The word I am hearing used more often than any other about the UK at the moment is “mess” as in “it’s a mess”. Our politicians are tying themselves in knots, the changes to taxation for “non-doms” has been an object lesson in how to shoot yourself in the foot and we have descended into a lawless society.
And this is just the British media. You can multiply the negativity in the international press and social media with Trump leading the charge in describing London as something akin to a Mad Max movie.
And yet, everyone I know who comes to London tells me that it is a great city, if not the greatest.
The fact is crime levels are massively exaggerated because it is an easy, headline-grabbing story which is regurgitated by the aggregator sites despite plenty of proof to the contrary.
Worse is “Decline Porn”, which tends to be AI generated videos that proliferate across social media and portray London, NY, Manchester, Barcelona and other western cities as being crime-ridden hellholes. Genuine footage is edited so shops have their signage changed from English to Arabic, passers-by who in the real video are giving a friendly wave are changed to making threatening gestures and police are shown to be running away from rioters when there is no riot.
Journalists from the BBC interviewed a couple of the people (who wouldn’t give their real names) making these AI edited videos on Youtube and other social media and they unashamedly admitted they were fake. Why do it? They get millions of views so they make money!
The article concludes that while there should be legitimate debate on immigration and crime these videos are unhelpful as they have little resemblance to reality and warp opinions:
“In January, pollster YouGov released new data suggesting a majority of Britons now believe London is unsafe, but only a third of people surveyed in the capital agreed – and 81% of them said their own local area was safe.”
Indeed, official figures have been showing a decline in serious crime for several years which is why 81% of people surveyed felt their own area is safe. Would it be unreasonable to say that they might have a better understanding of what is happening locally than the national news and even that bastion of truth and justice, social media…
This doesn’t mean there isn’t crime, but London is a relatively safe city and we haven’t regressed to the dark ages or some post-apocalyptic hell.
