Viewing the UK’s street crisis from Tahrir Square
Early in the unfolding events in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, I remember talking with others about whether it could happen at home in the UK. Not the precise Egyptian revolutionary “it”, but something which might ignite a “movement” and bring people onto the streets in part fuelled by the speed of transmission of events via the social network and the web.
To this day, there is dispute in Egypt about the scale of the social network’s role in the upheavals. But at the time, some of us on the ground there wondered: “Could this come to England?”
We did not speculate that the UK “eruption” would be so causeless. The Tottenham origins clearly had a routing in the shooting of Mark Duggan – even if the initial protest outside the local police station may have had no immediate expectation of resulting in a riot. But the other riots?
We did not foresee that it would NOT be an action of the “masses”, as in Egypt, but of small groups of rioters in many of England’s cities, from Bristol to Liverpool, from Nottingham to Birmingham, and within London, from Clapham to Croydon, from Islington to Camden. Even including Hemel Hempstead.
The spread is the issue, the speed is the issue, the local is the issue. The word “copycat” has been coined. We are told there may have been 300 people involved in Tottenham, 150 in Bristol – a couple of hundred in Nottingham. If we add the numbers, we are talking way less than 10,000 rioters, probably less than 5,000 out of a population of 60m. We have long left the 100,000 who filled Tahrir Square and beyond.
And no one can say that a branch of Car Phone Warehouse, or Footlocker, can be called some kind of cause. Sure, the looters have had their heads filled with images of designer sports shoes, plasma screens and other material goods they will maybe never own any other way. The fast images of Tottenham trollies lugging away this looted lolly may well have inspired others.
So we are confonted, as Egypt was confronted, by images over which there is no control. The citizen suddenly has fast access to things the media previously mediated for them at a slower pace.
We cannot know precisely what role which element of the social network played. But angry, underfulfilled people in drab circumstance saw what was happening faster than ever before.
People will talk of economic deprivation, of the gulf between rich and poor, of the access to information and images.
Coalition politicians have talked of “localisation” but do they fully understand it? The “local” is in trouble. You don’t destroy the “local” you love and cherish; you defend it with all your might. We have begun to see that in some places in the UK already. But we have also seen where it breaks down.
Alas these riots do not call for a Lord Scarman to interpret the Brixton Riots of old, this calls for all of us – reporters, Tweeters, citizens, to look at the wider evidence in front of us. I have been to places in Hull (where so far as I know there has been little or no trouble), that I hoped never to see in Britain – Luton, Liverpool, other places too. Places of awful welfare-dependent despond.
Whilst I have been in America Obama has talked yet again of “hope” in battling the economic woes. But as he has discovered, it is very hard to deliver top-down hope.
Top-down, Westminster-centric politics has few immediate answers either. We are demanding answers of top down politicians to issues that we do not wish to have to address for ourselves on the ground.
Related posts:
- The view from Tahrir Square as masses pour in
- Uprising in Egypt: speaking to opposition figures in Tahrir Square
- Viewing Britain from a Preston perspective
- When revolution hits transmission problems
- Pedalling away from 'one way street' media
There are 63 comments on this post
One slight point… you say “designer sports shoes, plasma screens and other material goods they will maybe never own”… you can afford all this stuff, even on the lowest benefits on the UK. I know as I grew up on benefits…
There is no excuse whatsoever for these riots.It is sheer criminality, taking its chance with weak ineffective policing.Supposedly the Capital is alive with gangs who think nothing of carrying knives and guns.
If anyone is to blame it is the Liberal do gooders ,with their political correctness and diversity and equality.The police are just as bad,but that is probably down to government and the type of chiefs they put in place.
It is time that the gangs, the thugs were cracked down on.Those that are foreign need to be deported,not have their human rights protected when they ignore others rights.
