Unbelieveable

Rant on:

After moving into a new flat in the beginning of december and getting it just the way I like it, took a lot of decorating etc. I heard noises in the flat above above just before xmas but I new my neighbour was away for the xmas break, I found half a dozen kids aged about 12 to 16 years old ransacking the place. I managed collar two of them but the rest legged it, the police duly arrived and took them away but the poor lass's flat was wrecked and her stuff taken, she was heartbroken as you can imagine, and has been unable to stay there and subsequently moved out. Understandable methinks.

Then my problems started, My flats been vandalised daily since then, my car has been jumped on and scratched etc and then 2 days ago I caught two youths pouring bloody petrol though my letterbox.

Had the police out again, (about 8 times now) and they have said that the flat is now too dangerous for me to stay there, not that I want to mind you, the petrol thing scared the shit out of me to be honest.

I got my hifi and valuables out and stored at a friends house and then went to the council to see if they could rehouse me (as it a council property I was in).
They had nothing available so have put me in a poxy B&B in a not nice area whilst they try to find something. In the meantime the rest of my stuff and furniture etc is stuck in the flat and at the mercy of these bastard juvenile terrorists. I go and check it every day but sometimes Im scared to look.

Rant off:

Great start to my new year, God I'm pissed off.

Being a good samaritan comes with a hell of a price these days.

 

bloody hell m8!

just goes to show, even though you do the right thing, its not always the right thing. makes you want to turn a blind eye!

hope you get sorted soon.

A.N.

 

mart,
having lived in some shite holes myself, unfortunately the first thing you learn is to mind your own business. with hindsight the best thing to have done would have been to phone the police anonymously. consider yourself well out of it and get on with life.
cheers


julian

 

Some years ago I lived in a council flat in Dawley (part of Telford). When I first moved there my neighbours were mostly old folk but over a couple of years younger people were moved in. Some were drug dealers - music all night, people coming and going 24/7.

I was burgled 3 times in one year, each time by neighbours (according to the police). The last time, I was away when it happened and I returned to find that a good friend had moved whatever stuff of mine remained to his place and told me I should stay with him and not return to my flat. I never did.

Anyway, following the final burglary, I had to appear in court to testify. The friends of the accused were outside booing and whistling as I entered the courtroom.

A few days later my flat was torched and burnt to the ground. Luckily I had moved out. I took the few thousand that I managed to get out of the insurance company for the burglary, packed up and started a new life in Paris. I met my wife and started a successful web design company. Then we returned to the UK (but not f***ing Dawley), I restarted my speaker company and the rest is history.

Mart, my advice is to get the hell out of there, however you can. Forget any socialist principles you may have, leave the shitty area you're in and don't look back. Start again. Life's too short.

Good luck.

 

That really sucks. I'm glad you got out with no harm to yourself.

For my house I've gone on area rather than the house. I looked at 3-bed semis, and even a 2 bed dorma bungalow with garage. I've ended up paying £10-20k more for a 2 bed terrace with on-road parking. The difference is that the bungalow was in the middle of chadderton (a less good part of oldham), one of the semis was in a poor council estate in heywood, and my terrace is in the quiet village of marsden on the edge of a national park.

 

Mart, I have space to store a car load if it helps. I'm in the E Midlands, where are you?

 

Really sorry to hear it Mart . You're a braver man than most intervening like you did. Most kids of that ilk are armed to the teeth these days - IMO you were lucky not to get knifed!

Michael.

 

Cripes Mart...thats sounds like an absolute nightmare. What a hedfuk You got to love the good people of Britain sometimes
Good luck with sorting something else out. I hope theres a 7V style silver lining for you.

 

On the subject of the deterioration in the behaviour of the British, has anyone read "The Welfare State We're In" by James Bartholomew?

 

I didn't know you'd been as far as Heywood Isaac. Was it Back o' the moss you looked at? That really is grim.
Mart that's seriously bad news. Hope your council can sort it for you soon

 

steve,
admittedly i've only skimmed the website but my immediate vibe was that it was witten by someone who's ultimate goal is lower taxes and let the charities take up the shortfall. as someone who's had to rely on public aid in the past not only for housing and sustinance but for legal aid i'd be wary of tampering with the support system as it stands. the real area that is lacking from govornment is spending on education. my mother was an educator before she retired and has a lot of friends in the profession and unfortunately the trend nowadays is for schools to get the best sat scores not to turn out well balanced individuals. a degree is now just a formality - i'm a doctor of computer science for fcuk's sake and any sort of moral education is looked on with suspicion. as i said in an earlier thread my daughter is eligable to attend a church school so i'll be trying to send her there when the time comes. she also goes to brownies which is another organisation which attempts to build moral fibre in the young.
these are the areas that the govornment should concentrate on more and if i have to pay a few quid more a month in taxes then fair enough. - as long as it's not being pissed away on expensive wallpaper and antiques for some civil servants office.
cheers


julian

 

Mart ask for a secure cover over the door until you leave. These come with enormous padlocks and are used when a tenant vacates in the North East to stop break-ins. I am free Saturday 7-01-04 if you need a hand shifting anything quick

 

Not really. His argument is that the welfare state is responsible for many of our problems. Obviously, this is a contentious view but he makes an interesting case (from what I've read so far). However, I received the book recently and I'm only about 1/5th way through it so can't really comment.

