ALL the world can be seen at Victoria station, but it’s not like the feelgood arrivals gate footage you see at the end of Love Actually.

On the same concourse you will see executives trying to get to Gatwick so they can fly out somewhere posh to seal the deal, right next to the scarred drug-addicted asking for money.

People buying lattes for nearly a fiver, and others asking for a quid with a sleeping bag over their shoulder.

None of those begging offer much danger as they move from person to person, but this historic station has an edgier feel than ever before.

And at the Pret a poster has gone up, perhaps underlining this, explaining as it does that staff are being equipped with body-worn cameras.

These are the kind of devices that police and other emergency services pin to themselves due to their front-line action in often tense or dangerous situations. Now they are needed at a cappuccino counter.

Pret can be commended for trying to protect staff, if we presume that’s what they are for, and not a way of checking that Maria on the filter coffee did enough to stop a homeless person grabbing a gruyere baguette.

There is not much any member of staff can do – or maybe even wants to do – if somebody who is desperately hungry walks in and out with a sandwich.

If we had better support services for rough sleepers perhaps it wouldn’t come to that.

Either way, Pret staff kitted up in camera gear – give them batons and handcuffs next – is a depressing sign of the times.