August 15th, 2021.
Boris Johnson is plummeting in the ratings.
Some 48% of those polled thought he was a “poor” or a “terrible” Prime Minister.
He was “average” in the eyes of 25%, and “good” or “great” according to just 20%.
Boris Johnson’s poll lead over Labour has collapsed to just four points, on the day he was supposed to be celebrating a triumphant two years in office.
According to the Times, Mr Johnson was planning an event in Downing Street to mark his second year in Number 10 – and “freedom week”.
Instead, the Prime Minister remained in self-isolation in Chequers, after being exposed to Covid-19 in a face-to-face meeting with Health Secretary Sajid Javid last Sunday.
And a new YouGov poll found the Tories on 38% – six points down from the previous week.
Labour, meanwhile, were three points up on 34%.
The four-point poll lead is Johnson’s slimmest since February, during the UK’s third Covid-19 lockdown.
The lockdown has been recently eased and to celebrate our newfound freedom I travelled the 4 and a half hours to London last week for meetings. I was one of two people in the carriage and so managed to get a lot of work done. The stations were not very busy, missing the usual hustle and bustle.
After my meetings, I spent my free time being a tourist again and went to the West End and wandered around the middle of Oxford Street. For the first time, I felt unsafe in London (and I knew the east end of London well enough in the past to walk around with impunity after dark). I have felt safer in less salubrious parts of the third world than I did in London. Beggars were prolific and people were noticeably wary as they walked along Oxford street.
Sure enough, at 7 pm two days ago a man in his twenties was stabbed outside Oxford Circus tube station and remains in a serious condition in hospital.
Six weeks previously, a man in his 60s was stabbed to death in Oxford Circus.
On Monday 9th August, in Chingford, East London, a 45-year-old man was knifed on his doorstep He stepped out to protect his 16-year-old daughter who was being harangued by youths. He suffered a stab wound to the lung and was fatally injured. Police have subsequently arrested two 14-year-old youths and are questioning a 13-year-old.
On August 10th, a 16-year-old youth died from stab wounds inflicted on him on 1st August in Tottenham. No arrests have been made.
On Saturday night (August 14th) three women and one man were rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds after a shooting in Camden.
Shots were heard in Clarence Gardens near Regents Park at around 10.10 pm on Saturday night.
Initial reports suggested witnesses saw a speeding car drive past from which an automatic weapon fired five shots.
From January to April 2021 27 people were stabbed to death in London. (Same period 2020 21 deaths from knife wounds). 4,432 people were on the wrong end of knife crime in London during this period.
If this isn’t worrying enough, it is not limited to inter-gang rivalries over territory and/or drugs but is now progressing into tourist and middle-class residential areas. (We have just seen the end of a trial of a Saudi national knifed in Knightsbridge for his watch). His murderer is now being sentenced.
The upshot of all this is that London is becoming a place to be avoided, and whilst the violence was out of sight in the poorer housing estates it was ignored, it is now impacting mainstream social activities.
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