To be honest if the UK government went 'crazy' (cough actually saw reason cough) and let there be free access to guns, I can actually see parts of the UK going tribal with local militas and being no go areas for the police who know they'd be gunned down if the tried anything there and 'no one would see anything'

The UK police HAVE guns but they're specialised units and heavy restrictions right? Even if your average person is suddenly allowed weapons, I doubt that'd change because of the lack of responsibility that is like a festering tumour of the police there. They're so distrusted that if the population had the weapons they probably would use them first and see police abandoning their posts than deal with being on a level playing field to the public.

Though to be honest I could see the UK police replaced by a PMC or robots and it'd be an improvement over the current paradigm. The only way it could be worse is if UK police were swapped with UN peacekeepers!