Spot on, Adrian. Max Hastings summerised his excellent article in the ‘Mail’ with:
“Only education — together with politicians, judges, policemen and teachers with the courage to force feral humans to obey rules the rest of us have accepted all our lives — can provide a way forward and a way out for these people.
They are products of a culture which gives them so much unconditionally that they are let off learning how to become human beings. My dogs are better behaved and subscribe to a higher code of values than the young rioters of Tottenham, Hackney, Clapham and Birmingham.
Unless or until those who run Britain introduce incentives for decency and impose penalties for bestiality which are today entirely lacking, there will never be a shortage of young rioters and looters such as those of the past four nights, for whom their monstrous excesses were ‘a great fire, man’”
And before the luvvies dismiss me as a Mail reader, I also read the Guardian, Observer and the Mirror!
… and of course, there are those 2 well known rioters, Dave and Boris, who trashed local restaurants when they were members of the Bullingdon Club.
Its not only about poverty, its about having no hope of ever escaping that poverty.
any any parent of ‘boys’ will tell you that its best to keep them busy, occupied in something that means something to them, and challenged.
Jon,
So…..No “London Spring” then, hey? There’s a surprise. Not.
It’s time you media people grew out of that infotainment bubble most of you live in, far from the reality of the national culture you ALL helped to create. Typical is your disgusting, condescending references to cities and areas outside our unloved capital. Have you forgotten your long ago reference to non-London areas as “the potting sheds of London.” How sick, how insensitive, how UNCARING.
Well, here’s the inevitable result dumped right on your doorstep. Did you REALLY think you would be left alone in suburban smugness and cold ignorance as the rest of the country was manipulated into desperation? Did you REALLY think there would be no criminal reaction to metrostupidity?
All criminal activity must be treated as such and punished accordingly. I hope it is.
But what of the miserable Daily Mail suburban I’m-Alright-Jackery underpinned by jeering and the sort of mindless condescension you typify? No “Big Society” there. In fact, no society at all.
When this is quelled, don’t kid yourself it is cured. You might better ask yourself why it happened in the first place. Then get ready for the next time.
Hi Philip. As it`s known within the realms of this world, and our understanding of it, nothing is ABSOLUTE and everything is RELATIVE! So within the realms of this world, I agree with your comment as much as absolutely possible within relativity. In another word: Fantastic analysis!
“t’s time you media people grew out of that infotainment bubble most of you live in, far from the reality of the national culture you ALL helped to create.”
Oh yes Phillip, that is a beautiful sentence, and the thrust of your point is bang on the money.
Soft policing (after all, it’s not the police FORCE anymore is it ?), Law without teeth, a timid population, an irresponsible media, …
As the man says, “get ready for the next time.”
I come from the West Midlands and lived through the period of deindustrialisation that followed from Thatcherite economic policies from the 1980s onwards. I now live in much more prosperous Cambridgeshire and I can tell you that the majority of people here have absolutely no idea what life is like for people in the inner cities. I feel that we have failed our young people and it is obvious that neoliberalism has failed the majority. The evidence is everywhere, Egypt, Tunisia, Senegal, Israel, Chile, the US, and now the UK and even Germany (see today’s G2 supplement). We have to turn our backs on this ‘zombie’ economic paradigm before it completely destroys us.
Two main points hit my guts.Firstly that you do not destroy the things you love,or in your words ‘local’.
So is there a lack of love? and I don’t mean that in a saccharine way but rather a responsible, nurturing and respectful way.
Secondly we are demanding answers from top down politicians that we don’t want to answer ourselves.
There is a lack of individual responsibility for the things people do and say and again I don’t want this to be misconstrued, for although the protesting and damage done is criminal, there must be a reason which has not been reasoned.There is also an inherent unbendable arrogance in the ether which ignites an emotional response then sweeps through crowds ready to vent frustration at the continuation of their harmed selves.There are role models en masse who say this is not right and we are in a position to put these people down as we have been put down.
We need to be freer from the DESPOT weed but be nurtured to understand that growth comes out of respect for the fertility of the soil in general.