What I can say for sure though is that the book's a fascinating read and an excellent history lesson. Irrespective of whether you end up agreeing with the points made, it's well worth buying.

One of the points made in the book is that unemployment rises when benefits increase. Interestingly, they've just (this week) introduced some tough reforms to the benefits system in Germany for this very reason. It will be interesting to see the outcome over the next year or two.

I too have had to rely on the safety net of the state in the past. As far as I can see, it's constantly being tampered with. I don't think that James Bartholomew is suggesting its dismantling (but I'll let you know when I get that far).

My oldest boy attends a church school (4-7yrs) and it's excellent. Our problems will start when he has to go to his next school at age 7. The one that we want to send him too is a church school that gives priority to accepting children of parents who are regular churchgoers (any denomination or religion will do). Oh dear.

Julian, I'd say that improvements could be made to our society that would improve the lot of us all, rich and poor. I don't believe that we would necessarily have to spend more on taxes either, despite the fact that this is the prevailing view at this time.

I don't believe that throwing money at the problems is an answer that would work. We need to re-examine the structures. We need to ignore the indoctrinated beliefs of those on the left and the right and look for fresh solutions.

With this in mind, I would recommend that anyone reads this book. It would certainly make people think.

 

Sorry to hear this Mart.

I tend to speak up or step in. But on several occasions it's had concequences.

You done a very good thing and it's shit what's followed.

 

rich - it was thorn close, near hooley bridge.

 

Yes that's the back of the moss. Would have been grim indeed. with apologies to any mossites reading. It's not had the benefits of being owned by Manchester council like the other big estate in Heywood, hence it's very undeveloped. You would have lost the ML's pretty rapidly I think!

 

I'd written the house off 200 yds before I got to it. I did the viewing because I'd arranged it, but it took the seller about 10 seconds to sense that I wasn't going to buy the place.

 

How is the move looking anyhow. When's the house warming going to be?

 

Thanks for the replies guys, they made me feel better, and to GrahamC, thanks very much for the offer of help, I really appreciate it but live in the N/East, a fair way from you but thanks again.

The council are dragging their heals and say they have to wait for reports from the police about the situation and the homeless section say I'm not really homeless as "afterall,the flats still there isnt it", etc etc, it makes me feel like they dont believe a word I say. One woman that works there said "oh it cant be that bad, it'll get better soon", I asked if she would stay somewhere after someone tried to burn her home, the reply, "thats irrelevant".

So all in all it could take weeks to sort out, but I've started to look for somewhere else privately rented and have advertised my system for sale to raise the bond for somewhere else to live, its not easy to find somewhere as I'm not working, I had my large bowel and a section of small bowel removed in 2002 due to cancer and though I manage pretty well nowadays it seems employers dont want anyone that has to be on the toilet 8 to 10 times in a working day. It leaves me bemused to think that I used to own my own home on the east coast and have worked all my life only to lose everthing because of the cancer and being unable to work after the operation, only to have it happen again because of lowlife wastes of skin.

Such is life though and you need to cope with it I guess.

I've advertised my B&W 704's over on avforums and rest of my stuff everywhere else if any one fancies a look, the avforums trading aup wont let you advertise the same stuff anywhere else for some strange reason and if you do your ads are deleted, I'm hoping to get a set of kef eggs in part ex on the 704's, then at least I'll still have music and movies.

Thanks again for the replies and best regards to all, Mart

 

Chaps

I just hope that some of the trendy leftie pinkos who reside in the Naim forum read this thread.

The problem is that even if the little sods are caught, the sentence is going to be relatively light.

86% of Burglars are repeat offenders so by removing them from society, the problem is largely erradicated.

I have always advocated that anyone convicted of burglary or breaking and entering should serve a mandatory 20 year sentence. No exceptions, 20 years minimum and time should be added for bad behaviour in prison.

It may sound tough, but it would work.

The little Chavs would certainly think twice about doing it when a few of their mates effectively disappear for 20 years.

But the pinkos will go on talking about rehabilitation and stories like this will continue to happen.

Regards

Mick