out to the pub. Then it's off to the nightclub. Drink more, vomit here and there. Go home, same tomorrow.
Or go buy a few bottles of white lightning and stab some people.
So obviously the solution is to extend the opening times of pubs and clubs. Way ahead of you there!
lupus, this practically sums it up
i only been to london ONCE and i was little, i liked it there, except the weather, and i didnt see much crime signs...that was like 9 years ago...
I'll stop, OK?
Problems like this cant be pinpointed to one source but lack of opportunities and the decay of the middle class i would say is at its core.
As for hip hop culture being to blame for this im inclined to disagree,lots of kids here are influenzed by hip hop culture and there arent marauding bands of stab crazy youths here. I think its your environment and education that determine good or bad behavior.
Oh yes and of the 3 of the 4 fights i almost have gotten into here have been with English tourists and yes all chavs
I realize I just slapped all the parents here in the face but chances are you are the minority and more than likely either wanted your children or planned to have them and where using birth control until such a time presented itself. More than likely you will only have 1-3 but the average jack booted thug is going to boff piece of meat that wiggles (or not) and out bread ya.
http://chavscum.co.uk/4images/details.php?image_id=5242
As bad as it is i still find it funny someone would dress like that on purpose.
Totally Agree,anyone who dresses themself like this and their child shouldnt be reproducing.
http://chavscum.co.uk/4images/details.php?image_id=5242
As bad as it is i still find it funny someone would dress like that on purpose.
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oh just look at that cunt. Jesus wept
a bloke at work had a cracking idea : each piece of cheap goldplated Elizabeth Duke jewellery is poisoned in relation to its size and weight. If you have one thin chain, you'd probably get a rash. Add another, you get headachy ... another and you start to feel sick. The more you add to yourself, the worse and worse the illness until you're stone cold dead and the world breathes a sigh of relief. The necklaces in that photo would be instant death, the moment it touches the neck area.It's a shame that kid is killed by his own cunt of a father, but it's best in the long run
You know what your problem is? The war in Irak uses up too little cannonfodder... where is the good old tradition of the British army to "CHAAARRGE" the enemy???
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wouldnt work dude,they would win,all the gold would blind the enemy in a similar fashion to what gandolf did to the uruk hai in the two towers.
you'd need a live-fire exercise to cull thme...
if you replace the russian influence with a african american influence it's basically an exact prediction
why is that such a negative comment
http://www.justthetrick.co.uk/chavnight.jpg
bah the UK isnt a shithole, it just HAS a lot of shitholes. Newcastle is pretty charver (local term) heavy, but I haven't had a brush with any since I was 15 or so.
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They moved to Middlesbrough.
I think that the chav jewerly should be packed differently. Rings etc. come attacked to a grenade. Those who are too stupid to realise (let's face it, that is pretty much all of them) what the deal is will pull the 'gold' off and the ensuing explosion should benefit mankind.
A clockwork Orange
meets Malibu's most wanted
"Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food and tyrannise their teachers."
-Socrates
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Speak up too honestly about the stupidity of living your life by a book or and blowing up nations of little brown people who you know nothing about and get slapped around by good ole boys in the south of america.
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Actually, I wouldn't say it's like that at all in most of America. To be honest, people here just don't really care enough to start a mess. I was visiting Jacksonville, Florida once with a friend and he took his girlfriends little brother out with us. Jacksonville has a lot of blacks, especially in the area we were in. We were walking down the street, and all of a sudden the little guy yells "NIGGER!!!" as loud as he possibly can on a street crowded with blacks. We turned around thinking, "what the fuck?!" and notice he is laughing his ass off. I looked around and noticed that maybe a few people gave him looks, but most people didn't even bother. I honestly think many people here just don't give a shit anymore. The problem seems to be bigger over in the UK. I have lived in the ghetto ass areas of San Antonio, Texas when I was really young, and my mom never got mugged or harassed by anyone. Our apartment got broken into, but really not too much besides that. Now I've lived in about 7 cities in southern Texas and neither me nor anyone in my family has been mugged, robbed, harassed, beaten up, etc except for my mom's boyfriend's very rare bar fights.
The problem seems to be bigger over in the UK.
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What problem exactly? Now here lieth my problem with what this thread has become: Vague sweeping statements, so how about some actual data?
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/tool/
Yes *petty* crime in Britain such as burglary, muggings and car crime are abundant, but even after taking into account population and normalizing the data you are still about 5 times more likely to be murdered in the US and 3 times more likely to be raped.
The grass is always greener.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP-3_jyCS9Q&mode=related&search=
r.