johnnybangkok

One more time for the hard of comprehension - I'm not saying there is no crime in london - that would be ridiculous. All I'm saying is it's not the 'wild west' that another poster pointed out. You are arguing just for the sake of it (pretty typical with you) and are doing exactly what you accused me of - providing anecdotal scenerios that you personally (or at least your unfortunate friend) have experienced. So let's just agree to disagree - you think London is some sort of war zone - I don't think it is and so do those that take the time to look at these things, ranking London as the 14th safest city in the world https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-city-rankings/safest-cities-in-the-world

Lighten up Jonny. Your post talked positively about the 'diversity of London'. I wasn't 'deliberately misinterpret a post' - rather I was congratulating you on being positive about London diversity - something you rarely talk positively about.

Weird thing to say. It's you who gave the example and it was about a plain clothes copper giving you the heads up about keeping your phone safe - 'how do you know how it would have gone down' - well you might have had your phone stolen. That's it.

I had this problem with Grab for about 3 days at the beginning of this week (had to use a credit card) but it seems to have resolved itself now so maybe give it a couple of days as I'm sure Grab and the liked can't afford to not accept BB debit.

You talked about a plain clothes officer telling you to watch out for your phone! Hardly a life threatening incident I hope you agree.

Not like you Jonny to be championing diversity in the UK. New Years resolution?

Enough of the pearl clutching...........I can only recount mine and my many friends experiences over 25 years in London and in the vast majority of cases it's very positive. I feel safe walking around most places in London to include the East End and South London where I also lived for about 5 years. Again, no one is minimising the very real issues of crime in London, but this was all started by one poster calling London the 'wild West' which it certainly isn't.

Never said there wasn't crime in London (it's a big place so obviosly) but the trend over the last 30 years has been massively downwards and is nothing in comparison to other major cities (have a look at New York figures for a good comparison). I'm not minimising the very real issues of knife crime in London as it has certainly been a issue for many years but in general London is a very safe place certainly in the main, central areas. Like everywhere though, if you wander into some of the less 'touristy' areas then you have to keep your wits about you. But isn't that the same in most major cities?

A BIG point. Although knife crime in the UK is certainly of concern it's thankfully absolutely nothing compared to gun crime in the US. All these incidents would be made 300% worse if they had such easy access to guns as it seems everyone has in the States.

You're trying to gain brownie points by quoting a character from 130 years ago? As my dear mum would always say, 'if you can't contribute anything constructive, best not to say anything.'

Well I've worn a real Tag Heuer for about 30 years and I've never had as much as a second look whilst wearing it in London so yet again, sensationalist nonsense posted to fit your warped narrative. Crime in London and steadily decreased over the last 30 years and although I'm not saying it's not nothing, it's nowhere near as bad as you are trying to make out - https://theconversation.com/most-crime-has-fallen-by-90-in-30-years-so-why-does-the-public-think-its-increased-228797 So I'll repeat my question which you so conveniently ignored the first time of me asking, when was the last time you went to London and more importantly, where in London did you go to see so much violence? I'm guessing never or certainly not recently.

All these experts proclaiming 'London has become the wild west' when it most certainly isn't. I lived there for 25 years and still have a place in Whitechapel. I head back there usually about twice a year and unless I am walking through a council estate in Stratford, my chances of seeing anything like this is next to zero. But obviously you are an expert so when was the last time you went to London and more importantly, where in London did you go to see so much violence that merits the 'wild west' moniker?

Another poster ignoring facts to push his own agenda.

So in other words you're just speculating to fit your narrative. You don't know any of what you are saying for sure but you are quite happy to throw in 'Albanian or Romanian' 'illegals or 2nd generation dole claimants and drug dealers' when the VERY obvious answer is probably 2nd/3rd generation BRITISH citizens of black desent of which there are plenty of in Stratford. 4 youths of 16 and 17 years of age were arrested which again leads to a logical conclusion of youth on youth gang violence which can be seen across all deprived areas of the UK. The only diffence is location which determines whether these youths are black or white. Again for the hard of comprehension; the colour of the skin is irrelevant - the social status i.e coming from working class, poorer neighborhoods is.

