Plus: Victoria Park battle over All Points East, the Hackney school war that wasn't, the AI-generated parking appeal mess, and wild swimming in the River Thames.
Just a general note - as I think I made clear - that this is no Panglossian London-is-great claim. If you saw some of the forthcoming stories we’re working on regarding decline of the public sphere, organised crime, and political failures you’d never think that.
What’s happening is a growing gap between the massively flawed city you can see with your real eyes (and I cover hundreds of miles to all corners of the capital every week) and the utter catastrophic city that exists in online content.
Is London “massively flawed” or just, y’know, a real place with strengths and weaknesses that goes through ups and downs? Let’s not undersell ourselves. There’s enough of that from <<waves hands>> those guys.
Is that a point requiring this much shoe leather, though, that there is exaggeration and false claims on the Internet? A few months ago Julie Bindel alleged that young girls were being groomed in Westfield Stratford, while Sadiq Khan tries to imply things are all hunky dory. There's recently been arrests for major social housing fraud in Barking & Dagenham. The Aspire party in Tower Hamlets is, well,...the Aspire party
I dj for a living, so my natural inclination is to be very pro city festivals. I also happen to have lived right by Victoria Park for 14 years.
Last year was the first time I was genuinely angry about the festivals there - I usually feel a lot of pride that such great acts play in our park. But last year, SO MUCH damage happened to the park grass, to the paths (some really bad damage to the ones near Gunmaker's gate), to the running track, it absolutely got trashed. In the days after I assumed there would be some sort of repairs and so on. Nope. Just left knacked. The running track was utterly unusable for months thanks to the heavy tracks that left it incredibly uneven. The ground is barely recovered even now.
I'm not suggesting that they shouldn't happen, but they should leave the park as they found it
You are unlikely ever to experience violent crime; rates have fallen not only in London but across much of the world. There are plenty of possible reasons for that: lower birth rates, shifts in attitudes, environmental changes such as reduced lead exposure, and others etc.
But it is wishful thinking to pretend that everyday rule breaking is uncommon. Fare evasion, shoplifting, littering, if we choose to count it, are everywhere. It can leave the impression of a more atomised society, where the small duties of the social contract are often shrugged off. We live in the most permissive of times. Petty crime is RIFE.
People have adapted their behaviour to the risk of violence too. Watch how people avoid roadmen or let people push through ticket barriers behind them (person convicted this week after being someone up and leaving them with a bleed on the brain)
I’ve lived in London since 1985. In those days there were no-go areas: Loughborough Junction was positively sinister, I avoided it at all times. These days it, and most of London, is greatly improved. I don’t see much fare dodging; but if you want to look at the cause it is the dramatic rise in ticket costs; not societal breakdown. London remains a great city to live in and the ‘sharia law’ myth is laughable apart, that is, from the numbers of idiots falling for it.
And the Hackney War story. Disgusting. It's clearly an incitement to violence which is a crime. TikTok should be compelled to identify the account holder and the police should arrest them.
In my world, TikTok would be considered a publisher and be in the dock as well, with their employees also facing jail.
Monetising this kind of hate and violence is absolutely disgraceful. The claim that they are a "platform" with no responsibility for the content posted is a lame excuse to continue making money irrespective of the consequences of their business model.
We don't accept that from drug dealers and we shouldn't from media platforms
I hadn't realised how prevalent this 'London is falling' narrative is, arguably due to my own filter bubble. Cabbie in Newcastle told me he hates London, but reserved his strongest hatred for Sadiq Khan, a politician who has no say on his life. He admitted he only visits London once a year max.
It would be good if London Centric could cover the rise in delivery drivers riding electric cycles on London's pavements please.
As a pedestrian, I've had a few near misses with riders whizzing past me and others.
It is surprising that the police, councils and TFL do not regulate this. Riding fast electric cycles on pavements is dangerous to the public. Sadly it's only a matter of time before someone is severely injured.
Last October in mainland Greece (medium level touristy) we had three men (20s, 40s and 70+) ask about the 'Muslim invasion' and how dangerous life is in London. They said they saw it from social media, not the news but when we laughed, said it was utter rubbish and that the far right was more of a problem they didn't look convinced. 61 year old Londoner here. Love the bloody place.
