《獨立報》以"危機來到門前"來形容貸款機構"布拉德福德與賓利"昨天公布的盈利警告。
《金融時報》說，這家以貸款給出租樓房投資者知名的貸款機構公布，由於拖欠還款案例增加，他們在今年頭四個月損失了800萬英鎊。
《獨立報》說，這家貸款機構的盈利倒退情況應該受到重視。
《每日電訊報》說，這家機構出現的問題是北岩銀行引發一系列問題的第二幕。
該報說，它揭示了更廣泛的經濟隱患，房產擁有者將要為銀行老板的錯失而付鈔。
刀子"疫症"
今天很多英國小報的頭版都報道了在倫敦南部一名15歲少女被人用利刀捅死的案件。
《每日快報》說，英國正處於刀子"疫症"之中。
這是今年以來倫敦的第16起刀子殺人案件。
《太陽報》說，這起案件是"破碎英國"的另一例證。該報說，這起謀殺案是英國聲望上的污點。
《太陽報》指責警察首長們無能，無法制止暴力罪案。
3rd
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- Posted by:
- Economist.com
- Categories:
- Britain
VISITORS to London could be forgiven for thinking the place is going to hell in a handbasket. "Schoolgirl stabbed to death on her way home," screams the page one headline in today's Daily Mail, noting the girl who died in her school uniform was the 31st teen-age knife victim in Britain this year. Sixteen teens killed in what the Mail calls a "knife-crime epidemic" have died in London, including a young actor who appears in an upcoming Harry Potter film.
Meanwhile, there is continuing fall-out from the drunken chaos on the Tube last weekend. Sixteen people were arrested, seven Tube staff and two police officers were assaulted, six stations were closed and some trains taken out of service after hundreds of young people quaffing drinks ranging from lager to champagne turned the subway system into a raucous, rolling party.
The sorry state of Britain's young is a frequent topic of conversation among adults, apparently with good reason: surveys confirm that young Britons tend to engage in more risky behaviour, from heavy drinking to having sex at early ages, than their European peers. It is common for people to avoid riding public transport in the evening for fear of encountering drunk or violent youths.
The Economist puts some of this in perspective, noting that it is not so much the number but more the nature of violent attacks that is a worry.
From all this one might think that deaths by the blade were becoming more common. That isn't the case. Last year 258 people were killed by sharp instruments, a number that has barely changed since the turn of the millennium. As a proportion of total homicides (which have been rising slowly for decades), death by sharp instrument is no more frequent now than it was ten years ago, though knives remain Britain's favourite murder weapon. The British Crime Survey (BCS), an official annual questionnaire, suggests that violent crime has fallen dramatically in recent years. Yet people are increasingly worried about it.
And with reason. Violent crime may have fallen overall, but that is thanks to the halving of domestic violence and fighting among friends since 1997. Those falls hide an increase in violence at the hands of strangers, which has risen by 14% during the same period. And although murder is not much more common than it used to be, non-fatal attacks seem to be getting more serious.
London's new mayor, Boris Johnson, and police are right to make such issues a priority. These are the sort of headlines that, over time, can do real damage to a city's reputation. The effectiveness of current plans to tackle the knife-carrying fad among teens remains to be seen.
As for drunks on the Tube, there is more reason to be hopeful. The weekend bash was in fact prompted by Mr Johnson's order to end legal drinking on public transport (and was long overdue). It would have been convenient to blame the chaos, which occurred in the final hours before the alcohol ban took effect, on disorderly teens. Today we learned that at least some of the partying was organised by young City bankers who used Facebook, the social networking site, to draw people to the mass "drink-ins." With bankers' photos splashed in the press and, reportedly, careers possibly on the line, it seems likely that this particular group will not be a threat to passengers on public transport in future.
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