Fair enough, sorry lads. I genuinely logged on after maybe a couple months of inactivity and didn't know at all what may or may not have been chatted about recently. More importantly, I'll say Hello all and i miss the community here in general!
I don't know whether you're aware of the current rule here regarding off-topic political posts @FormerlyOzAddick So I'm happy to explain it. After the Southport riots at the end of July following the murders of three children in that town, a very toxic argument was had on this forum in a thread that has now been deleted. Three members said they were leaving this forum in the space of only a few hours because of it. In order to try to save our community, which has fewer than a dozen regular posters, it was decided that such toxic arguments would be avoided in the future by making a new rule, that political posts (opinions) about subjects other than CAFC, football or sport would no longer be allowed. Any such posts would be deleted. That rule appeared to have the desired effect, and our little community here was preserved more-or-less intact. As moderator, it's my responsibility to decide whether any given post breaks the rule. If I judge that it does, that post is deleted. No other action is taken against whoever posted it. And no other action was ever implied or threatened. It is simply a way to keep temperatures between members from rising too high, which can happen when extremely emotive subjects are debated. In addition to this internal rule, it was communicated to me by the most senior people who run the whole Not606 board that there should be no posts connected to anything said on Twitter (X) about the Southport murders or riots. If anything did appear it would be deleted, and any other possible consequences would be out of my hands. Perhaps these things should have been posted in a 'rules' thread and pinned to the top of page 1 here. That might still be a good idea. Just for the benefit of occasional visitors. Your Douglas Murray post does fall into the category of 'off-topic political' posting, but it gave me an opportunity to clarify the rule, and I recognise it was not posted with any ill-intent. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Having said all that, this Charlton forum is not 'ruled' by its moderator or moderators. They are here only to look after the community and try to preserve it. They are not in charge of it. If a majority of members here want the 'no-off-topic political posts' rule to be changed or dropped, I would be fine with that. This forum belongs to its members, not any one person. The rule was brought in to save this forum in a crisis moment. But for the time I have the responsibility to moderate, I feel it should be a democratic forum. Only the Southport X posting rule is above that. As that was spelled out from the very top. I hope this has been helpful
Luckily I live just outside of it , bit more room , you have to know where and when to go to avoid the crush but I’m sure they’d be able to squeeze you in wee man !
I assume this picture is from a verified source. Now that all social media platforms are abandoning fact-checking, basically the philosophy of social media is The truth is what you want to see. Also, I'm not sure of the point you're trying to make here. This young lad's life was surely not worth any less because he had a 'street name' or adopted any other form of youth culture. Though the inference seems to be he is more likely to have been involved in some kind of criminal activity (gang related possibly) because of the image he wished to project. And even if he was involved in things he should not have been, there is no justification for the horror of what happened to him.
Nobody is trying to justify anything @lardiman It’s a statistical fact that young gang members in London are far, far more likely to meet a tragic end than other members of society. I am not saying this kid was a gang member. The reasons kids join gangs in London is probably the biggest societal problem the capital faces, it’s literally a ticking time bomb.
I wholly agree that children being dragged into gang culture, and the violence & crime that goes with it, is a dreadful tragedy of our time. There are many reasons for it, but no easy solutions. I had a look at some figures on gang-related fatalities, and it seems to be a very nasty slow burner rather than a time bomb in my view. Over the last five years the number of youngsters killed per year has varied between low 20's and low 30's. Bu not in a continually upward trend. During the same period though around 150 women were killed per year; usually by husbands, partners or exe's. Another dreadful tragedy, but one that only very rarely makes the headlines because most are murdered behind closed doors rather than in public. Violence of all kinds is a sickening scourge on our modern society. Sadly we only seem to react strongly when confronted with media coverage of the most public cases.
A kind boy who was always kind according to his Mum, yet took knives into primary school & was due in Court next week for possession of a machete.
The poor kid is dead. Why is it necessary to carry on putting him down? dredging up every wrong thing he ever did. What greater price can he pay for his mistakes than he already has? Does it make us feel better to posthumously assassinate his character? The inference is that he somehow deserved what he got.
It’s just highlighting the gang culture he was involved with and unfortunately if you play with fire eventually you’ll get burnt.
It’s the Bad News thread Lardi. As a lifelong Londoner, I believe the growing feral gang culture in London is bad news.
This move is going to put up small traders fixed costs by over £100 a month. It’s indefensible. I know Khan doesn’t understand economics having spent his whole life grifting in the public sector, but when you increase a SME’s costs they can only do one of two things - pass on the costs to customers (inflation), or not recruit / lay off staff (unemployment). It is staggeringly stupid, but then again as with ULEZ he’s always seen the London motorist as a cash cow.
Photos and names have been released of who the police want to speak to. They are aged 15 and 16, I dread to think what these boys will be like when they are older.
