No doubt there are those who seek to blame the riots on 'cuts', 'unemployment' and the like. Yet, the Coalition Government has only been in power for a year and,even with the austerity restraints, public spending is still above 2007 levels.
Labour left office last year with unemployment at 2.5 million - hardly likely to strengthen the social fabric of the nation. To blame it all on post-May 2010, is not just cheap politics, but ignores much deeper causes.
Of course the riots are copycat episodes encouraged by anarchists and looters. Just watching the robbery of shop after shop confirms this - as they use 'anti' social media to plan and organise.
Of course too, part of the problem is caused by weak sentencing and soft policies on crime, when anti-social behaviour is tolerated for months and years before being properly dealt with.
You can accept all these arguments, but also acknowledge that poverty plays a central part. This is not material poverty - if you define it as hunger and habitation - but something much deeper.
I think Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail explains this best when he writes:
"One thing is certain: this wasn't about poverty, not in the material
sense. If there's poverty, it's spiritual poverty, moral poverty and
poverty of ambition.....This wasn't a political protest, or a
demonstration against oppression, it was a grotesque manifestation of
our shallow, instant gratification, I-want-it-and-I-want-it-now
consumerist society, coupled with an extreme explosion of the kind of
casual violence which scars our town and city centres across Britain
every weekend."
In other words, moral relativism, moral equivalence, family breakdown and absent fathers, the weakening of social capital (the glue that binds community together), the failure of our education system over decades (a huge proportion of children leave school illiterate) and the glorIfication of the drugs/gang culture have all contributed to this disaster.
So, when we consider our response, answers must be found to all the above. Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove and Theresa May are the most important links in the chain to dealing with the fundamentals.
Without forgetting that those thugs convicted, should face the toughest sentences the law allows.
Labour left office last year with unemployment at 2.5 million - hardly likely to strengthen the social fabric of the nation. To blame it all on post-May 2010, is not just cheap politics, but ignores much deeper causes.
Of course the riots are copycat episodes encouraged by anarchists and looters. Just watching the robbery of shop after shop confirms this - as they use 'anti' social media to plan and organise.
Of course too, part of the problem is caused by weak sentencing and soft policies on crime, when anti-social behaviour is tolerated for months and years before being properly dealt with.
You can accept all these arguments, but also acknowledge that poverty plays a central part. This is not material poverty - if you define it as hunger and habitation - but something much deeper.
I think Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail explains this best when he writes:
"One thing is certain: this wasn't about poverty, not in the material
sense. If there's poverty, it's spiritual poverty, moral poverty and
poverty of ambition.....This wasn't a political protest, or a
demonstration against oppression, it was a grotesque manifestation of
our shallow, instant gratification, I-want-it-and-I-want-it-now
consumerist society, coupled with an extreme explosion of the kind of
casual violence which scars our town and city centres across Britain
every weekend."
In other words, moral relativism, moral equivalence, family breakdown and absent fathers, the weakening of social capital (the glue that binds community together), the failure of our education system over decades (a huge proportion of children leave school illiterate) and the glorIfication of the drugs/gang culture have all contributed to this disaster.
So, when we consider our response, answers must be found to all the above. Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove and Theresa May are the most important links in the chain to dealing with the fundamentals.
Without forgetting that those thugs convicted, should face the toughest sentences the law allows.
These English riots remind me of Jakarta in May 1998 - riots that were manipulated by a hidden hand. The Indonesian parliament's own enquiry came to the conclusion that certain powerful people had recruited and trained the rioters.
ReplyDelete- Aangirfan
Hi Robert
ReplyDeleteI would just like to say that I work full-time and am on what is considered 'a good wage' as I am not entitled to any benefits. However, I am just on that threshold and after I have paid full price for rent, council tax, water, gas, electric, Tv licence, car insurance, phone and any other bills, I am underpaid by at least £100 per month - and that is without buying any groceries or clothes. I can't afford to take my son swimming or to the cinema.
When I see the excuses that rioters and the 'experts' are making for mindless looting, thuggery and brutality, I want to slap everyone of them. My son accepts that I am working to pay the bills and give him a reasonable standard of home to live in but I sometimes wonder why I bother when there are still things I would like to give him (like a holiday) but I can't.
At the end of the day, my son is being brought up with standards and ethics which is sadly lacking in this country due to government taking a 'soft touch' and taking away authorative powers to police, teachers, even parents.