The things that they dont tell you in the Lonely Planet Guide
Sometimes I think that it takes an outsider, looking in, to have an objective view of a particular topic. Anyway, this is one of the best summaries of life in the poor old blighty, that I have read for a long time
From the keyboard of Alpha Patriot
Indeed, by the year 2000, CBS News was reporting that America was safer than the UK as British citizens are more likely to be burglarized, almost twice as likely to be robbed, and two-and-a-half times more likely to be assaulted than their American counterparts.
By 2001 the British government was planning ways to eliminate jury trials and double jeopardy protection.
By 2004, supposedly in reaction to terrorist threats, the British government proposed incarcerating people based on "pre-emptive" charges, before a crime is even committed [and people worry about our little Patriot Act over here].
In 2005, the British government began deploying the army to city streets in order to confront and arrest "drunken yobs" [I believe that would be called "martial law" over here].
The result?
* In Lancashire, reported attacks on paramedics average two per day.
* London averages one reported kidnapping per day as ethnic gangs extort money from terrified families.
* Only one in five reported rapes in London "results in a caution or a charge" [you issue a "caution" for a rape?].
* Worse yet, out of 11,766 allegations of rape made in 2002 there were just 655 convictions — a dismal 5.6% conviction rate.
* Some parts of London are so crime-ridden that DHL (one of the first companies to set up in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein) has blacklisted areas of the city, refusing to deliver there.
& you wonder why I drink??