No but they are more than likely to be 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants (probably Caribean or African although I noticed a couple of white faces in there) who are BRITISH CITIZENS. Chomper was correcting another poster who was immediately playing the 'they must be illegal immigrants' card without a single shred of evidence. I used to live in Stratford where this all happened and it's a rough place to say the least. Rival guys squaring up to each other was a common theme but I also saw simliar scenes back home in the council tenaments of Glasgow and guess what, they were all white. This continual desperation to depict all of this as some sort of race matter or immigrant matter completely misses the point that it has very little to do with skin colour and everything to do with social class; it's black people in Stratford - it's white people in Govan - common denominator? They're all poor

First of all well done for admitting you were wrong. You don't see it often on this forum so it should be applauded. However, how you didn't see this coming is also a concern. Musk (like most billionaires) is self-serving, egotistical and has a warped view of his own self-importance - a messiah complex if you will. Characters like him see themselves as above everyone else in both intelligence and status, imagining they are playing 3D chess whilst the rest of us are still playing checkers, even though the game is backgammon. This annoying trait has been massively applified by his purchase of X where he now has the whole world listening to his ill-informed rants and politicians toddying to him constantly. This inflated self-importance makes for an uneasy bedfellow as ol' farage has now found to his detriment as you cannot control a person like Musk who can out-money you and out-shout you on his platform. Trump will be next. Mark my words.

Your arithmatic is a bit off. GBP 38 billion divided by 35 million is approx. GBP 1,000.

Like you supported Biden? Give us a break.

Absolutely none of that has happened other than in your own, indoctrinated mind.

More false equivalence. 'Health, education and homelessness in the US worse than ever' is not the responsibility of these philanthropists but at least they are trying to do something. And as usual of the MAGA brigade you are quick to jump to name calling but if looking after vulnerable people is 'lefty' then I'll wear that title with pride.

If you bothered to read the article I linked you would see that Warren Buffett donations focuses on health and poverty alleviation. Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates have a lifetime giving of $42.5 billion, with a giving focus on health and poverty alleviation. Michael Bloomberg has a lifetime of giving to causes focusing on climate change, health and education. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan focus on science and education. Steve and Connie Ballmer support children in poverty, and Phil and Penny Knight support Black residents of Portland with funds going to education services. Jeff Bezos and his fiance, Lauren Sánchez focus on the environment and education. So yeah, plenty of focus on 'improving education in the US' and as for your false equivalence of 'What helps people more, a job or welfare?' (which wasn't even being discussed) the answer is obviously jobs but welfare is also required if you want to call yourself a civilised society and look after your more vulnerable citizens. You obviously are of the 'f**k everyone else as long as I'm alright Jack' camp but thankfully most people are not.

Thanks for taking the time with this. These ant-vaxers won't listen though. It's all hearsay and pseudo science with them, relying on very tenuos 'results' and 'facts' from obscure individuals with absolutely no qualifications in the matter. But these 'experts' do serve an important purpose for them by amplifying the echo chambers they so enthusiastically inhabit. As mentioned by other posters, not worth the debate though as there's absolutley nothing you could say to them that'll change their view.

As usual, you miss the point. The list was the Top 10 of US biggest philanthropists (I only highlighted 8 ) of which Musk didn't get a mention. The list was in reply to a poster who queried what Musk could do with his money. I merely suggested the same as other billionaires do i.e. use it for some good.

Firstly its 'Kool-Aid' - but more importantly, you are more than welcome to refute any of the facts and figures I posted with your own dissenting facts and figures but knowing how facts are like holy water to a vampire for you MAGA's, I'll not hold my breath.

Ever heard of a chap called Bill Gates? Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation he has donated vast amounts of his own personal wealth for many worthy causes including the eradication of malaria. He's had no problem knowing 'what to do' with his vast wealth as have many of these billionaires:- Warren Buffett - $56.7 billion. George Soros - $21 billion Michael Bloomberg - $17.4 billion MacKenzie Scott - $16.58 billion Jim and Marilyn Simons - $6.03 billion. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan - $4.5 billion Jeff Bezos - $3.33 billion https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/billionaires-who-give-away-most-money-forbes Musk on the other hand waxes lyrical about donations and because of bad press due to his lack of charitable donations eventually set up The Musk Foundation in 2021. Musk donated approximately $5.7 billion worth of Tesla shares to the foundation. However, new tax filings show that the Musk Foundation fell $421 million short of the amount it was required to give away in 2023 and has yet to reveal whether it's made up the shortfall in 2024 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/us/politics/musk-foundation-taxes-donations.html. So yeah, there are plenty of things he could do to help humanity with his vast wealth, he just choses egotistical space travel, buying social media platforms and using his 'voice' to interfere in everyone's politics with a VERY right wing agenda.