*The Debatewise Blog
Nosy? Yes. Neighbour? Well, who can afford detached housing these days…
A new spate of 'why didnt anyone do anything?' complaints reared their heads after the Baby P calamity unravelled and the case of the Sheffield father who raped his two dughters for 25 years emerged. The world is still recovering from the horrific abuse doled out by Joseph Fritzel but this is all the more frightening. None of these people had underground cells where they locked their victims. It all went on under people's noses. So perhaps we should have used them..I live in London in a rented room in a house of three. I speak to my housemates because i'm quite sociable, but I know similar situations in which people who live together dont even speak, let alone to the neighbours. After getting back from holiday a while back I found myself completely locked out. My housemates were at work and had thier phones off and it was 8.15 am on a freezing cold November morning. After attempting to break into the house with some nearby builders (we couldn't, but it is again worrying that no-one tried to stop me!) I rang the doorbell of the people that live above us. I've never met them, or even seen them go in or out of the house, but thankfully they were in and offered me coffee, consolation and storage for my cases while I whiled away the time until my housemates got back. We both said how stupid it was that we never met up, and we should definitely do something together soon and get to know each other. We do share bricks and mortar for goodness sake. Then I never saw her again. A shame, you might think, but people do lead busy lives. It's not like anything will have happened to her. We would have noticed, I mean we hear their tumble dryer. Still, i'll be inviting her to our Christmas Party and I do hope she comes along. It might be a small step towards a community of sorts. Or at least mean i'm not so embarrassed when I next lose my key...