What’s so surprising about a riot or looters in countries in turmoil? You yourself have shown them on our screens, country after country, from Haiti to Japan, from France to Zimbabwe. In fact, we’ve seen those trolleys in practically every country in turmoil and with supermarkets.
Well, now we know the UK is exactly the same as any other country. The arrogance of thinking it could be otherwise. Does anybody really believe people in Blighty are different (superior)?
The peaceful 500,000 march against the cuts, who people like me chose as a means of protest, is not the only choice. Because I do think the young in these riots are still protesting. They may not know it. They are lashing out. The violence against the police we have taught them to fear, not to respect (impossible, as that needs earning) makes them only proud. Grabbing whatever they want fulfills unsatisfied desires. We´ve taught them to desire consumables.
Throwing bricks, burning cars, is therefore “daring”. They only look up to their mates. We all live in pockets and theirs is an empty one. And I mean empty of principles, education and hopes. If they are “feral”, we’ve made them so.
A happy person does not riot.
I totally agree with you Marverde. I interpret what is going as just another symptom of a deeply sick society
We have certainly made them so Marverde,by doing away with discipline both at home and in the schools.By pandering to human rights multi culturism diversity and ethnicity,instead of preaching one nation.
By making a mockery of sentencing for crime,by making prisons home from home, instead of somewhere to avoid .
There are too many do gooders wringing their hands and saying we should try and understand the poor hard done to thugs.
Not enough prisons .
At least part of the problem would appear to be that the people perpetrating this violence in their own communities don’t feel as though they belong.
Why that should be is probably very complex and certainly not just as simple as deprivation and certainly not just as simple as mindless thugs.
I can’t help feeling that this is part of a greater problem in society, where the key values have become what you can earn and what you own. When bankers can walk away from creating a world financial crisis with rewards of millions, why should those in deprived areas not think it’s ok for them to walk away with merchandise from shops? Neither group seems concerned about the pain they are causing others, only for their own gratification.
And our politicians, rightly or wrongly hell bent on an economic strategy that is certain to make the situation worse for many people, don’t appear to have the will, or perhaps daren’t, look at the deeper causes.
But with rioting seemingly so simple, can Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and Miliband afford to live in their ivory towers any longer?
A great analogy Sam – the bankers completely vandalised our finances and not only got away with it but got huge payouts to step down or have been allowed to continue largely unchanged taking what they want from society at the expense of the more hard working responsible majority. Of course those at the bottom of the heap will think its ok for them to smash a window and take a telly and should be able to get away with it. What’s more, many of them have nothing to lose if they do.
What’s sad is that those in the middle trying to earn an honest living will yet again suffer most while the banks turn it to their advantage in increased insurance premiums.
It sounds like the normal excuses coming from those that support human rights for criminals,no discipline in homes or schools.Do not punish the poor little souls for bad behaviour.Lets have a bit of ethnicity and diversity.Treat them with kid gloves because they are of a different colour or from a different country.
Who are you trying to kid Saltaire.
They are feral youngsters roaming the streets, carrying guns and knives forming gangs.Trying to take over from the legitimate law enforcement agencies.Those same agencies we stop,kettling rioters, who can not touch them for fear of punishment by our own authorities.It follows years of appeasement and liberal do gooders crying we treat criminals too harshly.
This has nothing to do with bankers .
It is time you realised that a much tougher regime is needed, from parental upbringing, schools and then punishments to fit any crime committed.
Sadly Jon, there are those in society who will use any means to obtain what they want. If there is a chance to loot they will loot, gangs will rape and rob if the opportunities are there.
I wonder if any of the parents who find their youth with stolen goods will return them. I would imagine not many.
Sure many of those who commit these atrocities are disillusioned and despondent. Many have aspirations to be pop stars etc which is unrealistic for the majority. Few aspire to work in their communities and achieve. After all that means making an effort and having self discipline.