If I ever find myself in one of those “London is falling” conversations, I make a point of laughing in the middle of one of their sentences and quickly using the word “fantasy”. Most people consider themselves practical and empiricist, even if they aren’t and wouldn’t use that term. If you just flat out offer personal experience to counter what they’ve heard, many will fold. If they don’t, just insult where they live, then ask them how that’s different.
The mayor’s press office is making a big push with “content creators” who are more likely to produce upbeat positive coverage than journalists. More importantly, your average London “content creator” has access to a much wider audience - and is half the age of - most journalists.
I will happily add my own encounter to the growing list.
My wife and I were in Finland for a week at the start of July last year. After a few days enjoying Helsinki we hired a car and drove north for a couple of hours to stay by one of their thousands of lakes. On arriving it turned out that our hotel wasn’t serving dinner that night, so I checked google maps and found the nearest takeaway restaurant, which also turned out to be a bar.
Whilst the barman made our dinner he struck up conversation about where I was from:
“London? I’ve always wanted to go there.”
“You should, it’s a great city!”
“Yes, but I’m scared of the violence.”
“Violence?”
“Yes, all the knives and riots.”
“Oh, that’s all rubbish and lies! Where are you from anyway?”
Aziz is ghastly (#savethepcc) but Khan’s presence at such things really shows up the naked racism - racism facing two ways, amazingly - of the Tory “He’ll steal all your gold” attacks on him sent to Hindus during elections.
Khan is a capitalist, corporate stooge who allows billionaires to (in many cases, literally) steam roll through London. He is an unscrupulous crony. The racism is, well racism, and drowns out solid and legitimate criticisms of him that we should discuss. I totally dislike the Obama-fication (you can have that one!) of Khan.
I’ve called London home for 15 years and am so bored of the “LoNdON iS a dAnGeROUs HeLlHoLe” narrative. In that time I’ve never personally had a violent experience or seen much crime beyond fare dodging petty theft which I’m pretty sure aren’t exclusive London problems.
I get it from both my parents who used to be pretty normal/open minded but who, in the age of social media and disinformation have become increasingly weird about it (and everything else to be fair). It’s so damaging having people form opinions through social media on somewhere they rarely visit or spend time. London’s not perfect but the same is true of any big metropolitan city in the world.
Many will also have the world think San Francisco is in an apocalypse state too it’s kind of funny what people believe. Personally I think London for all the issues is still one of the greatest cities.
I used Claude to research the info when my daughter needed to appeal a ridiculous fine scenario from TFL. I found that this was happening to a large number from forums.
TFL took payments on the wrong dates last October for travel in August over 3 days.
She called and queried this and was told they were unable to take payment from the bank a/c in August for the actual dates of travel despite funds being available. They apologised it took so long to take the funds.
She thought no more about it until early February when she recieved a ULEZ fine for 2 days travel in early January this year. When she spoke with TFL, they said that she didn't have an account to take the payment. It turns out that after the October debacle, they had suspended her account but not informed her of this on the call at that time.
Then they deleted her account which is why they fined for early Jan travel. TFL said it had sent an email stating the account was being suspended then deleted. She didn't recieve any and they can't prove I had after it leaves thier mail server. She checks her junk mail daily.
After she sent the appeal, they then asked her for proof of money in her account which she provided.
They then cancelled the penalties but they never provided an explaination or apology of why their system failed to take payment and caused and caused her this stress and time.
I did a hike in the mountains in Colombia today and started talking to a French Canadian who was also hiking there - on discovering I was from London he asked if the city was ok and on being pushed he thought it was taken over by Muslims praying in the streets everywhere and that we had to step over them to get around the city. We explained this was not true, but scary that someone from Canada and who is internationally minded enough to be holidaying in rural Colombia would think this
Just a general note - as I think I made clear - that this is no Panglossian London-is-great claim. If you saw some of the forthcoming stories we’re working on regarding decline of the public sphere, organised crime, and political failures you’d never think that.
What’s happening is a growing gap between the massively flawed city you can see with your real eyes (and I cover hundreds of miles to all corners of the capital every week) and the utter catastrophic city that exists in online content.
