‘Shoplifters are barely prosecuted – it’s the customer that pays’ | UK News
How can the UK’s shoplifting issue be tackled?
It’s been reported that there was 1,000 daily cases of crime, including shoplifting and anti-social behaviour, in just Co-op alone in the first six months of last year.
Not only is this likely to be terrifying for the staff, who shouldn’t fear for their lives while working – it’s also likely a direct cause of rising food prices for us all, as the targeted supermarkets and shops pass the cost onto the consumer.
One MetroTalk reader wrote in to share his experience witnessing a ‘looting’ in his local supermarket and it got quite violent.
What do you think?
‘Shoplifting is too soft a term – looting acknowledges their thuggery’
We just witnessed a mob of nine youngsters in hoodies and face masks rushing the security guards in our local supermarket.
People were pushed out of the way. One man who tried to stop them was thrown to the floor.
We now know that several displays were overturned and stock damaged.
These youngsters stole bottles of fruit juice.
How pathetic that people and property were casualties of this thuggish behaviour. At a guess, they were lads between 13 and 16.
Shoplifting is too soft a term – looting is acknowledging their thuggery, but theft and criminal damage are the more appropriate terms for this behaviour.
What will these kids progress to? Must be some very proud parents.
Sad But Not Surprised, Leeds
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RIP Sinéad O’Connor ‘exemplary singer and activist’
Further to the tributes to the late Sinéad O’Connor (Metro, Fri) who faced ‘mental health struggles throughout her career’.
She actually helped to destigmatise mental health by talking candidly about her own experiences, as well as being an exemplary singer and activist. RIP.
Phil Brand, London
Fighting ‘global boiling’
The UN says we have now entered the era of ‘global boiling’ as this month is predicted to be the hottest July on record (Metro, Fri).
Cattle farming is one of the main causes of global boiling, due to the methane gas it produces, but the business is lucrative to all governments, so they don’t stop it.
Mai, London
Clark Cross (MetroTalk, July 21) suggests Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil are ‘eco-cowards’ because they don’t target the ‘big polluters’ such as China or Russia.
As a matter of fact, they do – Extinction Rebellion does have a chapter in China, albeit a small one. But both activism and climate change mitigation, like so many other things, are ‘arts of the possible’.
And it is not possible to be an effective activist in China. At least, not without getting intimately acquainted with various prison camps. Rob Slater, Norfolk
The Co-op says there were 1,000 cases of crime, shoplifting and antisocial behaviour in its UK stores every day throughout the first six months of this year (Metro.co.uk).
If other supermarkets are experiencing a similar trend, we could be looking at millions of offences every single year.
One security guard I know told me that supermarkets are insured against theft and that prosecutions very rarely take place. It’s the customer who pays the price.
Scott, West London
‘Why are UK energy retailers so invested in promoting hydrogen in homes?’
The Hello Hydrogen campaign must be delighted to have Rachel Riley promoting the use of hydrogen for home heating (Metro, 60 seconds, Wed).
But as a mathematician who claims an interest in science and the environment, she ought to be more discriminating.
Only hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water using renewable energy (‘green’ hydrogen) will help reduce CO2 emissions.
It will be a scarce resource that should be used in hard-to-abate sectors, such as the production of fertiliser, steel and chemicals.
Home heating can be done much more efficiently and safely using heat pumps.
France installed ten times as many heat pumps as the UK in 2022 and Denmark has recently installed two giant heat pumps, each serving thousands of households.
So who is promoting hydrogen as a domestic fuel?
Why, the vested interests that are the UK’s energy retailers and gas network owners who have most to lose (their profits) as we transition from natural gas and only require a third of the energy to run heat pumps. Catriona Lawrie, Morley
‘ULEZ aside – pressure your local council to plant more trees’
Just over a year ago, we notched up 40C in Lincolnshire, something nobody ever expected in a maritime climate such as ours.
And debates about ULEZ aside, if readers really are concerned about the air quality in London, put pressure on your local councils to plant more trees and encourage green corridors. Gardener Trev, London
If we are to cave to the demands of the eco-doomsters we need a realistic alternative to fossil fuel energy.
We are an island, so tidal barrages would be a great place to start, being relatively quick and cheap to build.
The trouble is, any time someone suggests such alternatives, the Nimbys and, more often than not, the same people screaming about fossils fuels, vehemently oppose tidal barrages because they’ll upset some worms and fish.
Teresa, Suffolk
Are we being failed by the two main parties, is the Lords a sham and what price morality?
Adam (MetroTalk, Thu) says neither Conservative nor Labour are radical enough regarding their priorities towards the climate emergency.
He says that neither party is good enough and that we need proportional representation. I couldn’t agree more.
We have seen how the two main parties have begun to row back on their green policy promises.
The Green Party’s only MP, Caroline Lucas, is also stepping down at the next general election.
Her long parliamentary career has, quite frankly, put the two main parties to shame – they are far more interested in either gaining or remaining in power, than in advancing the environmental agenda.
Adam’s wish for a much fairer, more effective system of proportional representation cannot come soon enough. Al, Charlton
Lord Londesborough told the House of Lords it could be replaced by AI bot (Metro.co.uk).
It should be replaced by something, whether AI or chimpanzees. When you have Boris Johnson’s nominees of a failed mayoral candidate and a 30-year-old woman we have never heard of, and with a total lack of experience, being given this so-called honour it makes a mockery of the whole thing. Corin, London
Further to Coutts chief executive Peter Flavel resigning over the bank’s closure of Nigel Farage’s account (Metro, Fri).
Whether Mr Flavel does receive a payout or not, would it be morally right for a senior executive in such a position and leaving under such circumstance to receive a multimillion pound handout that, contractually, they might be due? J Longstaff, Buxted
MORE : Co-op stores recorded 1,000 cases of crime every day in first half of 2023
MORE : UN issues terrifying warning: ‘The era of global boiling has arrived’
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