Economics and Crime

In spite of London’s higher than average crime figure, there are time when the capital feels remarkably safe and peaceful. First thing on a Sunday morning when the suburbs are full of traffic, central London is a delight. So I was really pleased to be asked to go in to the ITN offices at Grays Inn Road this Sunday morning to do a couple of pre-recorded interviews ready for today’s National Personal Safety Day.

When we planned our campaign for National Personal Safety Day several months ago we had no idea that we would be in the middle of a global economic collapse. Trying to shoe-horn our messages about personal safety into the media today may test the skills of my extremely able press team.

The economy and violent crime are integrally linked. As the nation’s gross domestic product goes down gross domestic crime goes up. There is an increase in acquisitive crime and workplace violence. If anyone needs a bailout it will be to police authorities in high crime areas.

In the real economy, outside the banking bubble, life goes on. In schools up and down the country, teachers are downloading our lesson plans and getting personal safety messages out to their pupils. My daughter is preparing a school assembly. The staff team here are getting ready to don their strangely fetching LIVE LIFE SAFE designer tabards and set off to hand out our gorgeous new Suzy Lamplugh Trust season ticket holders to unsuspecting commuters on their journey home.

Now I’m off to set up camp in a Millbank BBC radio studio to see how many times I can repeat the phrase “Unplugged is un-mugged” before they cut back to the stock exchange.