Seriously, though--I spent a wonderful semester there back in 1990 and felt extremely safe. However, every year I've gone back to visit, the place has just become more and more of a pit.
Just a stroll through the West End (where I lived as a student) is real walk on the wild side--what with the discarded hypos and condoms in the gutter (of which I've seen both) and the panhandling losers on every street corner...
Oh... but they have nationalized health care... and no guns...
When Margaret Thatcher started making her reforms, people worried about how it would create a permanent, disaffected under-class. Instead, she created a happy, healthy society which (as you saw in 1990) was safe and wonderful. But Thatcher left and her reforms have been whittled away. Now the place is not safe and not wonderful.
Gee, maybe reformers like Reagan and Thatcher have the right idea -- they get portrayed as cold and mean, but in reality they are the only ones who know how to build warm and wonderful societies.
Also, when Joan Collins says she feels safer in New York City, I think she's paying some (subconscious) tribute to Rudy Giuliani (a Republican, of course) who turned NYC around with his tough attitude toward petty crime.
Silly Leftists. All the evidence is out there: conservatives build good societies. Leftists destroy societies. But Leftists are "good" because they do it for the children.