Is the Middlesbrough area the hardest place in Britain?

JM14 said:
Because throwing people in prison with huge sentences has clearly worked so well historically.....
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Jm 14 ....it works whilst they are in prison...

Build more prisons....throw more In there....if you break societys laws you go to prison....if you meet the threshold ....and rhe problem is rhe threshold is too low
Only people in the following category should go to jail
Where the victim is Elderly vulnerable and suffers significant harm of any type.
Any violent crime with a weapon of any type
House burglary
Sex offences involving children and all rapes
Large scale fraud
Large scale drug possession /supply

Everything else ...divert away from jail at all costs and I mean everything else.
We put too many low level people away hence the overcrowding
Get them all on community service cleaning the beaches etc ... genuine community based stuff....
If rhey refuse to help out off to prison for a long time.
That's my solution
Put the right people in prison for a long time
 
I've lived in the south and the north west. Teesside has a particular reputation, even in those areas. Someone once said to me in a meeting in London when they knew I was from Middlesbrough 'I won't mess about with you mate' I laughed and told him not to stigmatise me! Sadly, the gazettes obsession with LD doesn't help nationally, as well as BC proclaiming to be the hardest man in Britain when he worked with LD. And the hard man books sell so well which only serves to perpetuate the hard reputation!

For me the hardest man is the one who doesn't go around bullying people but will quietly protect his family if they are in harms way. He doesn't have to write books to make his point. We are an industrialised region, with deprived areas and years of marked social exclusion. This all equates to a particular toughness other places do not possess in the same way, I feel. Years of neglect and lack of opportunities from a southern biased government have moulded the local mindset into one of suspicion to outsiders, and a siege mentality.

Once people look beyond the label they will see the friendliest people in the country by a mile.
 
Teesside is one of the most violent places in the country per capita. I appreciate that it's difficult to hear for those of us who are proud of the place but it's just a fact.

I don't feel particularly unsafe anywhere when I'm in boro but that's because I spent time growing up in some of the rougher areas as that's where some family lived.

There's many reasons for this situation, linked mainly to the deprivation and the way that our town was left behind decades ago and the some of the horrific policing that's been relied upon over the years too.

We can all argue about how the place looks versus other towns and cities and how safe you feel but the people of the town do deserve better.
 
Mountain Climber said:
I've lived in the south and the north west. Teesside has a particular reputation, even in those areas. Someone once said to me in a meeting in London when they knew I was from Middlesbrough 'I won't mess about with you mate' I laughed and told him not to stigmatise me! Sadly, the gazettes obsession with LD doesn't help nationally, as well as BC proclaiming to be the hardest man in Britain when he worked with LD. And the hard man books sell so well which only serves to perpetuate the hard reputation!

For me the hardest man is the one who doesn't go around bullying people but will quietly protect his family if they are in harms way. He doesn't have to write books to make his point. We are an industrialised region, with deprived areas and years of marked social exclusion. This all equates to a particular toughness other places do not possess in the same way, I feel. Years of neglect and lack of opportunities from a southern biased government have moulded the local mindset into one of suspicion to outsiders, and a siege mentality.

Once people look beyond the label they will see the friendliest people in the country by a mile.
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Have you not found that a lot of the reputaional stuff also stems from the football violence related to the town in the 70s and 80s?

So many people I meet comment about how scary it was to go to Ayesome Park and having witnessed that violence following their football team
 
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Mountain Climber said:
I've lived in the south and the north west. Teesside has a particular reputation, even in those areas. Someone once said to me in a meeting in London when they knew I was from Middlesbrough 'I won't mess about with you mate' I laughed and told him not to stigmatise me! Sadly, the gazettes obsession with LD doesn't help nationally, as well as BC proclaiming to be the hardest man in Britain when he worked with LD. And the hard man books sell so well which only serves to perpetuate the hard reputation!

For me the hardest man is the one who doesn't go around bullying people but will quietly protect his family if they are in harms way. He doesn't have to write books to make his point. We are an industrialised region, with deprived areas and years of marked social exclusion. This all equates to a particular toughness other places do not possess in the same way, I feel. Years of neglect and lack of opportunities from a southern biased government have moulded the local mindset into one of suspicion to outsiders, and a siege mentality.

Once people look beyond the label they will see the friendliest people in the country by a mile.
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What about ED? Always going on about how hard he is but we all know those day are well behind him.
 
Surely people can be friendly and hard?

I have always thought as the Boro as a tough place to live, especially for anyone who is a bit of an outsider. Even when there was plenty of work I get the impression it was a little wild west reflecting the jobs that people did in heavy industry. People with money and education tended to move away or were always outside investors taking the healthy profits, but rarely visiting the place. Living in places like Harrogate or country villas.

I remember walking through a new public housing estate getting built in Ormesby the relatively prosperous early 1970s as a 11 year old and the kids there would confront me "what are you looking at?" "do you want a photograph" they had only been living there a matter of weeks in brand new houses.
 
