Louise_mckenna, apart from the bit which says the you agree with Louisa and disagree with Sue, the gist of what you are saying sounds like Sue. ie I don't believe for a second Sue has her head in the clouds (not on this issue anyway - sorry Sue!) and all she is saying is be sensible as well There isn't anywhere in London that is completely safe - and pointing at other areas just looks silly (even if statistically they do have higher crime rates) basically - when you were brought up in/moved to London you learned/knew that it was a seething metropolis. It's horrible when it happens but muggings/attacks etc will happen. Even if 100% of Brendan and my tax pays for police. And even if we are absolutely not complacent about it It is wrong to suggest we shouldn't be bothered just as it is wrong to think there was ever a time when this wasn't an issue. And it's wrong to seize every attack as some sort of chicken-licken/boy who cries wolf "The sky is falling down" As someone says we have local papers for that sort of thing. In teh meantime as bout Lousie AND Sue said - just continue to be careful (All that said, judging by history, we can expect crime to go up in a recession so I'm not suggesting that's not happening NOR that we should just accept it. But we shouldn't be surprised either)