UNITED KINGDOM - BENO TRAVEL GUIDE

Introduction

The United Kingdom has a wide range of things to see from leasure activities, shopping centers, public transport, urban exploration, and various landmarks and attractions.

Interesting transportation

The United Kingdom has a large selection of Public transport. There is a lot to see. If you have not been on the deep level lines of the London Underground then this should be your top priority. There are a lot of interesting sections to the underground and there is a lot to explore. The underground trains are very intersting and all of the railways in London are interesting. Outside of London there are characterfull bits to the railways, the most noteworthy are... Underground trains on Isle of Wight, Tiny underground trains in Glasgow, the Newcastle metro, and various transport around Birmingham.

Urban Exploration

Trespass is not a criminal matter in the United Kingdom. There are loads of urbex opputunites. Although be aware that police and security do try to screw over urbexers (more infomation further down).

The UK has a lot of urbex locations from abandoned buildings to restricted areas of in use buildings to building site to roofs of tall buildings.

Members of the public in the north of England have a vidulanti culture and often feel the need to tell you if they don't like somthing and can somtimes get slightly aggressive. Vidulantiness is medium to low in the south of England and is low to very low in London but can not be ruled out, as there will still be ocasional members of the public who get involved thinking that trespass is illigal. Security gaurds are almost always aggressive with urban explorers all over the UK.

Travel advice

Travelling to new places is an amazing experience and is one of the most rewarding things you can do. But when travelling there are often things you need to be aware of. I have written this travel advice because I have not been happy with the travel advice from other websites and guides which are often formulaic and unhelpful. All travel advice on my website is from my own experince when travelling.

With each country in my travel guide I have rated 9 key areas and compared them to the United Kingdom. This way you can get an accurate impression of the situation.

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Money

The currency is Great British Pound. Cards can be used everywhere apart from horrid little independant supermarkets which are best avoided in the first place. In the modern day you do not need to withdraw cash.

Travel price

Public transport in the UK is expensive. In the TFL area in London public transport is more reasonably priced. Outside of London the cost of travel is very high. Outside of London and a couple of other major cities, there is a lack of day tickets and you have to pay for each jerney which pushes up the cost even more.

Cooked food price

McDonalds and other fast foods are cheaper than all of the western european countries (exept portugal). There are often good deals and vouchers can make them even cheaper.

Cold food price

The UK has lots of supermarkets in cut throat competition with each other. This has made supermarkets offer a lot of deals and certain items are sold at a loss. Most supermarkets have meal deals which are very good value. Tesco, Sainburys, Morrisons and Asda are the main supermarkets. Asda are known as the cheapest, but nowadays are only very slightly cheaper. There are discount supermarkets Lidl and Aldi which are cheap, but barely any cheaper than the normal super markets (compared with Switzerland and Germany where the price difference is very noticable). Small Tesco and small sainsburys store are slightly not as good value as the big ones. There are also the over priced supermarkets Waitrose and M&S which are very expensive. The supermarket Iceland has had complaints about low quality and items not being refigerated properly and best avoided. But most of all you should avoid the independant supermarkets (shit shops). No matter whether they are branded (Londis or Budgens) or are completly independant, you shouldn't shop in them. Their prices are very high. Often items are not refigerated in their stock rooms and are only put in the fridge when on display. The people who run them are often rude and often get angry if you want to pay by card.

Hotel price

Hotel prices are pretty high. The cheap hotel deals you get in Spain do not exist here. Expect to pay quite a lot for hotels. A regular hotel will often cost £60 per night.

Healthcare

Healthcare is free. It is our fundamental right that we get free treatment in hospitals and are not required to have health insurance.

Crime

Crime is not too much of a problem in the UK other than aggressive chavs picking fights with stranger, and security gaurds illigally detaining people.

I have visited London since I was born and have never been pickpocketed. There are pick pockets about but they only target forigners who look lost and people with very easy to take items. Do not keep your belongings is easy to reach pockets.

The media likes to talk about phone snatching and muggings at knife point. While these do sometimes happen, it is not as often as the media likes to claim.

Confrontations with people

Aggressive confrontations happen too often in the UK. Aggressive people known as chavs often say things to people in an attempt to pick a fight. This can happen over the smallest of things. They get aggressive very easily and occasionally for no reason at all. If a chav attempts to pick a fight with you, you should not rise to it even if they have offended you, as there is nothing to be gained from their violence. If you find yourself in an argument with someone, a lot of people are not bright enough to win an argument with words and when they find themselves loosing the argument they will often result to voilence.

Government corruption and human right infringements

While traditional corruption (bribes) doesn't happen, there is loads of bad practise and policys made for the rich with close connections, rather than policys made for the general public.

Populisum is on the rise and a lot of polititions are very good at getting public suport for policys that will negativly affect the public.

The right wing of politics are not interested in human rights and want to reduce them. The government is not unknown for passing unpopular laws when the media is distracted with some other big news story.

Local government council officals often go to the same exclusive social clubs as the towns wealthy people and are a bit too friendly with them. It is not uncommon for the upper class to have too much infuence over councils and for councils to take less interest in everyone else.

One of the worst things about the UK is the school system. School children are shouted at, harassed and treated in an unacceptable way on a daily basis. Schools enforce unessasrily scrict rules though constant shouting and repression. But despite this the majority of people in the UK do not see how bad it is due to how widespread it is that it is considered normal. This is a massive contrast to the rest of europe where children are treated far better in schools. Also in the south east of England you will often see parents shouting at their children in a highly unplesent way which is somthing you just don't see very much in the rest of europe.