Schools have achieved so much but there are still many who will not make an effort. The culture of drugs and gangs predominates. In that environment they find a bizarre belonging and sense of achievement. The Arab Spring is just viewed as justifying their criminal aspirations, and of course it is on the news. They have no sense of working for a better deal they merely seek to destroy what those in their community have achieved I think that is so worrying. It isa form of jealousy which poisons.
To randomly vandalise and loot is criminal and it must be stopped.
Perhaps medical science may help in time.
Watching TV. Media at its worst. They are gorging themselves in riot-news, a relief after their own hackinggate.
I’m amazed at how easy it has been for people to identify, unite and condemn those kids as criminals (they are) but not the others, far worse, the ones responsible for the scourge of unemployment. We have seen it before. We have seen what it does to people and communities.
How can anybody decent think that unemploying people is a solution to anything? How can anybody decent support the cuts to services we have taken so long to establish? The “outcome” of capitalism is not just inequality, but amorality.
Couldn’t agree more Maverde. Seeing Cameron on tv talking about ‘defeating’ the rioters – he sounds just like the mid east dictators rather than the PM of a relatively affluent western nation. I suspect he smells a ‘Falkland’ moment to try and win back popularity without having to take any responsibilities for his governments part in causing this.
Sure, there are criminals behind this – organised gangs according to tonights reports, whipping up the young and disaffected. But as you say, happy people do not riot. No criminal would have the power to whip them up if the conditions in which they live gave them hope and opportunity.
Just exactly who is responsible for the ‘scourge of unemployment’?
Who is that you think is ‘unemploying’ people?
I have to agree with what you say, but I can’t tell who you are pointing the finger at!
People who criticise governments for tightening up on spending seem to think that money grows on trees, that it can never run out.
Marverde you obviously support the impossible.Spend spend spend.If the likes of Labour had not gotten us into the financial mess we are in there would be no need for cuts.You can not spend your way out of debt.
The debts and cuts are no excuse for the mindless violence we have seen.I am not blaming any particular government for none has seen fit to enforce discipline ,but austerity is no excuse,just a political attempt to blame somebody else not those concerned
question is… will martial law be instigated before or after the global markets collapse?
civil contingencies act here we come! do yourselves a favour and stock up on food and cordless nail guns before it’s too late.
However when all the why’s and wherefores have been discussed fear of punishment does have results [see my comments on Krishnan's blog] re Singapore and the War Measures Act in Canada.
Jon, These looters are not citizens. There may be a few who are demonstrating for what they believe in but the majority are just plain bad!
This used to happen in my old town, Liverpool, many years ago. Gangs from Speke, Wavertree, the ‘Bull Ring’ and so on would rampage through each others territory creating mayhem for a few days.
Then it was back to normal. Thank God they did not have mobile communicators back then!
I have listened to commentators today trying to excuse the inexcusable. Poverty has never been an excuse for cretinous, loutish behaviour. Those of us who have been poor are insulted that some intellectuals think that this has something to do with poverty.
These were a very small minority of yobs and thieves; many of whom looked as though they were enjoying themselves.
We should deal with the lawbreakers and continue to try to ‘fix’ our broken society.
I like your writing, Jon. But I hope you´ll agree this is brilliant insight in beautiful prose:
http://pennyred.blogspot.com/2011/08/panic-on-streets-of-london.html
Just the opposite of the crass analyses and pundits the screen has been delighting us with for days. The BBC was particularly noxious.
Yes. Well written rubbish!
The overwhelming majority of people did not take to the streets. Did not steal from and vandalise their communities. Neither did they enjoy the experience as many of these criminals seemed to.
The liberal experiments of indiscipline in schools, indiscipline in the home, immigration, multiculturalism, sexual freedom in education, destruction of the traditional family, criminal rights, perverse human rights and benefits for nothing, have truly failed.
I am waiting for a ‘luvvie’ to acknowledge that they may have made a mistake. Don’t hold your breath!
