The English are beginning to learn that their former subjects didn’t really take to the English way of doing things after all.
Almost 90 retail leaders, including the bosses of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots and WH Smith, have written to the government demanding action on rising retail crime, in which violent criminals are “emptying stores”.
The retailers, who also include the bosses of Aldi, Primark and Superdrug, call for the creation of a new UK-wide aggravated offence of assaulting or abusing a retail worker – as already exists in Scotland – which would carry tougher sentences and require police to record all incidents of retail crime and allow the allocation of more resources.
“The police consistently tell us that a lack of data about these offences means they have no visibility about the nature or scale of the issue,” the letter says.
The 88 retail bosses have asked for a meeting with the home secretary, Suella Braverman, to discuss the issue after a meeting with the minister for crime, Chris Philp, led to the promise to develop an action plan.
The call comes after retailers, including the Co-op and John Lewis, highlighted what they said was a worsening issue. A survey of members of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents all the major chains, found levels of shoplifting in 10 of the biggest cities had risen by an average of 27% this year.
Meanwhile, the police’s own data for one major retailer shows that forces failed to respond to 73% of serious retail crimes that were reported, while 44% of retailers in the BRC’s annual crime survey rated the police response as “poor” or “very poor”.
Apparently the English dirt isn’t magic either. Of course, all of the “retail leaders” complaining about immigrant crime are still funding advertising that relentlessly pushes Africans into every single ad on British television. To judge by the advertising, and by the advertising for the shows, you’d think that BBC stood for the Botswana Broadcasting Corporation.
However, speaking of British television advertising, I was excited to spot family number 15 for the man who appears to be the primary black actor available for hire as a family man this last week. That makes 12 white wives and 3 black ones for him so far.