Ye Olde Grey Towne

Yes, Google The Olde Grey Towne of Kendal in Cumbria and you will no doubt be impressed by such phrases as " gateway to the lakes " and " historic market town " and once it was solely these things and more, but today that has become a disingenuous  description because just beneath the surface lurks a growing drugs problem, and this spring a truly horrific event happened. One that never made the papers or tv news strangely.

On You Tube there appeared a video of a young man who had been kidnapped and tortured in a manner I cannot print here. He lost an eye and suffered a sexual mutilation. Five people were responsible for this and they appeared in the video, many laughing at what they were doing. Eventually the youngest let the guy go out of pity after several days, where he stumbled out into a shop car park in the town. This was in a central location outside a Sports Direct store and amongst some other residential flats, but nobody knew what was happening right under their noses and thats what disturbs me so much about this.

I never saw the video but loads of children watched it before it was removed, and it was shared many times.  What effect  that has had on their mental health I wouldnt like to say. How modern that even this disgusting attack was deemed worthy of a You Tube post. It was seen as merely entertainment.A friend however reminded me that this attack was not unique to the town and that in the 80's a similar event took place were a man was kidnapped and tortured in a wood before being thrown from a cliff to his death. 

The trouble is the town  is a town of two halves. One half is retired  (or soon to be ) middle class outdoorsy types,  driving V W Transporters and hiking and the other half are drug fuelled nut case users and dealers, and never the twain shall meet as they say. The council has shipped in ( and been paid to house criminals ) and people from distant urban areas and stuck them all on a few newly built of course sink housing estates which are now just breeding grounds. I remember what the town was like before this happened. Before the drugs. Before the apathy. Before the Police entering the Mc Donalds toilets never even caused anyone to bat an eye lid. Kids on drugs has become the mainstream, even here.