Flash Points Across the Continent

[scooterscot]

Like how London and Britain are like not the same thing. I agree.

Violent riots like those that raged through London and Britain this week have rung the alarm bell for politicians. Frustration is also high among young people in other nations across Europe. As the gap between rich and poor widens, the next outbreak could happen in a number of countries.

For four days earlier this week, young people in Britain rioted, marauding through the streets of England's big cities. Prime Minister David Cameron called off his summer holiday in Tuscany to deal with the situation, and members of parliament were recalled from their recess.

Cameron's government has described the rioters as criminals looking to plunge the country into chaos, but that's only part of the truth. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reveals another piece of the puzzle: Of all the European Union countries, only Portugal is home to greater wealth disparity than Great Britain.

What will it take to change this awful statistic? Make London an independent country and the balance is restored.

[Freamon]

Like how London and Britain are like not the same thing. I agree.

What will it take to change this awful statistic? Make London an independent country and the balance is restored.

Really? London has some of the greatest concentrations of poverty in the country.

[d000hg]

Really? London has some of the greatest concentrations of poverty in the country.

OK so we make Sasguru's house a separate country too?

[cojak]

And then Knightsbridge, Westminister and Nottinghill will want secession from Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

And The City will man the barricades 'cos everyone will want a piece of them.

[cojak]

Ooh, you do like your selective postings, SS

Prosperous Germany is also feeling the pinch of cost-cutting measures. The German National Poverty Conference (NAK) warns that prospects for young people are only growing worse. As youth welfare services are cut, they say, other services, such as the charity missions run from train stations throughout the country, are seeing more young people in need. And to find proof that Germany is also home to a latent tendency toward violence, look no further than the yearly riots on May 1 -- International Workers' Day -- in Berlin's Kreuzberg district and Hamburg's Schanzenviertel.

[MrMark]

And then Knightsbridge, Westminister and Nottinghill will want secession from Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

And The City will man the barricades 'cos everyone will want a piece of them.

I went down to Poplar in Tower Hamlets last week for an interview. The bit I saw wasn't too bad. There were a lot of flat developments, and I suspect the riverside developments (which I didn't see) would have been bought by city types. I suspect that if you avoid nasty neighbours, it isn't too bad a place to live at all. You're close to both the city and Docklands for work, and it's in the Olympics zone too. The people I passed by on the street seemed decent and law-abiding, and I didn't feel that sense of "watch your back" you get in say Hackney or Stratford. However it's true to say it was mid-day, and things may deteriorate at night.

Maybe we could deport all the troublesome oiks to Liverpool and Newcastle, and then London would be a paradise?

[Gonzo]

And then Knightsbridge, Westminister and Nottinghill will want secession from Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

Actually, Tower Hamlets does contain the postcode that contains the highest earners in the country.

- However, this postcode is for a single block of apartments right next to Canary Wharf (most of the new blocks of apartments in that area have a single postcode for each building).

I went down to Poplar in Tower Hamlets last week for an interview. The bit I saw wasn't too bad. There were a lot of flat developments, and I suspect the riverside developments (which I didn't see) would have been bought by city types. I suspect that if you avoid nasty neighbours, it isn't too bad a place to live at all. You're close to both the city and Docklands for work, and it's in the Olympics zone too. The people I passed by on the street seemed decent and law-abiding, and I didn't feel that sense of "watch your back" you get in say Hackney or Stratford. However it's true to say it was mid-day, and things may deteriorate at night.

I lived in Poplar for eight years (left in 2008).

The part that I was in for the last six years was OK. If I decided at eleven o'clock at night that I needed another bottle of wine then I could walk down the road to the off-licence and although I would have to dodge the occasional crack-addled hooker I didn't feel too unsafe. I was living right next to Canary Wharf at that point.

Before that I lived about a thirty minute walk away from Canary Wharf for two years and I was only robbed at knife-point once. There are some parts around there that I would avoid at night though, but its not as bad as it was twenty years ago.

[Freamon]

I went down to Poplar in Tower Hamlets last week for an interview. The bit I saw wasn't too bad. There were a lot of flat developments, and I suspect the riverside developments (which I didn't see) would have been bought by city types to rent out to the council to house crack dealing immigrants in.

FTFY.

[scooterscot]

Ooh, you do like your selective postings, SS

You're not supposed to take any interest!

[KimberleyChris]

It could happen anywhere. Even London is 'not the same thing'.
People from outside London think of it as one city, and Londoners as Londoners, but from the inside it's a conurbation. The natives know their own little patch like the back of their hands, and (apart from the main routes through) are almost as lost as the rest of us if they step outside it. So if somebody brought up in, say, Greenwich was to move to Camden, he would nearly feel like he was emigrating.
The only time I have ever hit serious trouble was in Bristol, and it was in posh Clifton, not St.Pauls :-)