Walking along to Liverpool Street station I was thinking what a horrible place England can be at times. And right on cue, when I got on the train to go to East London, some git gets on with a rottweiller.  This is at tea time during the rush hour. An extremely small woman said to him ‘oi, can you keep it under control, it keeps sniffing me’; which was the button to start him up about every right and wrong he’s ever experienced. Instead of ’sorry’ or ‘alright’ it was non-stop invective about ’stupid f*cking b*tch’ this and ’stupid f*cking wh*re’ that. Really.

And did anyone do anything? Well apart from the massive dog there was the wild staring eyes. And the endless newspaper stories in our heads about people intervening in the most stupid circumstances, asking people to stop throwing chips, or complaining about sweet wrappers and getting stabbed to death for their troubles.

And where was the ’security’? Where was the ‘CCTV’ and the survellience? Statistical comparison between countries is difficult to do because there are different ways of making the calculations. But there are certainly reports that suggest the UK has some of the highest crime rates in Europe. And easily the highest amount of CCTV and survellience.

It’s just not working, is it? Technology might be able to monitor people’s behaviour, but if they’re a doped up crack head in the first place, it’s actually powerless.