Is Xenophobia on the rise post Brexit?

Knew I saŵ you on tv somewhere John it was "On the Buses"

Knew I saŵ you on tv somewhere John it was "On the Buses"

My bus was red Shirley, an RM, the Routemaster. A great machine and not to be confused with the earlier RT. A lot of the technology that went into designing and building RMs had been developed during the war. There were very advanced :-) I guess that's why bungling Boris has tried to recreate them in the new London bus with a rear platform.

Quite correct Shirley, he was Olive !!

It's a question of degree, I think....

I was around and at school in the 60's (6th form in 1969-70), and yes, there were tough lads (& some girls) from rough backgrounds. etc but this is something different, it's stronger and there's more of it and the gangs rule by fear and intimidation. On some council estates there are no go areas and one of the colleagues that I worked with, lived in that neighbourhood and her brother was stabbed in the hallway of his family's flat as gangs broke in, trying to defend his family....

Whilst I was teaching Art at a Special needs school in SW London...one of our dear ex-pupils and his slightly older brothers who had 'graduated' to an EBD school, because of bad behaviour at our place (intimidating other pupils and taking money with menaces, running a protection racket -all whilst he was in the Primary dept)...ended up being imprisoned (he's still there...along with his accomplices) for kidnapping and sexual assault and torture of two girls, one of whom was shot, one just about managed to escape with her life from a hotel in Reading....You will have read about this in the newspapers....

They have them, Shirley, but they are no good beyond about 25 feet & are far from accurate at that range.

None of us are policemen but a running criminal who has already displayed a complete lack of concern for the lives of fellow human beings by driving a stolen car at them might well have a gun &, having run & reached cover, could turn & shoot the officers. I would not wait to be killed before making sure that the criminal was not concealing a weapon.

The Washington Post ran a story on police shootings of which this is an extract - "In a year-long study, The Washington Post found that the kind of incidents that have ignited protests in many U.S. communities — most often, white police officers killing unarmed black men — represent less than 4 percent of fatal police shootings. Meanwhile, The Post found that the great majority of people who died at the hands of the police fit at least one of three categories: they were wielding weapons, they were suicidal or mentally troubled, or they ran when officers told them to halt."

Being found to be unarmed is very different to being on the receiving end of a threat. My petrol station was robbed at gun point one evening by a youth. He was quickly captured & it was found that his "gun" was just his hand with a scarf wound round it. If my staff had been in America they might have had a gun, too. Would they have been wrong to use it when they were threatened? After all, the youth would have been found to be un-armed but dead.

But every situation is different & I do not hold with arming our beat bobbies either.

I know it's worse than it used to be. I agree. What I don't agree with is that it is an imported problem. You can't pin everything on immigrants but people keep trying to. The area I went to school has no go areas and gangs and yes, it's got worse - but it's not down to immigrants. It's local people.

Oh , lovely....Was it one of these...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVHbF0jAzMw

Behave - me Mam was a clippie. And Pa a driver.

Hilary, The first bus is an RM (Routemaster, the best bus ever :-) and the second is an RT.

I grew up with 4 brothers and I am aware that inside every grown man there is a little boy, that never quite goes away......

Obsessions around trains and planes, automobiles ( and to a lesser extent tanks), were big in my family....I think that buses were regarded as a bit 'naff'....

The Routemasters were good, but I remember that they were often driven as though we were on a long rough trail ride in the 'Wild West', with passengers clinging on for dear life.......Not great, if you were elderly and/or disabled... I think that driving standards and consideration of the passengers has improved since those days.. but I dont envy the drivers of the new buses, ..no 'cameraderie' as no partner/conductor...and without this I do think it's a risky business, especially at night,,,,

I think that there are health risks associated with the job ...paunches (like lorry drivers) and high stress levels (dealing with the public) leading to ulcers and heart attacks....

It's probaly good John, that you graduated to doing some thing else...

An old colleague and friend of mine is an tank expert........ https://ospreypublishing.com/store/contributors/hilary-doyle

But for me the all round best tank of the second World war has to be the Russian T34, the queen of Russian armour.

I've pretty well grown out of cars now. I've sold off a couple and limited myself to only three. One for fun, one for long distances and one for sentimental reasons. Though I am eyeing up a 1970 motorbike.

This is CLEARLY the best bus ever ever ever John.

Good grief Carl,...which country does this operate in ?......Obviously somewhere where there is sufficient landscape to view, with all those roof windows 1......Switzerland maybe ?...Although it might experience trouble in the tunnels....

My father was a bus conductor in London.

No rear Plarform Carl. Looks like windows based bus to me.

Paris would you believe.