SARAH VINE: Why my son’s robbers still prowl the streets with impunity
The news that the singer Aled Jones had been robbed of his Rolex by a young man wielding a machete on Chiswick High Road in West London last week brought back unpleasant memories of an incident that happened earlier this year.
My daughter and I were watching TV when there was a loud knock on the door. My son had just popped out to Sainsbury’s in Chiswick High Road.
I assumed he’d forgotten his keys (as usual). Instead, he rushed in and said he had been stopped on the corner of our street by two kids with large knives. They took his phone and his scooter and ran off.
Luckily, like Aled Jones – who had been with his teenage son – my son knew better than to resist, and handed over the items. Nevertheless, he was understandably very shaken.
As with Jones, the robbers were dressed head-to-toe in black leisure wear, the standard uniform of the gangs of so-called ‘roadmen’ who scavenge London’s streets with impunity.
If Mayor Khan and the police don’t do something soon, this beautiful, vibrant capital city will end up being little more than a dystopian playground for the violent criminals who, increasingly, prowl our streets unchecked
Chiswick, with its neat middle-class streets and trusting, liberal-minded inhabitants, is a fertile hunting ground. And the criminals are becoming increasingly emboldened.
I was targeted by one a few weeks ago at a cashpoint. No knife, but he approached from behind and tried to engage me in a conversation about why the machine wasn’t working properly.
He said I should remove my card, and then he reached for it. Uncharacteristically (I am usually quite dopey in these situations), I realised what was happening, grabbed my card and walked away as fast as I could, taking refuge inside the bank.
When I told one of the cashiers that a ne’er-do-well was loitering outside, she apologised but said it happened all the time. There was nothing the staff could do.
Ultimately, my son was fine – teenagers tend to brush off such things. But I am not. I worry constantly now about him going out, and about my daughter, too.
He’s not the only young person to have been held up at knifepoint in the area: there have been several other attacks, and even some stabbings, all within a half-mile radius.
Hell hath no fury like a mum
We may have escaped the worst of the summer heatwave so far, but tempers have been at boiling point over Just Stop Oil’s attempts to disrupt daily life.
Some roadblock protesters have been attacked by fed-up motorists.
But the real breakthrough came when two furious mums – one desperate to get her newborn to hospital, another accusing them of ‘playing God’ – confronted the eco-yobs.
If you mess with a mum protecting her child, you mess with a force greater than any on this planet.
Even climate change.
Friends report similar attacks in different boroughs. London’s law-abiding citizens are under siege.
The police are powerless.
Not for want of trying: in our case, officers attended that same day, took statements and have followed up assiduously in the intervening months.
But even though we tracked the robbers via Find My Phone, I don’t think there have been any arrests. Nor do I expect there to be.
Such attackers are clever. They know their rights, and they know that, as kids, there’s little the police can do to them.
The fact is that these are not just random scrotes roaming the streets – they are well-organised gangs, with clear command chains.
They have spotters who direct them, and they use the youngest recruits – 13, 14 – to carry out the attacks since they tend to be viewed sympathetically by the authorities.
The Covid lockdown has helped: many of these kids are vulnerable youngsters who fell out of full-time education because of the Government’s catastrophic decision to close schools.
They never went back, and now they have no qualifications, no skills, no prospects.
Instead of taking inspiration from teachers, they take it from gang leaders whose flashy lifestyles and street status they aspire to. Is it any wonder they would rather act the big man with a knife than stack shelves for the minimum wage?
Meanwhile, London mayor Sadiq Khan tries to absolve himself of all responsibility for the chaos on our streets while forcing hard-working families to pay extra to live in their own city with this hated ULEZ expansion and spending millions on cycle lanes that cause daily gridlock and choke our neighbourhoods with pollution.
Bottom line: London is not safe any more.
Even if you’re not wearing a flashy Rolex, the chance of being targeted by thugs is high.
I’ve lived in the capital for three decades, and in much rougher areas than Chiswick. And I can honestly say I’ve never felt so unsafe.
I wonder how many feel the same. How much longer will we put up with it before people start leaving in droves?
If Mayor Khan and the police don’t do something soon, this beautiful, vibrant capital city will end up being little more than a dystopian playground for the violent criminals who, increasingly, prowl our streets unchecked.
After the death of Tony Bennett at 96, who else should be granted eternal life because the world would be a sadder place without them?
My eternal dream team
After the death of Tony Bennett at 96, who else should be granted eternal life because the world would be a sadder place without them?
My nominations: Gyles Brandreth, YOU magazine’s Liz Jones, Brigitte Bardot, my son and Cristiano Ronaldo.
That really WOULD be a fun dinner party.
If it is true that Harry and Meghan tried to cadge a lift home from the Queen’s funeral on Air Force One, doesn’t that tell us everything about their sense of entitlement?
They should watch they don’t get their bank accounts cancelled…
Je t’aime Jane
There’s no doubt that Jane Birkin, who’s died aged 76, was stunningly beautiful and a style icon.
But it’s a mystery why anyone would pay hundreds of thousands of pounds for the Hermès bag named after her.
How cool it was that Birkin herself didn’t value the bag much, treating her own (she had five) as just a utilitarian object.
She subverted all the hype around it, once saying: ‘There’s no fun in a bag if it’s not kicked around.’
Proof that money may be able to buy a Birkin bag – but it can’t buy her class.
How cool it was that Birkin herself didn’t value the bag much, treating her own (she had five) as just a utilitarian object
How depressing to see a Lib Dem resurgence in last Thursday’s Somerset by-election. Despite denials, the party is in cahoots with Labour not to contest traditionally Conservative areas where one of them can win.
Meanwhile, many people will vote Lib Dem in the misguided belief that it’s a nice, civilised, middle-of-the- road option.
In truth, the Lib Dems are more Left-wing than Labour – proved by the fact that in a shameless bid to attract the young they promise to legalise cannabis.
Labour’s new MP for Selby, 25-year-old Keir Mather, is the latest ‘baby of the House’
Labour’s new MP for Selby, 25-year-old Keir Mather, is the latest ‘baby of the House’.
After his victory in last week’s by-election, his doting mother said her son had been destined for greatness since she named him after her hero, Labour Party founder Keir Hardie.
I feel sorry for the lad. Not only indoctrinated from birth, but a life in politics is not easy.
It’s beyond me how any mother could wish it for their child, let alone one of such a tender age and so lacking in life experience.
Remainers never tire of claiming Brexit represents a lurch to the Right.
So how do they explain the fact that the Spanish seem set to elect a Franco-style leader, while Italy’s PM Georgia Meloni makes Silvio Berlusconi look like Neil Kinnock?
And in Germany the hard-Right AfD is the country’s second most popular party?
Is that a club we really want to belong to?
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