London’s Streets Are a Bleak Place for Britain's Ailing Government

“Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London — I’ll show you something to make you change your mind.” Ralph McTell’s 1974 folk tune has become such an overwrought busker cliche that it’s easy to forget it’s a lament about loneliness, poverty and inequality.

Its depiction of a fortunate soul being shown the hardship around them holds true today. The UK capital is unlike many other metropolises, not because of the extremes of wealth common to them all, but because of the cheek-by-jowl proximity of haves and never-hads. In its streets and parks, billionaires rub shoulders with benefit claimants, aristocrats with asylum seekers.