UK Riots
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Senior looters have returned early from their summer riots to apologise to local communities across England for unleashing a wave of visits by annoying, insincere politicians. There was widespread anger with the looters yesterday evening, after a series of unscheduled walkabouts by thugs including Hampstead ringleader ‘Red’ Ed Miliband, London gang kingpin Theresa ‘Ask The Pigs’ May, and a shadowy, rarely-seen figure known only as ‘Prime Minister the Rt Hon David Cameron MP’. ‘We have to accept that we were not prepared for the consequences of our actions,’ said a senior looter in Ealing, west London. ‘I took the decision to kick in the windows of my local Comet and help myself to a couple of MacBook Airs in good faith, but I might have done things differently if I had known this would lead to Boris ‘the Mayor’ Johnson descending on the neighbourhood within hours, spreading chaos and confusion and terrorising local businesspeople in Latin.’
Looters apologise to communities for causing two days of visits by politicians | NewsBiscuit
Anarchy and Austerity: Why London Won't Be the Last City to Burn - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic
The Great Recession gave birth to a lost generation across the world, where youth unemployment rates stretch into the 20s, 30s and even 40s. Those millions have responded with violence. The riots and fires consuming London are a story about senseless violence and crime. They are also a story about urban politics, race relations, education inequality, and British culture and society. But underneath all of that, they are part of an economic story that is universal. For the last year, Great Britain has embraced austerity to a degree that would make some American conservatives blush.
It is absurd for Simon Jenkins to lecture other cities on how recent events highlight the need for powerful mayors ( Comment , 10 August). I hope Boris Johnson enjoyed his holiday. But it didn't seem to impress people in London .
Letters: The politics of social unrest | UK news | The Guardian
Local men place flowers at the scene where three men were killed while protecting their area 'standing shoulder to shoulder' during riots in Birmingham. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters There's nothing like fear and hatred to sharpen the senses. The riots have shown Britain some unpalatable truths about itself, making it impossible to hold on to a certain Whiggish story about social progress which, in the teeth of the evidence, we have persisted in telling about ourselves. As the violence unfolded in Tottenham, it appeared to be following a familiar pattern.
some unpalatable home truths Guardian
The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom – Telegraph Blogs
Tottenham ablaze: the riots began early on Sunday (Photo: AP) David Cameron, Ed Miliband and the entire British political class came together yesterday to denounce the rioters. They were of course right to say that the actions of these looters, arsonists and muggers were abhorrent and criminal, and that the police should be given more support. But there was also something very phony and hypocritical about all the shock and outrage expressed in parliament. MPs spoke about the week’s dreadful events as if they were nothing to do with them.
Riot to reform: it might be just a stone's throw away - The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Find More Stories The riots in the United Kingdom, mainly involving school-age and unemployed youth, have provoked a backlash that seeks to paint them narrowly as mindless, criminals, thugs and an external threat to social order. Politicians and journalists sing from the same songbook, to condemn and excoriate first and to (preferably not) ask questions later. Voices that raise the social context in which the riots erupted, that point to the very political flashpoint of the police killing of Mark Duggan (and its subsequent handling by the police), that argue that rioters' own professions of being motivated by grievances relating to economic exclusion and racial discrimination - those voices are rapidly cut down by shrill cries that we must understand the rioters less and denounce them more. Part of this argument has been an interesting variant on the theme of historical forgetting.
A very British class war - The Drum Opinion - The riots that have gripped London over the past few days are but mere battles in an ongoing class war. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Find More Stories "There is a danger in having any government of whatever composition led by a party which doesn't have a proper mandate across the country try to push through really difficult decisions - I think a lot of people will react badly to that... [when asked about riots in the streets] I think there is a very serious risk." - Nick Clegg, Sky News, April 11, 2010 As I write this, kids in hoodies are running up and down my street with dogs, there are police on the corner, helicopters overhead and divvy vans circling the social housing estate across the road from my flat. Welcome to David Cameron's Big Society; please applaud his Conservative Party, as their vision for Britain has come true with remarkable speed. I've been watching the Tories on television tonight wriggling through rehearsed and evasive responses to questions like "Are these riots a direct result of Tory cuts?
Some thoughts from Dr. Sofia Himmelblau: It’s going to take more than posturing, ‘blitz-spirit’, keep-calm-and-carry-on clap-trap and colonial Kipling-esque “keeping your head” to fix this mess.
