Skip to main content

Luton Days

Its a long documented fact that I love the town of my birth. I think Luton rocks. So days like yesterday leave me reeling a bit.

A police officer was killed in the town centre (about 200 yards from where I am writing this). The town does feel sad, strangely muted.

Alas it also provokes slander like this (from the BBC website).

"I am 40-years-old and have lived in Luton all my life.

Unfortunately, Luton is becoming increasingly lawless and ordinary respectable citizens are frightened to walk along the streets for fear of being challenged or attacked.

Decent people are leaving the town in droves, and the gangs and criminals are moving in.

Luton is now a very unpleasant, nasty place to live."

What this guy says is simply not true. I live in the worst neighbourhood (alledgedly) and crime rates have dropped recently. Dissing Luton does not make it better, nor does it make people morally superior. It makes them part of the problem.

Bizarrely on the same BBC news front page was a sport headline about magical Monty Panesar. A Luton boy!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Week Today

A week today, when all the furore has ebbed and the markets have bottomed out, our nation will awake to the sounds of bugles and church bells as we commemorate 100 years from the start of the Battle of The Somme.  I am an historian by background, and the Somme for me is emblematic of a human tragedy that need never have happened. My reading of it is this: we began a war from a variety of odd alliances and murky motivations, capped off finally by a sense that no-one had the will to stop it.  In order to give the war effort impetus, posters, propaganda began to be bandied around about the enemy, about what they would do to children and how they needed to be stopped. It worked as a recruiting effort- young men, boys, and women all joined the war effort. They joined as an act of patriotism, tinged yes with fear, but also a sense that it might be the right thing to do. They joined from across the country- but at the heart of the front line forces were thousands and ten of thousands...
1 comment
Read more

Remembering What I Enjoy..

Occasionally I forget things. Some stuff like birthdays, names and stuff is a normal human thing, and I don't sweat it so much. But I also forget some other stuff which is not so good. I forget what I enjoy. I don't know how it happens but it does from time to time. And its at these moments that I need a bit of help remembering. So- this is a request for help. What do I enjoy doing? What gives me joy? Leave me a comment.
12 comments
Read more