Off Topic The Politics Thread

Don't know, but Doumma was, involving murdering dozens of people. That's a war crime, going conveniently unreported.

 

Theres nothing more profitable than war!

 

All the criticism that Johnson got for not showing up for yesterday's debate is a bit unfair.

Father's Day is a busy time for him.

 

War and debt, fabulous means of profit and control.

 

Absolutely shocking and we're only half way through the year. There'll be gated communities growing up soon, like South Africa

 

2 million Hong Kongers out of a population of 7.4m on the streets yesterday making their views known about the shameful proposals to allow extraditions to China. These people aren’t buying the pathetic ‘we’ll postpone it’ offer from their government (which is largely appointed by the Chinese Communist Party) as an acceptable solution.

****ing brilliant, and huge respect to the ordinary people of Hong Kong.

 

Really? Obviously this is a very disturbing trend and more effective action is needed. So far this year 27 stabbing deaths in London, 27 too many. Last year there were 135 homicides in the capital in total, a ten year high. But between 1990 and 2006 every single year had a significantly higher number of violent deaths than 2018. With the significant rise in population over that period the homicide rate is actually much lower. We didn’t have gated communities sprouting up then, so why now? Presumably because the media is maximising the fear and terror element of knife crime.

Panic measures solve nothing. Glasgow has done a great job in reducing knife crime and London is attempting to follow its model, but Khan is pathetically underfunding the initiative.

 

Having followed this closely i cannot confirm how many people marched.

Myself in particular cant see why a big fuss is being made of extradition laws. I've looked into it a bit further and apparantly China will press charges and extradite people easier (probably true, like what usa are doing with assange).

I've spoken to quite a few of my friends in hk (young professionals around their 30s) and basically of the 5 on their views, they are all worried and against it with a few marching.

I can accept their concerns and it sounds like the law has been not pushed through.

I do think it's a bit absurd though how the first person who died supposedly fell off a scaffold (after putting a banner up) and the media is calling him a martyr and is also being treated as such. Not the most heroic of ways to go

 

Been reading apparantly knife crime up north (dunno about London) is because drug lords are putting bounties on other young dealers.

Unbelievable really that such things happen in this day and age

 

I wasn't focusing on knife crime alone. Homicides generally. It's been going up under Khan's inept watch. 2017 up to 131. Last year highest in 10 years at 132. This year, 56 so far.

I don't think it's only homicides that is putting the wind up the public. Robberies (mopeds etc) are high. You're right, it may be peaks and troughs, but at the moment, we're on a peak and we don't know when it will stop climbing.

 

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Trump should look a bit closer to home.

 

Not sure it's hugely comforting to hear that certain US cities, where people wander around with AK47's, are a whole lot worse than London.

 

It was a comment on Trump's criticism of Khan. As Stan pointed out, homicide numbers in London are lower than they were in 1990s and 2000s.

 

Yes, and it's a fair comment. Khan's making a mess of things in London, but so far as Trump is concerned, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

The interesting thing, looking at London homicides, is how high they were in the 1990's. I was working in London then, and don't remember knife crime or indeed shootings being a particular problem. There must have been a phantom stranger wandering around.

 

Just more hysteria now.

 

...except that homicide figures are going up notably. They just haven't reached 1990's averages yet

 

They are making a big fuss because China executes more people through non transparent quasi judicial proceedings than the rest of the world put together. But in a sense you are right, the extradition rules won’t stop China just abducting people from Hong Kong and doing what they want to them, as it has done with publishers who had the temerity to market books which were critical of China.

It’s a subject close to my heart as I was involved, 35 years ago when a HK Govt civil servant, in drafting the extradition policy which it seems has held even since the 1997 handover. The basis was in no circumstances will we hand even the worst criminals over to a country which doesn’t have a proper, independent judicial system and has a penchant for executing people for political reasons, and executing criminals for far less than the usual ‘capital’ offences.

 

It’s not just hysteria now though, Stroller. The problem is that it is now seem as ‘normal’ and ‘cool’ from some sections of the community to carry a knife and they really aren’t concerned about having to use it.
Sad thing is that many get stabbed with their own knives and it just leads to a spiral of violence where one gang has to get revenge on the other.
It should be noted that the reported ‘knife crimes’ really is the tip of the iceberg, and many stabbings that don’t get reported still involve life changing injuries for those involved (colostomy bags, wheelchairs etc)

It’s sad that initiatives like the one I’m involved in through the LAS and the likes of the KPF rely heavily on volunteers and are massively underfunded. Khan can’t be blamed for that.

 

Re Khan, yes he can be blamed. His total funding to combat knife crime so far is £500k. This sits within his budget.

 

Yup, those hk booksellers who were abducted was pretty horrendous for something so trivial.

As for HKers ive got some great friends over there whom ive known from university and childhood but in the general my opinion of them isnt that high. Typically quite a self entitled lot (tbf this might just be the vocal ones) and generally a dog eat dog mentality over there (cousins and mates who work there say theres plenty of politics and backstabbing)

I do feel sorry about the general situation and the social policy there is not great although ironically its brilliant being an old person in hk in terms of general respect and plenty of places for them to congregate/exercise/acitivities etc.

Its a great city to retire to