In the United Kingdom laws are not enforced equally. The rich, who can afford lawyers, have a lot of power. Ordinary people who have not researched laws and the legal system are disadvantaged and somtimes screwed over. People who do choose research the law will find themselves at an advantage in many areas.

Recently, welthy land owners can apply for a trespass injunction against persons unknown. This has shifted the balence in favore of the rich. It is a comtempt of court for anyone who has seen an injunction notice to trespass. Canary warth obtained one against urban explorers, but they now use it to force anyone they take a disliuing to of their land, as well as rescrictiong the publics acsess to London Underground and DLR stations, which was not the reason the injunction was granted, meaning that Canary Warf had obtained their injunction in bad faith to the courts.

Security guard aggression

Security guards can be very aggressive. They regularly think they have more powers than they actually have. They actually have no more power than a member of the public.

Security guards like to show dominence. They like to have control over other people. They have often either failed to get into the police, or think getting into the police is too much effort for them, and being a security gaurd is the easyest way to show control over other people.

Security guards regugarly bully people and claim they have powers they do not have. The only powers they have is to ask you to leave their building and use reasonable force to get you out, and if you have made a criminal offence they have the right to detain you using reasonable force until the police arrive. Trespass is not a criminal offence.

Here is a list of powers security gaurds somtimes claim to have, but actually havn't...

NO PHOTOGRAPHY: A security gaurd has the right to demand you leave the building if you do not do what they say, but they can not physicly stop you filming. If you have a security encounter you should always record it and keep recording as you leave for your own safety.

DELETE YOUR PHOTOS: A security gaurd has no right demand that you delete your photos. If a security gaurd trys to stop you leaving because you havn't deleted your photos then this is false improsoment and assult, and you remind the security gaurd of this. A security gaurd can not touch your phone or take your phone from you.

TRESPASS IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE: This is simply not true. If a security gaurd trys to stop you leaving because you trespassed then this is false improsoment and assult, and you remind the security gaurd of this. Security will often make up a bogus claim of "might have stolen or damaged somthing" when the police arrive to get themselves out of trouble.

I NEED TO MAKE SURE OF A FEW THINGS: Security gaurds have no right to detain you for questioning. For a citizens arrest you must have made a criminal offence and security must phone the police immidatly. If they don't then it is false improsoment and assult.

GET IN THE SECURITY ROOM: Security have no right to force you into their office when making a citizens arrest. They can only use reasonable force to stop you running off when waiting for the police. I highly recomend saying in view of the public for your own safety.

Police aggression

The police in the UK may try to screw you over if you do not have legal knowledge. The police often claim they have powers they don't have and mis quote laws.

While there are many police officers that do a honest days work and want to do a good job, they are overshadowed by the ones who want to screw over anyone they can. Amounst the urbex community, the police's reputation is completly ruined.

The police will often make a show of force. This can happen on many subject matters, but the rest of this section will be about urban exploration.

When you are caught urbexing by the police, or caught and illigally detained by security and the police have come, there will be a 55% chance (just over half) that there will be a bad police officer who will usually dominate the situation and try to arrest (and possibly charge you) when you have done nothing wrong.

When urbexing it is very important to know the law and legal system as this is the only way to defend yourself. It is also very important that you do not make any offences when urbexing, so do not damage anything, do not steal anything, do not trespass on land with bylaws (railway, airports).

When you have been caught urbexing the police will do a section 1 of PACE search. They can not delete your photos or do anything outside the terms of section 1 search of PACE. You should never agree to a search outside of an offical PACE search. The police officer must give their name or number, their police station, the section of PACE, and the object of the search. If they fail to give any of these parts then the search is unlawfull. Also do not give your details to the police unless they are reporting you for an offence or are doing quoting PACE.

Once the section 1 search is over, if all the police officers are honest people they will then let you go and there will be no more to it. But if one of more of the police officers is one of the many bad ones, they will try to arrest you and claim you have broken the law. This is where you need good knowledge of the law. You should explain the law to the officer is a calm and polite but firm mannor, and always use the proper legal terms and talk to them in a scrict legal basis, do not engage with small talk with them. It is very important that you film the entire police enounter. You may need your video to defend yourself if things go badly wrong.

The usual offences that they try to claim are...

Burgary: The section 1 search has cleared you and shows you didn't intend to steal. You may need to make it clear that you had no intention of stealing anything.

Conspiricy: You need to make clear that your intention was to only explore and not steal. The section 1 search also backs this up.

Vagrency: If the police officer says "found in enclosed premises" they are not acting with good intentions. The vagrency act is an old outdated law that can't be charged with in the modern day. A police officer only goes down this route if they want to arrest you to teach you a lesson because they personally do not like you. You should point out to them that they won't be able to charge the offence.

Public nusence: The anti social laws are delibratly written in a vauge way to catch people out. Two or more people (not including security and police) must be alarmed, harrassed or distressed by your urbex. You should explain that your actions are not distressing people. (although if a group of people see you climbing or roofing a building, be aware that this is a route the police could go down, and it might be worth aborting the urbex and returning later)

Criminal damage: Explain that you were very carefull to not commit criminal damage.

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