Maverde, reasonable prose , but too cluttered Standard insight. If the picture is a true reflection of her age though with a bit of editing she will go far.
I am back with you Moonbeach.There is no excuse no matter how the Liberal left try to portray it.It is time we reasserted one society. British.It matters not a jot about colour or creed , but we should all be one.No Sharia law ,no multiculturism,No racial laws,no ethnicity and diversity.All of which serve to exacerbate differences.
No hiding behind foreign human rights laws.Make punishments fit the crime
Interesting. Finding myself watching events in Hastings on the Sussex coast where the local authorities are aware they have a 4th generation of unemployed “underfulfilled people” concentrated in a few, particularly deprived suburbs. A large drug problem too. Today (Tuesday) banks, the council office and a supermarket shut early citing “security issues” as a group of hoodies went into a sports shop to buy baseball bats. Some 33 police officers came and stood in the High Street. You say 300 in Tottenham caused the damage – probably just 30 in Hastings and not very bright ones at that. In Cairo they were among the country’s youngest, finest and bravest doing something completely different.
Regardless of how one feels about the looters and the looting, the actions of the police appear not to be discussed. It puzzles me why, when there is a peaceful protest, they hide behind riot shields and treat the marchers as rioting criminals, yet when there are genuinely dangerous rioting groups, in most places, they are not to be seen. Either they have absolutely no idea how to respond to rioting crowds, or they are simply afraid to go near them. Either way, it shows them in a very bad light.
The cause is what I have termed “systemic unfairness”. See my blog.
Has anyone read Doris Lessing’s “The Memoirs of a Survivor”? Fascinating, haunting and relevant. And of course beautifully written.
Haven’t read Lessing since The Good Terrorist. Time to revisit. Tx for the rec.
Bet it’s not just Syria and Iran who are loving this. Gadaffi will be splitting his sides with laughter. He’ll probably recognise the rioters as the official British government.
all im going to ask is simple ,what percent that are rioting are black and what percent olive and what percnt white. the probblem is not with race but the view that race matters.and the police man who aperently shot or not shot the guy is he the scape goat ,shouls we realy thow a lamb to the lions.
Like many others, I was somewhat shocked but not totally surprised at what happened in London for last few days. And now,just found out from C4 news, that Police has once again been coming with contradictory explanation as for the reasons behind the last Thursday killing. First, it was said that the suspect did fire first shots at Police, therefore got shot at and killed in the process. Now,it turns out that indeed,the victim never fired a shot!!!
So,why retort to old cover up tactics? Is that the way of earning the trust of MET?
Also,while Labour was clever enough to offer `Modern Feudalism` to the poorer masses,by somewhat making them feel worth in society because they were able to afford plasma screens, mobile phones,laptops,cheap holidays etc helped out with top ups from Tax-Credit and to some extent blank cheques from benefit system,which lasted only until they lost control of banking system and the city,Tories went to the total opposite extreme of cutting everything they could get away with and in the process alienated already disillusioned,parts of society,that have been insulated for years and years,in ghettos.The end result is massive riot,senseless though it seems/is?
I walked thru the damaged & largely shuttered up high streets of Catford , Lewisham & Peckham today & noticed something you well off folk in the media have turned a blind eye to – that the massive level of policing is the exact opposite to how the economic rampaging & looting of the bankers & bureaucrats was policed even though their criminal activity wrought havoc upon & blighted almost every high street in the country. I also noticed that the middle classes had colonised areas around the train stations in all these otherwise impoverished communities creating little islands of sheltered affluence that dont connect to the host community at all. They dont even shop locally.You conveniently ignore the role that such blatant inquality played in the mass demonstrations & demands for regime change and reform in Egypt.In the UK none of the main political parties are interested in the plight of the marginalised so your theorising about the riots being mainly causeless & lacking political consciousness is a bit rich , particularly as the street knew long before the mainsream media did that the Duggan shooting was iffy & instantly shared that info thru the grapevine not Facebook & Twitter
Re: Sure, the looters have had their heads filled with images of designer sports shoes, plasma screens and other material goods they will maybe never own any other way.
