{"id":386393,"date":"2025-08-31T03:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T03:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/386393\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T03:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T03:41:12","slug":"dont-believe-what-people-are-saying-about-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/386393\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t believe what people are saying about London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n

London<\/a>, like all cities, is constantly evolving. On the whole, the spirit remains the same: while the pace is frantic, it\u2019s also a place of warmth. People aren\u2019t friendly in the same way they are in small towns, but they are nevertheless welcoming.<\/p>\n

Regardless of your accent, skin colour or the way you dress, you can roam anywhere in the capital without anyone batting an eyelid. Londoners take you as they find you: the unusual is usual. You can be as visible or invisible as you like. \u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m aware of what a privilege it is to have been born and raised here. It is by fluke of birth that I\u2019ve been presented with numerous possibilities that I wouldn\u2019t have otherwise enjoyed. Some people say London is a fallen city where criminals are free to do as they please and danger lurks on every corner. <\/p>\n

But the truth is it\u2019s a much safer, less violent place than it was when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s. Not only do the statistics support this, but the experiences of real Londoners do too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

Back when I was a kid, violence was commonplace. You\u2019d see aggro on public transport, inside pubs, on the street. The lead in the petrol made people angry and aggressive. In the 80s, poverty<\/a> was even more prevalent than it is today; streets were poorly lit and social division was rife.<\/p>\n

Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n

I was mugged several times when I was a teenager and it wasn\u2019t pleasant. Central London is largely sanitised now, and while that might disappoint a few inverted snobs, it makes it a happier and safer place for the rest of us.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, there is still some violence, just like any city. When poverty coexists with wealth in an urban atmosphere, crime is often born out of desperation and opportunity. If you want to eliminate crime, eliminate inequality. <\/p>\n

But the idea that my beautiful, ever-changing home city is crumbling into a state of lawless mayhem is a crock of shit peddled by scaredy cats who are too terrified to get on a bus in case they get their trousers dirty. Don\u2019t believe a word of it: London is better and brighter than ever.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sam Delaney\u00a0on his Substack<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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His new book Stop Sh**ting Yourself: 15 Life Lessons That Might Help You Calm the F*ck Down<\/a> is out now (Little, Brown, \u00a322) and is available from the\u00a0Big Issue shop<\/a>\u00a0on bookshop.org, which helps to support Big Issue and independent bookshops.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n

It\u2019s helping people with disabilities.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s creating safer living conditions for renters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s getting answers for the most vulnerable.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Big Issue brings you trustworthy journalism that drives real change.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If this article gave you something to think about,\u00a0help us keep doing this work from \u00a35 a mont<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Read more: London, like all cities, is constantly evolving. On the whole, the spirit remains the same: while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,13581,7056,102789,4884,257,391,133963,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-386393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-environment-and-community","11":"tag-from-the-magazine","12":"tag-gentrification","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-opinion","16":"tag-sam-delaney","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115121309926046572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}