Rethinking the Grey Man

[Little Lou]

(12 August 2020, 20:13)MaryN Wrote: It's difficult to shrug and sympathise that it is hard times for everyone, but I do get the feeling that a lot of the incomers would be the first ones to break ranks if things get really tough.

Yes, I'm afraid I agree. Technically I'm an 'incomer' myself up north, but because I came from there initially and still have family in the area I've been lucky enough to escape the label - and can see for myself the difference it makes to people's attitudes. One little example: my farming friends sell eggs from a little Honesty Box outside the main gate, and just before lockdown when the shortages were starting to grip I witnessed an actual physical tussle between two women for the last eggs in the box. My friend knew them both, and just said sadly 'Incomers. They don't get how it works round here.'

(12 August 2020, 20:13)MaryN Wrote: People are already feeling the pinch - I think this is true of most places to some degree, but in rural areas where work is harder to find then people turn to their wits to bring in the money. We currently have a spate of dog-napping going on, and it is purely for money because pups are desirable assets. Not nice. Tempers are getting shorter.

Again, I think you're spot on. True, burglaries are increasing massively in my village down south, but that's the work of professional criminals who couldn't break in anywhere during lockdown. Now for the first time I'm seeing low level crime up north as well - theft of vegetables from allotments, break-ins to garden sheds - the kind of thing done by desperate amateurs who are really feeling the pinch.
If it's like this now, how will it be when things get really serious?