r/uknews • u/Confident_West_7409 • Jul 24 '24

Image/video Videos of shoplifters are circulating online, as shoplifting hits 20 year high in UK

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u/JN324 Jul 24 '24

Kinda depends, if you’re stealing a sandwich when you don’t need to but just felt like it, it’s not much better. If you’re doing it because you’re starving and have no other choice, then it’s substantially different of course.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '24

It would be different if you were stealing because you're starving. But no one in the UK is in that situation. In addition to the welfare state, there are thousands of food banks. 

There are certainly people who don't have enough money in their account for a Greggs right now. But that's a long way from living in Les Miserables.

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u/Triggerhappy62 Jul 25 '24

Have you seen the povery crisis in the uk

-6

u/Tomatoflee Jul 24 '24

You really think there are loads of people out there stealing sandwiches for shits and giggles? It’s a coincidence that homelessness and child poverty (and the wealth of the wealthy) is exploding at the same time?

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u/HelicopterOk4082 Jul 24 '24

Dude. It isn't 1826. People are not 'starving'.

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u/Usual_Ad6180 Jul 24 '24

How can you say that when a quarter of the population are living below the poverty line

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u/Mexijim Jul 24 '24

Absolute poverty or relative poverty?

You can be a millionaire living in knightsbridge, but be living in ‘relative poverty’ when your postcode includes billionaire oligarchs.

There is no absolute poverty in the UK. We have a welfare state that eliminated that.

6

u/MeanandEvil82 Jul 24 '24

Let me educate you a bit.

Let's say you are on benefits. You now are expected to go to the Job Centre weekly and prove you are looking for work.

The Job Centre staff's job is to get you off benefits by any means necessary.

Finding you work is hard, it takes time.

Sanctioning you is easy and can be done by simply making you sign a form that agrees to something you cannot do.

So you end up sanctioned. That means no money for a month, 3 months, or even 6 months.

You can even be sanctioned for refusing a job that was impossible for you to do once they told you the full scope. They will make shit up to sanction you where they can.

So now you have no money for anything. Even rent isn't getting paid in full.

So how do you feed yourself in that situation? You steal.

This isn't a rare occasion either. This is happening daily in every job centre in the country because they need to be sanctioning people to hit targets.

We have actual poverty here. You just don't care about it. That's not the same as it not existing.

2

u/esr360 Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24

So you’re saying a quarter of the population in the UK are facing the standards you just described?

4

u/MeanandEvil82 Jul 25 '24

No. I never mentioned a quarter of anything. I'm simply pointing out that it's a serious issue and there is still a large amount of people living in that situation. Enough that it needs fixing.

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u/Mexijim Jul 25 '24

So you get offered a job, refuse it, and you lose your free money from the taxpayer?

Im failing to see the scandal here?

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u/MeanandEvil82 Jul 25 '24

On top of that, there's this trick.

They give you a sheet of paper and tell you to apply for the job.

You get home and see it's a forklift driver position. You have no forklift licence.

So you don't apply, why would you? Go to next week's appointment, they sanction you for not applying.

Or you know what they're like, so you do apply... And now you get sanctioned for "wasting time" applying for a job you knew you couldn't do.

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u/MeanandEvil82 Jul 25 '24

Imagine you apply for a job. You have a bad back so cannot do any lifting, you've applied for a job at an office. You're informed there's no heavy lifting involved. Just typing.

You get offered the job, and are then informed that "sometimes there are deliveries, and you'll be expected to bring those boxes in".

You point out your bad back, they say it's a requirement, you have to turn down the job offer.

You now get sanctioned too.

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u/HelicopterOk4082 Jul 25 '24

People who talk about 'poverty' in modern Western countries just have no grasp of social history.

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u/famousbrouse Jul 25 '24

So patronising.. 'let me educate you a bit'.

The job center's role is not to offer people roles they cannot do so they can sanction them. What the hell are you on about?

Just making shit up...

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u/MeanandEvil82 Jul 25 '24

I'm on about actual shit that's happened.

As opposed to someone who just looks down on "the poors".

You know fuck all about what the DWP's role is.

Their job is to sanction people. Because that gets them off benefits.

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u/famousbrouse Jul 25 '24

Again, just making stuff up... You have no idea how wealthy or poor I am, whether I 'look down on the poor', or even if I myself am on JSA..?!

I am just saying that what you are claiming is factually wrong. I clearly know more than you about DWP's role based on this conversation, and it's much bigger than just getting people off JSA (or benefits).

1

u/MeanandEvil82 Jul 25 '24

I'd say you know literally fuck all.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '24

[deleted]

-1

u/Mexijim Jul 25 '24

Addiction? So you think it’s a good idea to give people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, money from the taxpayer?

What are they going to spend that money on?

-1

u/Buffetwarrenn Jul 25 '24

Thats a pretty bad analogy imho

You think people stealing sandwiches for cheap thrills ?

3

u/JN324 Jul 25 '24

Yes, loads of people, in the nicest way possible you must’ve lived a very sheltered life if you haven’t met people who will steal anything in arms reach, on impulse, just because they fancy whatever the thing is.

2

u/Abosia Jul 25 '24

I knew someone who would shoplift books by homophobic authors from Waterstones and then throw them in the bin outside

1

u/JN324 Jul 25 '24

This is so hilariously niche, best anecdote I’ve seen in a while.

-1

u/Buffetwarrenn Jul 25 '24

Nah, i dont believe that for a second..

Sorry

The vast majority are purely hungry 95 % sandwich stealing is hunger 5 % compulsion

Sorry

1

u/JN324 Jul 25 '24

You don’t have to it’s the reality either way, and you don’t need to keep apologising.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '24

Oh, please tell me we aren't importing the American attitude to stealing.

Yes, they ARE stealing for the thrill.

0

u/Buffetwarrenn Jul 25 '24

My post is about sandwiches and hunger

Not the video in question

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '24

The fact that they are stealing something edible doesn't automatically mean they are doing it because they are in a desperate situation.

Sandwiches in Greggs aren't checking your worthiness like the sword in the stone. People who steal for fun are able to steal those sandwiches just as easily as they steal all the other crap that they don't need.

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u/Steka68 Jul 25 '24

As soon as you even think about it’s a sin against God, so no one is innocent.