Jon, they already own it! They only renew or sell what they have stolen in the recent days.
If you believe that these guys here in the UK have something in common with Cairo’s Tahrir Square, sorry, you affront the people from Cairo.
Jon, As will be remembered, I’ve warned of impending riots and protest many many times in my previous postings. I also warned and exposed the reality of Britain. A country full of inequality, poverty, misery and hate as a result of 40 years of bias governance in favour of serving the wealthy. A country of mass prejudice and brainwashings against the poor. A country where the statistics for people out of work are so manipulated that the true figure is denied being aired for political reasons. A country where the Banks can enjoy huge annual bonuses yet protesters face plastic bullets, CS gas, Police Brutality and smearing by the media. A country where even the Police are implicated in corruption with News Int. A country where the ‘Hang ‘em, Flog ‘em, Imprison ‘em, Kill ‘em’ attitudes are allowed to be posted by upper classes. A country where MPs fiddle expenses yet the poor suffer misery of ‘auterity cuts’. A country where predatory capitalism has produced a minority of vile greedy people controlling most resources. A country where ‘Austerity’ measures are driving and fuelling hate like never before.
A country where those who fought in the 2 world wars should be ashamed of result.
Anthony
May I suggest that you read Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine. I read it 3 years ago and could not put it down. It shows how the rich elites manipulate capitalism for their own ends with the result that the majority suffer.
Regarding unemployment my view is that we are approaching a real statistic of 6 million. Until we bring to an end the destructive economic paradigm of neoliberalism, matters will only get worse in the UK.
Could someone at the Channel 4 news team have a look at this video on youtube. It seems to show Manchester police using excessive force, beating someone with a baton.
The title of the video is “Manchester Riot Police Serve Up Some Cold, Hard Justice [HD]” Filmed at 10.15pm on August 9th, 2011, in Manchester.
Andy, Yes it does seem unreasonable force but I suppose we ought to take it in context. Were the bike riders known to have been involved in looting or damage to properties? if so they needed to be stopped. If they were random bike riders then it is definitely OTT
I see a few simple parts to this situation. The rioters/looters are criminals. There is no political agenda in these actions, just simple theft and vandalism for a bit of a break from stultifying boredom. The police can’t cope as they are undermanned and overburdened with human rights legislation.
I agree with those who state that these things do not happen in a vacuum. I am sure they have been latent for years. However, I cannot agree that this is somehow the result of a widening rich-poor gap. Firstly, most of the perpetrators are probably unaware of such a concept until told by someone trying to rationalise the action. Secondly, to trot this idea out as some sort of explanation is a grievous insult to the vast majority of us at the wrong end of the gap who do not riot and loot.
The immediate priority has to be to crack down as hard as legally permissable on these louts and restore security to our streets. If we don’t do that, local citizenry will take their defence into their own hands and that is a very bad scenario.
It is clear that we need to look at causes. These people have grown up within the Labour education system and have never had any discipline. Coincidence?
Jon,
If you get the chance, watch a tape rerun of Kelvin Mackenzie’s disgusting diatribe on “Newsnight” last night.
His near Nazi rantings tell us more of why this nation is a basket case. It is only a few weeks since he bleated on the same channel, “What’s wrong with this country that it won’t encourage people like Rupert Murdoch.” Then came the hacking revelations. The timing was almost exquisite.
As you well know, Mackenzie is typical of the kind of media thug you London people have produced during the last generation. When this is supplemented by the stupid, conscienceless MBA mindset notorious in Canary Wharf, why be surprised by current insanity on your doorstep?
I have just watched Mervyn King trotting out the usual platitudinous privatised BoE muck at his press conference.
