BRITAIN is an awful place full of violence and corruption, and those responsible should be ashamed of themselves, the wife of former prime minister Tony Blair said yesterday.
Cherie Blair told a House of Commons committee that crime, education and the health service were all much worse than a decade ago and only couples with £3.5 million townhouses in central London were safe.
"This country used to be a nice place to live," she said. "Cricket on the village green, old ladies cycling to church, you name it.
"But everything seemed to go to hell not long after we moved house about 11 years ago.
"When we lived in Islington you could walk to a local Italian restaurant and scheme against your colleagues without fear of being assaulted.
"Then when we moved to that big house off Whitehall in ‘97, everything just turned to shit all of a sudden.
"I'd be watching the telly and I'd say to Tony, 'what the hell's wrong with this bloody country?' and he would nod and agree and then get me up the duff."
She added: "Now I wouldn't let my children walk from the front door of our Connaught Square townhouse to the waiting Jaguar unless they were escorted by heavily armed former SAS men every step of the way."