Brian Cockerill
From Hartlepool Mail 2020...The book does not focus on Duffy’s well-documented death when he was stabbed during a fight and also features accounts showing his good side and love for his family.
Emma, who together with Brian campaign against knife crime, added: “Most of the people in the book have been killed. We try to steer children and teenagers away from that life.”
Brian added: “We’re trying to say to kids ‘don’t try to emulate what me and Lee did. It was wrong’.”

Maybe just don't write a book about it?
 
Depends how you define hard.
If you mean looking for trouble. Starting fights. Knocking each other senseless. Gangs. Thugs. Drugs. I think every town has its fair share of "hard" men. But I think moss side is probably the hardest
But if you mean working long hours to make ends meet. Facing cancer with a smile on your face for the sake of the kids. Swallowing your pride and accepting help from a food bank if you need to. I don't think there are many tougher or harder than the people of teesside.
 
Redwurzel said:
While posters wait for transfers and info on the new season.

I thought I'd ask a random question - Is the Middlesbrough area the hardest in Britain?

Based on the daily headlines from the Gazette website of large gangs of postcode fights, mayhem, violent court cases, drugs and sexual abuse.

While other working class areas of the UK gentrify - many areas of Teesside if anything appear to harden.

I won't go into reasons, just posters observations to begin with, especially posters who have lived for the last 50 years on Teesside.

Or is it the media focusing on the bad and its not as violent as the past, but nowadays every little incident is reported and made headlines?
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Only when they are in gangs. Get any one of them by themselves and their **** will fall out.
 
Emmersons_BrazillianDong said:
Have you not found that a lot of the reputaional stuff also stems from the football violence related to the town in the 70s and 80s?

So many people I meet comment about how scary it was to go to Ayesome Park and having witnessed that violence following their football team
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Was that any different from going to Wolves, Man City, Pompey, Cardiff, Leicester, Birmingham City, West Ham? The list is very long and nowhere was friendly in those days.
 
To what?
Find a well paid and rewarding career?
Locate an excellent Mongolian deli?
Talk complete sh!te about your second home in Devon?
Probably.
 
Ian Bairds Ears said:
Jm 14 ....it works whilst they are in prison...

Build more prisons....throw more In there....if you break societys laws you go to prison....if you mee
Click to expand...
Ian Bairds Ears said:
Jm 14 ....it works whilst they are in prison...

Build more prisons....throw more In there....if you break societys laws you go to prison....if you meet the threshold ....and rhe problem is rhe threshold is too low
Only people in the following category should go to jail
Where the victim is Elderly vulnerable and suffers significant harm of any type.
Any violent crime with a weapon of any type
House burglary
Sex offences involving children and all rapes
Large scale fraud
Large scale drug possession /supply

Everything else ...divert away from jail at all costs and I mean everything else.
We put too many low level people away hence the overcrowding
Get them all on community service cleaning the beaches etc ... genuine community based stuff....
If rhey refuse to help out off to prison for a long time.
That's my solution
Put the right people in prison for a long time
Click to expand...
So what about someone who was just found to be carrying a knife? But they didn’t use it?

Also what about someone who caused someone serious injuries but didn’t use a weapon?

What about someone who stole dozens of vehicles (keyless theft) so never actually entered a house?

Arson? Arson with intent to endanger life?

Kidnap / false imprisonment (without violence / sexual assault)

Etc etc
 
The Ruthsayer said:
Was that any different from going to Wolves, Man City, Pompey, Cardiff, Leicester, Birmingham City, West Ham? The list is very long and nowhere was friendly in those days.
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I've no idea buddy. I was born in the 80s.

It's just something that I've noticed working and living in different parts of the country. After the initial question of "so are you a Geordie or a Mackem?" there's many a reference of the time they travelled to Ayesome or came across travelling boro fans over the years and that there's a reputation attached to that of some sort.

I can't tell you how many times people have talked about how intimidating it was to get from boro train station up to the match. I only caught a couple of games there myself as I was a kid but that Tony Mowbray testimonial was tasty for a 7/8 year old me to see 😂
 
Of all the places i've lived in Nottingham has some of the roughest estates. and what makes it worse is some of the old pit villages are being filled with "problem" people from the South and South-East. Nottinghamshire people are decent enough,but they won't put up with Cocky so and so's.
I asked my dad a couple of years ago where's the roughest place he's been and he said South Bank. also said though, the pubs used to be good there(he was in the Brewery trade for a bit).
I've never felt unsafe anywhere in the North East - once lived on a Newcastle Estate where we had the odd burnt out car on the Grass nearby.
 
It's rough but we don't have daily knife crime murders like areas of London. I think we still feel our kids will be safe going out unlike many areas of the country.
 
Blf said:
It's rough but we don't have daily knife crime murders like areas of London. I think we still feel our kids will be safe going out unlike many areas of the country.
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Spend a night in Hardwick and you will change your mind
 
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