With that as backdrop to London’s poverty ghettos and an umpteenth Depression why should anybody believe a word from Establishment financial institutions, private greed, politicians, police or you media people?
The fact is the lot of you have earned that mistrust. Time for Julia Neuberger to once again query The Moral State We’re In. Time for the same old platitudes from the same old people.
I have listened to Cameron make his case for people taking responsibility in their communities playing on the same thing that he used to help get him in power. He is good at telling the people what they should do – not so good at telling them how they fund it!
He has called this a sick society – no this is not a sick society this is a sick England. Neither the politicians or the media have recognised that this has not been happening in some of the most depressing and poorest areas in this country – those in Wales and Scotland. Ireland is bankrupt but they are not causing chaos on the streets of Dublin.
The miners strikes, the protests of the Thatcher years made up of voices of anger,frustration, hopelessness in need of being heard and grown men committing suicide because their pride had been taken away from them by them not being able to support their families – these were protests of the most desperate kind. But what they did not do is destroy with utter disregard for property and life their own communities of businesses and homes.
Now starts all the debates but to Westminster I say this – a good place to start would be to look at what Ireland, Scotland and Wales have got.
In response to a facebook page created by a 16 year old boy from the south side of Glasgow “Let’s start a riot in Glasgow”, I have created a page to rebel against the idea. If your interested in it, it is called “Let’s NOT start a riot in Glasgow”.
We have attracted more than 12,200 members since yesterday at the point of emailing this. I think it will be a good thing for Scotland to see the work people are putting in and the efforts people are going to!
The page has also started an army of facebookers to create their own pages like my one such as “Let’s NOT start a riot in Edinburgh” and “Let’s NOT start a riot in Wrexham” etc. There is over 10 different ones copying the exact same style of page which I set up yesterday! I think it is a GREAT way to promote peace, and show the rioters that we will not stand for this!
I urge you to please show the nation what we have achieved and try and restore a bit of confidence and faith in the countries people! We need this boost of hope for man kind!
http://www.facebook.com/saynotoriots
If you would like any more information, please feel free to contact me.
The Government and people of Sri Lanka have consistently warned western nations such as Norway, UK & Australia of the dangers of inviting terrorist cadres masquerading as innocent Tamil refugees to these wealthy nations. They were misled by some journalists and officials in Human Rights organisations the well looked after by the LTTE sympathizers with millions of dollars collected through human & drug smuggling, extortion of innocent Tamils with relations in LTTE controlled areas and Credit Card frauds. These trained LTTE cadres are masters of mayhem including the production of remote controlled bombs using Nitrate fertilizers. There are people who are incapable of assimilating to their new environments. They rebel and loot, when they get an opportunity. What Norway & UK sowed, they are now reaping. Contrary to the horror stories of channel 4, click this link and get a Taste of Jaffna with the dawn of Peace. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150340276814136.401489.592569135&l=31dc727b5c&type=1
Philip, you’re on a roll today. This is pure gold.
Of course there is one way that our media friends could help the Police, and by extension the wider public, and bring all of this to a speedy end. And that is to have a self imposed media blackout on the disorder (it’s not rioting despite being called so on numerous occassions by the BBC).
Leave reporting to the local radio & TV bulletins. After all it’s more pertinent to the situation at hand.
It’ll snuff the disorder out overnight. But don’t expect the London media to comply. It’s much too good “infotainment” (good word) to ignore.
London rules our lives. And it sucks.
