Knife crime, shoplifting and fraud is on the rise in Britain. Fraud was up by a third in the last year, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which also reveal a 50 per cent increase (to around 483,000 incidents) in theft. Shoplifting offences rose by 20 per cent in 2024 – reaching the highest figure in over 20 years.
What’s shocking about this tidal wave of crime is that it is hardly surprising. Anyone who has lived in England over the last decade or so cannot fail to have noticed that our streets feel more dangerous. Where I live in Essex, there have been more stabbings. Many people I know in London and the Home Counties have been mugged for their phones and wallets.
Take a walk through central London and it won’t be long before you encounter someone zipping about on an illegal electric bike with a balaclava on. We all know what they are up to.
Unsavoury types lurk on train platforms, or on Tube trains, waiting to grab a phone or to rifle a handbag before jumping off through the closing doors.
It’s true that there is some good news in the ONS’s figures. Firearms offences decreased by 20 per cent, and the number of homicides fell by 5 per cent. But this doesn’t mean that the average person in Britain today feels safe. Mugging and pickpocketing – which fall under the term ‘theft from the person’ – was up 50 per cent. This ought to shock us. But it does not.
Spend a few minutes on your local High Street and you’ll soon spot someone stealing from a shop, with staff powerless to do anything to stop them and the police nowhere to be seen. We’re forced to guard our valuables closely and advised not to get our phones out in public to avoid becoming a victim of crime. Why should we tolerate this?
The crime statistics released by the ONS demonstrate what most of us know about how dangerous our streets are. These numbers are a vindication of our own eyes and ears, a vindication of our friends and neighbours who have confessed to being victimised, a vindication of reality.
The Labour government has laudable aims. It wants Britain’s economy to grow for the first time in over a decade. It wants this country to be a decent place to live. But economic growth cannot come through diktat in a demoralised, crime-ridden country. If the government wants to succeed in revitalising the economy, it must look to social order and making the country a pleasant place to visit and to live. If Britain is a decent place to be, it might be a place worthy of growing economically.
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