'I was a victim of crime today - and it feels terrible'

It wasn't a terrible crime. It was abuse in the street, early in the morning, threatening enough against me and my partner for me to dial 999 (although I lost signal on the call). I won't go into details as it has been reported to the police, but I am still shaking.

A small part of my sensitivity was down to the fact I had just published a news story about a horrific unprovoked knife attack, and I could not help but believe I was about to find myself in the same situation.

In this job you're exposed to a lot of the worst of humanity and you can become hyper aware of such incidents.

Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap

The other thing that resonated this morning was a post on X by the poet-lyricist from the band Arab Strap, Aidan Moffat, who wrote late last night that he had had his phone snatched in central London.

"I've been robbed and mugged before, but not for a long time; losing a phone these days means so much more than it used to. All those memories I hadn't backed up yet ... the photos I'd only just taken to send to my daughter ... and how do I wake up in the morning?" he wrote.

"Luckily I had my bank card with me (I only really carry it when I'm traveling) so I got back to the hotel, then went for a walk with a bottle of strong cider in my hand, absolutely f***ing raging and distraught. Then I caught site of the moon over Hyde Park and I started crying."

Arab Strap have just released a great new song, Strawberry Moon, from the forthcoming album titled I’m Totally Fine With It Don’t Give a F**k Anymore. The track is "about finding hope in the natural world, and especially the moon", and I've posted the video at the top of this article.

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But despite what the fearmongers and hatemongers tell us, London is still, on the whole, a safe city, with less crime than other parts of the country.

This isn't to say more can't be done. Policing must be improved, especially around knife crime, but so must so many other public services.

We should never have allowed our youth services to have fallen into such disrepair, mental health care needs mass investment, legislation is needed to make tech companies take responsibility for the content they enable, and we need understanding and consideration, rather than a politics driven through division.