It’s good to see the self-righteousness index rising so high! Jon, you make a good point about the numbers of people involved. The people doing this are a small section of societ, some of whom would have been involved in this sort of activity, less publicly and on a lower scale even in pre-60s liberalism/Thatcherite de-industrialisation/obscene bankers’ profits days. A lot of money & a lot of political attention has already been spent on this group of people. They do genuinely come from families that are broken, with lack of parental guidance or interest (unless it’s violent). They begin education already switched off & unless they are fortunate to get really good teachers, that’s the way it stays. When they are disruptive, in effect they get moved to “schools” where they are “guarded” rather than taught. For many people, the combination of 60′s liberalism and neoliberal economics has worked well. But for a relatively small number of people, it removes discipline while elevating money and possessions as the test of individual success; much of the old sense of community has been lost, in part through state intervention, in part through the operation of free market economics. Complex
Watching from Northern Ireland, I am amazed at the difference in riot control policy between Northern Ireland and England ( both part of the UK). Sir Hugh Orde tells us that rubber bullets are fine for Northern Ireland and continue to be used in Northern Ireland but are not suitable for the ‘mainland’. He goes on to explain the rationale behind this theory in terms of the difference in speed of the rioters. I would agree that there are differences but rather in the motivation behind the violence. Looting for example was never really an issue in NI.
Jonny, they do it because they can.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/10/liverpool-riots-mob-mayhem
the British way of the least violence possible against riots : Fascists believe that a nation requires strong leadership, singular collective identity, and the will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong. in turn the majority of countries who enforce girl power and women rights are in deep dept wile the countries who worship the men are well off. it has to do with war. this is a mens world. men fight. men are willing.
Yes. Communists really showed us how a truly socialist, humanitarian regime should conduct itself!
I’m not sure what your point is but … Magic!
The racist rats are coming out of the sewers…
Racism and xenophobia will be the legacy of this govt.
Gosh, even worse than the previous one.
Marverde what Racist rats?Do you mean those terrorising our streets?They are mainly black with a few white hangers on.Maybe a few Asian in the mix.
What is your answer to such thuggery?Hold their hands and tell them not to be such naughty boys and girls ?
there was an excellent article on the guardian’s
CIF last night, written by Shaun Bailey in which he said,,,,,,,,,
Politicians have been part of this process, and some on the left may have even encouraged our young people to riot. The liberal intelligentsia encouraged posh kids to protest and riot over student fees,
spot on,you only have to read some of the hard left columnist in the guardian to know that the
left are to blame .
If this blog is about+social networks and means of communication one ought to mention the greatest social network, the sisterhood. What matters in a society is what women say to each other, especially at the school gates. Compared to their influence the media are a minor player, but they do not seem to be aware of their responsibilities. Jon Snow take note
Back to Jon’s blog and the “TOP-DOWN SOCIETY”
To mend England’s “BROKEN SOCIETY” you have to address the Spiritual Vacuum.
Can’t do better than this outstanding piece today by Peter Oborne on the UK’s Feral Elite: ‘The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom’ – http://t.co/04cz45X
‘Top-down, Westminster-centric politics has few immediate answers either’ – because our politicians are part of the problem, as Oborne has identified, as is the electorate’s disconnection with the world around us – ‘We are demanding answers of top down politicians to issues that we do not wish to have to address for ourselves on the ground’.
Hi Charlotte, i found this video on youtube about the london riots its a music video by a young black group i think from london so i found it really intersting and wanted to share so here you go (Y)
x
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd16YCXFKNk
‘The only light in their lives comes from these luminous corporate messages. No wonder they have their f… hoods up’ – apologies for another link but this from Russell Brand on the riots is worth reading (if getting past the name is difficulty, try reserving any prejudices until later): http://t.co/aaOFcwm. Some fine lines, too.
Nothing as insightful came from our top-down Westminster Palace residents last Thursday.
Thanks for that link, Meg. Bit disturbing to find I have so much in common with Russell Brand
Indeed, Sam. Wouldn’t have read it myself if it hadn’t been tweeted by someone I respect. Burying my own prejudice was definitely worth it, and a useful lesson.
Meg, i can not stand Brand ,his so called humour and just rank bad manners.
The article really says nothing that hasn’t been said and offers no solutions.
I read it without , i hope ,prejudice and yes he states the obvious.Most bloggers on here could well have written it and not received the payment he has.It matters not where it was donated to.