Is London a crime-ridden cesspit?
The Politics Show
The New Statesman
4.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 17 January 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Claims from politicians both at home and abroad paint an increasingly decrepit picture of the nation's capital. But just how much crime and chaos is there really in London?
Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Will Dunn to discuss her reporting on the issue, as well as a rundown of the big and brazen ongoings in political Britain this week.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The New Statesman. |
| 0:03.4 | Hello, I'm Anusha Kellyan and you're listening to Daily Politics from The New |
| 0:11.1 | Statesman. It's been a busy week full of U-turns, defections, rumoured coups, and I'm joined |
| 0:16.1 | now by the New Statesman's business editor and sketchwriter Will Dun to bring you a weekend |
| 0:20.2 | rundown of the highs and lows of the last seven days in Political Britain. It's going to be a sideways glance. Some might say, would you agree with that, Will? How are you looking at things today? A sideways glance at the week's news. Yeah. A side eye, if you will, at the week's news. I look at everything sideways. |
| 0:38.2 | You do. |
| 0:39.4 | Like a... Like a... |
| 0:40.1 | Like a crab. |
| 0:42.3 | Yes. |
| 0:43.3 | Like a crab. |
| 0:44.9 | Sorry. |
| 0:47.5 | Business crab. |
| 0:48.8 | Podcast crab. |
| 0:50.7 | I also scuttle. |
| 0:53.0 | Let's start with our first category, U-turn of the week, |
| 0:56.5 | which really could be a weekly category, |
| 0:59.9 | seeing as there's a U-turn every week. |
| 1:01.4 | So Labor, they've wrecked up, I think it's 12 now? |
| 1:05.0 | Yes, I think 13 is the official figure being used by their detractors. |
| 1:09.7 | I think it depends what you count as a U-turn. It does. I think there's like things that they sort of like, I guess, the waspy women and things like that, they supported before they were in government and then they got into government and said, actually, no, we don't really support that. Yeah, or the income tax one is quite interesting because that was only ever sort of briefed plan |
| 1:29.2 | rather than something that was an official policy that they were in aid on. |
| 1:32.5 | They flew a kite and then just cut the string, |
... |
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