Is London “massively flawed” or just, y’know, a real place with strengths and weaknesses that goes through ups and downs? Let’s not undersell ourselves. There’s enough of that from <<waves hands>> those guys.
Is that a point requiring this much shoe leather, though, that there is exaggeration and false claims on the Internet? A few months ago Julie Bindel alleged that young girls were being groomed in Westfield Stratford, while Sadiq Khan tries to imply things are all hunky dory. There's recently been arrests for major social housing fraud in Barking & Dagenham. The Aspire party in Tower Hamlets is, well,...the Aspire party
In fact there is a BBC article on grooming in London just published in the last hour.
I dj for a living, so my natural inclination is to be very pro city festivals. I also happen to have lived right by Victoria Park for 14 years.
Last year was the first time I was genuinely angry about the festivals there - I usually feel a lot of pride that such great acts play in our park. But last year, SO MUCH damage happened to the park grass, to the paths (some really bad damage to the ones near Gunmaker's gate), to the running track, it absolutely got trashed. In the days after I assumed there would be some sort of repairs and so on. Nope. Just left knacked. The running track was utterly unusable for months thanks to the heavy tracks that left it incredibly uneven. The ground is barely recovered even now.
I'm not suggesting that they shouldn't happen, but they should leave the park as they found it
You are unlikely ever to experience violent crime; rates have fallen not only in London but across much of the world. There are plenty of possible reasons for that: lower birth rates, shifts in attitudes, environmental changes such as reduced lead exposure, and others etc.
But it is wishful thinking to pretend that everyday rule breaking is uncommon. Fare evasion, shoplifting, littering, if we choose to count it, are everywhere. It can leave the impression of a more atomised society, where the small duties of the social contract are often shrugged off. We live in the most permissive of times. Petty crime is RIFE.
People have adapted their behaviour to the risk of violence too. Watch how people avoid roadmen or let people push through ticket barriers behind them (person convicted this week after being someone up and leaving them with a bleed on the brain)
I’ve lived in London since 1985. In those days there were no-go areas: Loughborough Junction was positively sinister, I avoided it at all times. These days it, and most of London, is greatly improved. I don’t see much fare dodging; but if you want to look at the cause it is the dramatic rise in ticket costs; not societal breakdown. London remains a great city to live in and the ‘sharia law’ myth is laughable apart, that is, from the numbers of idiots falling for it.
And the Hackney War story. Disgusting. It's clearly an incitement to violence which is a crime. TikTok should be compelled to identify the account holder and the police should arrest them.
In my world, TikTok would be considered a publisher and be in the dock as well, with their employees also facing jail.
Monetising this kind of hate and violence is absolutely disgraceful. The claim that they are a "platform" with no responsibility for the content posted is a lame excuse to continue making money irrespective of the consequences of their business model.
We don't accept that from drug dealers and we shouldn't from media platforms
I hadn't realised how prevalent this 'London is falling' narrative is, arguably due to my own filter bubble. Cabbie in Newcastle told me he hates London, but reserved his strongest hatred for Sadiq Khan, a politician who has no say on his life. He admitted he only visits London once a year max.
It would be good if London Centric could cover the rise in delivery drivers riding electric cycles on London's pavements please.
As a pedestrian, I've had a few near misses with riders whizzing past me and others.
It is surprising that the police, councils and TFL do not regulate this. Riding fast electric cycles on pavements is dangerous to the public. Sadly it's only a matter of time before someone is severely injured.
It's the illegal nature of most of these courier e-bikes that makes them particularly dangerous as overall speed is not limited to 25km/15miles/h
Agreed, but it's on the police to enforce the law. Councils and tfl have nothing to do with it.
The same narrative is circulating about my home city, Dublin. While there is a lot of random, unprovoked violence, Dublin is not a hell-hole.
Last October in mainland Greece (medium level touristy) we had three men (20s, 40s and 70+) ask about the 'Muslim invasion' and how dangerous life is in London. They said they saw it from social media, not the news but when we laughed, said it was utter rubbish and that the far right was more of a problem they didn't look convinced. 61 year old Londoner here. Love the bloody place.
