Anarchy and Austerity: Why London Won't Be the Last City to Burn - Derek Thompson - Business. 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. For 100 years, across the world, more cuts have led to more crime. The scourge of young restlessness growing in this noxious petri dish is potent enough to have a nickname. Letters: The politics of social unrest.
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. In Liverpool councillors were on the streets from early on Tuesday morning cleaning up after the night's violence. Cllr Joe Anderson, leader of the council, condemned the violence and co-ordinated the cleanup. Councillors in affected wards spoke to residents and businesses, and identified problems needing immediate action and ways to prevent further trouble. Of course, policing is the responsibility of the whole community. Cllr Steve Munby Cabinet member for neighbourhoods, Liverpool city council • I am the white, middle-class mother of two sons, now young adults, born, raised and educated in Hackney. They had parents who had a good relationship, who communicated well, and who are still together. Meg Taylor London Edward Atkin Stephen Games Dr David Lewis Baker. Some unpalatable home truths 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 moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom. 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. I cannot accept that this is the case.
It is not just the feral youth of Tottenham who have forgotten they have duties as well as rights. Most of the people in this very expensive street were every bit as deracinated and cut off from the rest of Britain as the young, unemployed men and women who have caused such terrible damage over the last few days. Yet we celebrate people who live empty lives like this. Riot to reform: it might be just a stone's throw away - The Drum Opinion. Find More Stories Riot to reform: it might be just a stone's throw away.
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. Find More Stories A very British class war Van Badham - Nick Clegg, Sky News, April 11, 2010 - David Cameron, in the same piece Anyone who finds the present riots in London surprising either hasn't been living here, or has not been paying attention. 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.
#riotcleanup or #riotwhitewash? « University For Strategic Optimism. 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. The strikingly middle-class, broadly white efforts to sweep issues of inequality under the carpet of a simulated big-society photo-op has been a telling, if little discussed, aspect of the recent rioting, making little headway in the scramble of blogposts and tweets attempting hasty analyses of the unfolding turmoil. This doughty bunch of volunteer cleaners, the substitution for a non-existent community, appeared right on cue to fill the media narrative all day following a night of London’s most extensive social unrest in decades. Even Mayor Boris had leisurely returned from holiday to be snapped with the broom-wielding bourgeoisie of Clapham as they amassed for a bit of symbolic social cleansing. Postscript – A Response to Comments Sofia. x Like this: