State of decay?
This pretty much sums up the reactions of large swathes of talking head commentators over the last week:
When I look back to what I've read about previous riots in London over the centuries, when I look at corruption scandals or financial collapses, it really does put into perspective how lucky we are and have been.
I mean, seriously, riots across all of London, no one very few killed[1] and the London murder rate actually goes down?. Total deaths nationally five, including three men run down by a car.
The bankers are finally brought down, not by deliberate deceit, not by active fraud or theft, but by incompetence and optimism.
Parliament is brought into disrepute in a corruption scandal. What over? A few grand on a duck house, a few grand over claimed on a mortgage, etc. Compare that to many other countries today? Compare that to corruption scandals in the past in the UK?
Moral decay? We've never had it so good.
Scary, isn't it?
ETA: Apparently there's been a death in Ealing that I had overlooked, the post is amended to reflect that.
comments on the original post on Dreamwidth. I'd prefer it if you comment there[1] if you are able to keep the discussion together. [1] If you are reading this, you very likely have an OpenID.
When I look back to what I've read about previous riots in London over the centuries, when I look at corruption scandals or financial collapses, it really does put into perspective how lucky we are and have been.
I mean, seriously, riots across all of London, no one very few killed[1] and the London murder rate actually goes down?. Total deaths nationally five, including three men run down by a car.
The bankers are finally brought down, not by deliberate deceit, not by active fraud or theft, but by incompetence and optimism.
Parliament is brought into disrepute in a corruption scandal. What over? A few grand on a duck house, a few grand over claimed on a mortgage, etc. Compare that to many other countries today? Compare that to corruption scandals in the past in the UK?
Moral decay? We've never had it so good.
Scary, isn't it?
ETA: Apparently there's been a death in Ealing that I had overlooked, the post is amended to reflect that.
comments on the original post on Dreamwidth. I'd prefer it if you comment there[1] if you are able to keep the discussion together. [1] If you are reading this, you very likely have an OpenID.