UK Politics

[GhostofCain]

With regards to problems in the UK, not directly relating to this story but you have expressed curiosity about the state of things, all I can say from my own experience is that I have been to cities in Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic in the last 12 months or so and all of them felt  significantly safer, cleaner, more orderly and more pleasant to visit than London, to a somewhat depressing extent quite frankly. Take from that what you will.

However much, even most, of the UK is still very nice and is not experiencing the dystopian conditions that some, particularly US MAGA commentators, like to portray.

Funny you mention that, as I feel much safer when I go to London than in other big and not so big cities I have visited (e.g., Prague, Barcelona, Paris, Brussels...).

@Azas Visiting Lithuania is on my bucket list (probably combined with Estonia and Latvia). In fact, my all time sporting hero is Lithuanian.

Apologies for the off-topic!

 

[Azas]

Funny you mention that, as I feel much safer when I go to London than in other big and not so big cities I have visited (e.g., Prague, Barcelona, Paris, Brussels...).

@Azas Visiting Lithuania is on my bucket list (probably combined with Estonia and Latvia). In fact, my all time sporting hero is Lithuanian.

Apologies for the off-topic!

Sabonis? Alekna?

 

[Azas]

Food for thought:

Immigrants and descendants in Denmark account for about 18.1% of all convicted criminal offenses, while Danish citizens are responsible for the remaining majority. First-generation immigrants and descendants—particularly from non-Western or MENAPT countries—are statistically overrepresented in crime statistics relative to their population size. [1, 2, 3]
Key Statistics and Context:

• General Crime Share: Foreigners legally residing in Denmark represent about 11% of the total population. They commit 18.1% of all criminal offenses and 14.6% of overall offenses (which include traffic violations). [1]
• Violent Crimes: Non-Western immigrants and descendants, who make up roughly 10.6% of the population, account for a disproportionately larger share of serious offenses, committing nearly 30% of violent crimes and over 32% of rapes. [1]
• Second-Generation Disparity: Descendants of non-Western immigrants generally show a higher crime index, committing overall crimes at almost 2.7 times the rate of native Danes. [1]
• Labor vs. Refugee Demographics: Studies show that a large share of the disparity is concentrated in specific demographic and refugee groups. Conversely, international labor migrants and Western immigrants have crime rates comparable to or even lower than native-born Danes. [1, 2, 3, 4]
• Socioeconomic Factors: Research indicates that socioeconomic status and educational background play a major role in these statistics, with the overrepresentation largely decreasing when adjusted for income and parental employment. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Google info.

 

[GhostofCain]

Sabonis? Alekna?

The one and only Arvydas Sabonis. I grew up watching him play in the 80s. Unbelievable player, who I was later lucky enough to personally meet and see play in the flesh.

 

[UpTheIrons]

Funny you mention that, as I feel much safer when I go to London than in other big and not so big cities I have visited (e.g., Prague, Barcelona, Paris, Brussels...).

@Azas Visiting Lithuania is on my bucket list (probably combined with Estonia and Latvia). In fact, my all time sporting hero is Lithuanian.

Apologies for the off-topic!

London still feels a lot better to me than Lisbon, which I visited around 18 months ago, even in the touristy areas with families roaming around I was frequently accosted by unsavoury characters trying to sell me cigarettes and drugs, perhaps I look shifty as well and they thought I was a prospective customer. I've not been to Paris or Barcelona in some years so I don't know how they are these days.

Personally, my experiences in Central and Eastern Europe have been more pleasant, Vilnius is a splendid place to visit and I would highly recommend the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fighters as well as one of the number of walking tours on offer.

 

[GhostofCain]

London still feels a lot better to me than Lisbon, which I visited around 18 months ago, even in the touristy areas with families roaming around I was frequently accosted by unsavoury characters trying to sell me cigarettes and drugs, perhaps I look shifty as well and they thought I was a prospective customer. I've not been to Paris or Barcelona in some years so I don't know how they are these days.

I have visited Lisbon many times over the years and it never ceases to amaze me how I always end up being offered drugs! Beautiful city though.

 

[Vaenyr]

Don’t tell me what to do, man. I’m not going to engage any further, nor am I going to spend time digging up facts or answers, simply because you completely ignoring my other posts and only show up to play forum policeman.*

By writing this, I fully realize I’m handing you ammunition for the usual ‘yet another person who can’t provide facts to support his position’ speech. Bla, bla, bla.

But that doesn’t make you the winner of the argument.

*Of course, you’re perfectly entitled to ignore me. But I’m equally entitled to ignore what I see as your selective focus on particular topics while overlooking others.

I'm simply calling out your disingenuous behavior, as well as noting that you have literally admitted before that you care more about how things make you feel than about if they are true or not. You literally said that you don't care about the facts.

Unlike you, I post proper, trustworthy sources. So much for being able to admit you're wrong lmao

Also, the fact that you refuse to quote specific posts just proves that you were once again lying (or imagining things that never happened) and threw accusations around that were blatantly wrong.

 

[Vaenyr]

London still feels a lot better to me than Lisbon, which I visited around 18 months ago, even in the touristy areas with families roaming around I was frequently accosted by unsavoury characters trying to sell me cigarettes and drugs, perhaps I look shifty as well and they thought I was a prospective customer. I've not been to Paris or Barcelona in some years so I don't know how they are these days.

Personally, my experiences in Central and Eastern Europe have been more pleasant, Vilnius is a splendid place to visit and I would highly recommend the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fighters as well as one of the number of walking tours on offer.

It often depends where exactly you go to. Generally, the larger a city, the likelier you'll have dangerous neighborhoods. There are cities in Germany where I felt perfectly safe. There are some parts of cities where I didn't feel safe. Same with Greece, same with Spain, same with France, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania.

I can't say anything about London in particular (I'll visit next spring!) but overall in my experience you can rarely generalize entire cities or countries (especially capitals) without finding contradictions.

 

[UpTheIrons]

I can't say anything about London in particular (I'll visit next spring!) but overall in my experience you can rarely generalize entire cities or countries (especially capitals) without finding contradictions.

This is true, having lived in London for a few years it is almost better described as a cluster of many towns squeezed next to each other, with the different boroughs all having their own distinct character and identity.

 

[Vaenyr]

This is true, having lived in London for a few years it is almost better described as a cluster of many towns squeezed next to each other, with the different boroughs all having their own distinct character and identity.

I think that describes it quite well. It's probably true for most of the big European cities as well. Smaller settlements with their own identity or even culture, growing and growing and uniting into what we know today. New York is like that as well. Probably other places in the world as well, but I focus on Europe since I'm more familiar with those cities.

 

[Azas]

The one and only Arvydas Sabonis. I grew up watching him play in the 80s. Unbelievable player, who I was later lucky enough to personally meet and see play in the flesh.

When I was a kid in the 1980s, my family and I used to watch Žalgiris, with Sabonis in their ranks, battle CSKA Moscow. Even though we were still part of the Soviet Union, it felt like an ‘us versus them’ moment.

Yeah, Sabas was a one-in-a-million player.