The mean streets of Britain

The shootings in a Brixton McDonald’s were a terrible metaphor for the way we live now, writes Allister Heath. A whole section of society, raised on violence and fast food, is drifting away from the rest of the nation: nutrition is destiny

Instead of the heavy police presence I had expected to find at Brixton’s underground station, I was greeted by a canned rendition of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. To cool tempers in the notoriously volatile south London hotspot, classical music is being pumped through the ticket hall’s sound system; unfortunately, like the flower power ‘make love, not war’ ideology of the 1960s, this latest gimmick is straight out of the politically correct rulebook.

Graffiti already disfigures the huge glass sign outside the newly refurbished station and dubious characters continue to congregate, oblivious to the banks of CCTV cameras. I turned left after leaving the station; it was the middle of the day but the air was already thick with menace.