London Safety Issues
 

Try...
<http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p...tml#safety> Then click: safety and security.
This same information service is also available for other countries.

These govt. travel advisories can be quite useful, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office also provide similar information for travellers.

It is probably worth noteing that there is a certain amount of worse case scenario/back covering going on in these things though. To get some perspective it is always useful (and fun) to see what the advice is for places you know well.

For example, here is the FCO's take on the USA.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3t5x6l

I like the bit on the US gov site about the Netherlands:

"Several American visitors have reported experiencing excessive drowsiness, confusion, dizziness, and nausea after drinking alcohol in public areas such as hotel bars and night clubs in several cities throughout the Netherlands. These effects may be the result of unknowingly ingesting drugs, such as flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), hydroxybutyrate (GHB), triazolam (Halcion), scopolamine, burundaga, ketamine and more recently MDMA (Ecstacy), surreptitiously placed in drinks."

Maybe it's just that the beer is stronger here????

Or they've eaten the "bar snacks"?

I don't believe it - the State Department is in the 21st Century

To quote from the advice on "London"

<<<The need to carry a passport to cash traveler’s checks is also minimized by an abundance of ATMs able to access systems widely used in the U.S. and offering more favorable rates of exchange>>>

I am a bit confused I read the warnings about my country and it seems odd ,, they are not all correct.
It says possesion of drugs here is a serious offense with heavy penalties and jail time,, unfortunately that is not completly true. Possesion of most drugs in small amounts will likely get a person probation,, or a very short sentence at most, as long as the amount is for obvious personal use and not for selling. Everyone knows the STates is much more severe on drug users then Canada.

Also it says medical assess is "rationed" now that is a outright lie. You can go to your doctor as many times as you want, I go about 2x a year, my kids 4 or 5 times at least, no one is ever forbidden assess due to rationing. Now wait times are of course a different issue!!

It also said lane changing without signalling is common, as is tailgating,, well I don't know where they came up with that, we have driven in the STates and its pretty similar, most people are decent drivers and few suck, just like anywhere.

Anyways , it just impressed me as a not very accurate site, since I know they exxagerated on my country, and make up some stuff, now I can believe they did the same about other countries,,,
who writes them?? some overpaid government employee who scanned newpaper articles to come up with his " facts" lol

Well, I thought the one on Britain was surprisingly accurate.

I bet I'm not the only Briton who followed GSteed's reference expecting a laugh. Instead, you actually got the impression that whoever'd written it had:

a) lived here, and
b) had to deal with American tourists who hadn't.

Trying to compress everything about a country into 3,500 words isn't easy. I thought the Cousins did a pretty good job.

Even if, for some bizarre reason, they describe Britain as "a highly developed constitutional monarchy " but Canada (constitutionally identical) as "a highly developed, stable democracy".

Once again the USA drives the cold steel of lunacy through the still quivering corpse of satire:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1144.html

<<< Once again the USA drives the cold steel of lunacy through the still quivering corpse of satire: >>>

The voice of sanity compared to

http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-c.../Advice/Turkey

which starts

We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Turkey because of the high threat of terrorist attack. Domestic terrorist groups (some with links to international terrorists) have recently staged attacks.

From the same site:
We advise you to exercise caution and monitor developments that might affect your safety in The Netherlands because of the risk of terrorist attack.

Should I sew a maple leaf on my money belt?