Smug, callous, complacent - that's London in 2015

Two items in local papers this week underscored the casual callousness of so much of well-heeled London in this age of extreme greed.

In Wednesday's Evening Standard, an setae agent who's a regular columnist in their Homes &  Property section mentioned a client who was trying to selling his property quickly, but had a sitting tenant on a short-term contract. Things came to a head when the tenant was sectioned over the weekend: it was, as the columnist graciously  mentioned, a rather "sensitive" issue for all concerned. And of course, the situation was "far from ideal for the vendor".

Nevertheless our highly professional estate agent went ahead and "terminated the lease" - even though this involved a phone call for advice from her director, George, and meant her getting home "later than usual".

Oh dear. And presumably this all  means that the tenant is now going to be homeless if, or when, she recovers from her problem. Oh yeah, there's that thing, er - what's it called? Oh yeah, "care in the community". So long as your community doesn't consist of landlords and estate agents.

The grateful client sent the estate agent a case of champagne with "a sweet thank you note". That's at least £200, isn't it? I am very ill-informed on the price of champagne. Maybe would have been better to give the cash to a homeless charity? Yes, why not go that extra mile?

Then a copy of a scrappy local freesheet came through the front door: the Wandsworth Guardian. Not sure why, as this is Lambeth, but still. Anyway, on page 6 there's the cheery headline: "Game over for illegal immigrant".

The story beneath is written in a similarly chirpy style: an illegal immigrant had the misfortune of jumping out of the truck he had stowed away on in France, outside the lawn tennis club in Wimbledon.

A witness reported how he was "running around giving everyone the slip" in the well-heeled streets of SW19. As the paper added, this was yards from the club where shortly a bunch a multi-millionaire tennis players will be hitting soft balls at each other.

So, not much chance of anyone there giving this young man somewhere to hide out I guess.

He's 26 and believed to be Syrian. Anyone got any sympathy for this young man, who is now in police custody: not our witness. All he had to say was, "It is shocking to think he got all the way here".

WHat is the matter with us all, living our fat comfortable lives, in fear of the prosecco running out at Waitrose? Don't you ever think how desperate these people must be to risk all to come to this disgusting city?

Don't you ever think a bit how it might be fault of a complacent and deeply compromised country like ours that people like this guy have had to leave their homes?