NEVER MIND LONDON, JACQUI – HAVE A NIGHT OUT IN REDDITCH

21-01-2008

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has caused a political storm by suggesting that the streets of London aren’t safe after dark. Blimey, she ought to spend a Saturday evening in her own constituency to know what scary is.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, the Redditch MP admitted that there are parts of the capital she wouldn’t feel comfortable walking around at midnight (Sunday Times link here)

Fair enough. You suspect that there have always been parts of our major cities where lone women (and men, too) will have felt vulnerable after dark.

What’s depressing is that the threat to passing strangers is no longer confined to shady corners and disreputable suburbs – you can get a good kicking on a well-lit city street simply for looking the wrong way at someone.

The other week, I had to collect my mum and dad who’d had a night out at the Palace Theatre in Redditch, and parked five minutes away on the other side of the town centre.

That meant a stroll through the middle of a pedestrianised precinct full of chain bars where nobody under 30 would feel comfortable.

Groups of young men and women prowled from pup to pub, and as it was close to 11pm, many were clearly already under the influence – shouting, singing, snogging, mock fighting.

Most were simply out for a good time, but there was no denying the undercurrent of violence – and as we popped into a chippie for supper, we came across one particularly loud and aggressive young man clearly looking for someone (anyone) to have a scrap with.

His two mates were attempting – just about successfully – to calm him down, but as they did so, he was starting to turn on them.

Thankfully, we weren’t in his sights, but you wouldn’t have bet your pickled egg against him ending the night without a fight.

No wonder a riot van full of cops was circling and circling.

I had an almost identical experience just a few weeks earlier when I walked through Cannock’s Bridge Street on a Saturday night. It’s an area packed with bars catering exclusively to a youthful clientele – and no one else.

Again, the Police were out in force – you suspect, with good reason.

It’s tempting for political opponents to blame New Labour’s more liberal licensing laws for this trend, but the truth is that alcohol and violence are part of the British way – and have been for years.

What’s changed is that we now have mega-concentrations of boozing barns where the collected piss-artists, hard men and nutters from any one town or city are all encouraged to gather in one place.

Planners (who love neat ‘entertainment zones’) and brewery chains (who like easy profits) have done more to encourage this process than politicians – and its civil society that pays the price.

For all that, it’s my perception that walking suburban streets is safer now than it was in the 1980s; not least because of the closure of many local, out of town pubs.

The fact remains that most people, most of the time, do not get attacked as they go about their business and Britain remains a largely safe and peaceable place.

We must be wary of creating a panic around violence, since fear helps empty the streets – and empty streets allow the violence we fear to flourish.

Where there is aggression, though, it can’t be ignored and Jacqui Smith, as Home Secretary, has a unique opportunity to do something about it.

She doesn’t have to walk the streets of London to start addressing the problem – a Saturday night out down the local, without her bodyguards, would do.

Are the streets safe to walk at night?

Leave a comment on our Message Board.