If I ever find myself in one of those “London is falling” conversations, I make a point of laughing in the middle of one of their sentences and quickly using the word “fantasy”. Most people consider themselves practical and empiricist, even if they aren’t and wouldn’t use that term. If you just flat out offer personal experience to counter what they’ve heard, many will fold. If they don’t, just insult where they live, then ask them how that’s different.
Though we do need a Mamdani style mayor with daily press conferences on progress
If Sadiq Khan did more press the racist attacks on him and the general attacks on London would simply get worse.
The mayor’s press office is making a big push with “content creators” who are more likely to produce upbeat positive coverage than journalists. More importantly, your average London “content creator” has access to a much wider audience - and is half the age of - most journalists.
Sadiq should officiate weddings, for instance https://youtu.be/dUp01MXUkpo
I will happily add my own encounter to the growing list.
My wife and I were in Finland for a week at the start of July last year. After a few days enjoying Helsinki we hired a car and drove north for a couple of hours to stay by one of their thousands of lakes. On arriving it turned out that our hotel wasn’t serving dinner that night, so I checked google maps and found the nearest takeaway restaurant, which also turned out to be a bar.
Whilst the barman made our dinner he struck up conversation about where I was from:
“London? I’ve always wanted to go there.”
“You should, it’s a great city!”
“Yes, but I’m scared of the violence.”
“Violence?”
“Yes, all the knives and riots.”
“Oh, that’s all rubbish and lies! Where are you from anyway?”
“Well Turkey, but not really I’m a Kurd…”
Funnily enough the mayor was at the event to light London’s Ramadan lights on Friday evening - still sponsored by the Aziz Foundation!
Aziz is ghastly (#savethepcc) but Khan’s presence at such things really shows up the naked racism - racism facing two ways, amazingly - of the Tory “He’ll steal all your gold” attacks on him sent to Hindus during elections.
Khan is a capitalist, corporate stooge who allows billionaires to (in many cases, literally) steam roll through London. He is an unscrupulous crony. The racism is, well racism, and drowns out solid and legitimate criticisms of him that we should discuss. I totally dislike the Obama-fication (you can have that one!) of Khan.
Yeah, I don’t want it though.
Meow!
I’ve called London home for 15 years and am so bored of the “LoNdON iS a dAnGeROUs HeLlHoLe” narrative. In that time I’ve never personally had a violent experience or seen much crime beyond fare dodging petty theft which I’m pretty sure aren’t exclusive London problems.
I get it from both my parents who used to be pretty normal/open minded but who, in the age of social media and disinformation have become increasingly weird about it (and everything else to be fair). It’s so damaging having people form opinions through social media on somewhere they rarely visit or spend time. London’s not perfect but the same is true of any big metropolitan city in the world.
Many will also have the world think San Francisco is in an apocalypse state too it’s kind of funny what people believe. Personally I think London for all the issues is still one of the greatest cities.
I mean as a Londoner who has visited San Francisco, SF definitely feels a lot more dystopian than London!
I used Claude to research the info when my daughter needed to appeal a ridiculous fine scenario from TFL. I found that this was happening to a large number from forums.
TFL took payments on the wrong dates last October for travel in August over 3 days.
She called and queried this and was told they were unable to take payment from the bank a/c in August for the actual dates of travel despite funds being available. They apologised it took so long to take the funds.
She thought no more about it until early February when she recieved a ULEZ fine for 2 days travel in early January this year. When she spoke with TFL, they said that she didn't have an account to take the payment. It turns out that after the October debacle, they had suspended her account but not informed her of this on the call at that time.
Then they deleted her account which is why they fined for early Jan travel. TFL said it had sent an email stating the account was being suspended then deleted. She didn't recieve any and they can't prove I had after it leaves thier mail server. She checks her junk mail daily.
After she sent the appeal, they then asked her for proof of money in her account which she provided.
They then cancelled the penalties but they never provided an explaination or apology of why their system failed to take payment and caused and caused her this stress and time.
I did a hike in the mountains in Colombia today and started talking to a French Canadian who was also hiking there - on discovering I was from London he asked if the city was ok and on being pushed he thought it was taken over by Muslims praying in the streets everywhere and that we had to step over them to get around the city. We explained this was not true, but scary that someone from Canada and who is internationally minded enough to be holidaying in rural Colombia would think this