Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Guardian Writer Says Something Silly.

Josh Freedman Berthoud writes at Comment is Free about the recent outbreak of youth violence in London. Can you guess who's fault it is?

Thatcher's children

The unfettered individualism which permeated British society in the 80s also fuels our violent gang culture.
It's an odd thing the supposed Thatcherite crime wave which began about ten years before she came to power. Another strange thing is that despite 'unfettered individualism' being the cause of violent crime, it is the militantly anti-Thatcher Scotland which has the highest rates of violence, including murder, in the UK wheras the comparatively Thatcherphile England which has a very low murder rate.
Scotland has the second highest murder rate in western Europe and Scots are more than three times more likely to be murdered than people in England and Wales, according to a study by the World Health Organisation.

The study, based on the latest crime figures from 21 western European countries, finds that only Finland has a higher murder rate than Scotland.

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