My area of central London – Pimlico – has not, yet, been hit by the mayhem engulfing many boroughs of this great city. My friends who live in or near these areas are safe, as far as I can check. (I heard from Michael Jennings, who lives in Southeast London, and he’s okay). I have been interested in the sort of reactions from Americans and others from abroad. Clearly, fewer than 12 months ahead of the Olympic Games, this violent disorder comes at a terrible time for the organisers of that pointless junket:
“As an American in London, I am seeing it first hand. Your statement about the welfare state’s death convulsions are true — there is a small business owner on BBC news talking now about a restaurant of his getting trashed in Ealing, a rather nice part of West London. He noted that despite all the talk of this being a response to poverty, the looters are wearing designed tracksuits and communicating by I-Phones. This family has had a furniture business in South London for 140 years. No longer — it is burning to the ground right now. There even was a street fire in my neighbourhood of Notting Hill. One difference from the US is that in London, there is much more mixing of socio-economic groups than in the US. So I think we may see a long night.”
(Via Instapundit). Another point is that UK homeowners and business owners are not allowed to use deadly force in self defence, a point that has been made regularly, of course, by this blog.
In the meantime, these books are worth reading, in my view, if you want to understand what has gone wrong in the UK:
Life At the Bottom;
The Welfare State We’re In.
Mind The Gap.
Guns & Violence: The English Experience.
I’d add that a common complaint – sometimes made by libertarians and conservatives – is that our police are more interested in political correctness than enforcing the law severely. There may be some truth in that, but I am not sure that this is the issue here. And I am struck by the BBC’s coverage. The Labour MP, Diane Abbott, was interviewed this morning on BBC Breakfast television and instead of making any sort of excuses, such as the usual crap about Tory “cuts”, was pretty blunt about the need to deal with these thugs. Interesting.
I caught about 5 mins of “Daybreak” this morning so it might not be representative of their overall coverage but Kate Garaway and Adrian Childs were trying to do the whole underclass backlash thing. One quote from Childs was something like ” we can’t just ignore the fact that there is a huge underclass in this country with little prospects for the future”
I was amazed at the stupidity of the editorial lead (or do breakfast tv presenters get given license to comment freely on such issues?). They couldn’t be more out of tune with the wider population judging from opinions from the post room to the bus.
With regard to Diane Abbott – No politician can afford to be on the looters side here. If the police don’t get a handle on things just wait until local communities do. If you think the looters are angry, just wait until the working poor, who are slaves to these idle louts, take matters into their own hands. Also expect the BNP to benefit from this.
A final point is that Childs is right in one regard. You can’t allow an underclass to develop and grow unchecked without consequenses (not least of which is the cost to the tax payer). What I suspect we would disagree on is that it is the welfare state that has created the underclass in the first place.
No politician can afford to be on the looters side here
That’s something Di learned from her late mate Bernie.
Welfare was only a misused tool, it was the “workers party” who created the underclass for a supply of easy votes, and kept it topped up in recent years with immigration.
In yesterday’s Independent, Diane Abbott wrote:
She seems there distinctly unambivalent on whether cuts are the cause, but acknowledges that violence is wrong.
On this, so I read, the Haringey Council budget for 2011/12 was cut by 20% from the previous year. But the Council itself chose for this to fall (at 75%) more heavily on the youth services budget. Though perhaps that budget is easier to cut than some other parts, the difference does seem rather marked.
Also, the cuts to educational maintenance allowance only come in this September for those currently in receipt of them. There are also a variety of replacements (that are, so I read, less generous and more targetted at the less well off): as summarised here.
Thus Abbott’s words strike me as using these riots (at least somewhat) for her own political ends, rather than being unequivocally disapproving of the violence and criminal damage.
Such utterances from such an important politician local to the area of these widening riots does not, IMHO, help. It risks some participants viewing here statements as some justification for their violently illegal and damaging actions.
Best regards
Diane Abbott also writes, in the Independent article I referenced immediately above:
Might that have something to do with the need for an autopsy and other forensic investigations, with preservation from compromise of the chain of evidence?
36 hours: is that a real mishandling in such circumstances?
Best regards
“breakfast tv presenters…couldn’t be more out of tune with the wider population”
Since they are fully paid-up members of the media elite, in what way is that surprising?
I despise the idea of welfare & ‘communidee’ grants used as danegeld, to appease/placate the thug-underclass away from causing violence.
This needs to be escalated to the point where those parasite fkkers are stopped dead in their tracks. Literally.
Abbott’s comments are borne of this crazy idea that if only we – the taxpayer – shelled out more money on various “community” services (one of the great can expressions of our time), that this would not happen. She seems to overlook, or downplay, the fact that among the poorest of London, there are hundreds of thousands of folk who manage to respect their fellows.
It was how Abbott spoke on TV today that struck me, though. She seemed visibly to realise that any hint of looking to make some sort of “spending cuts” point would be treated harshly.
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The Kindle edition of Life at the Bottom is only £2.99 !
The post, the books, and the comments say all that needs to be said.
Nothing I can add.
I really do feel sorry for those of you who are close to, or affected directly by this. I wish I could help.
What makes me more angry than sad is that you have no legal means ( if I understand correctly – and THAT is certainly NOT a given 😉 of protecting yourselves !!
The mind boggles.
You can’t do anything but stand there and let this animals do WHATEVER they want to things you have traded pieces of your life to acquire !!!!??????
Thank God I live where I can be armed and if necessary, use those arms to defend myself or others or, in my case, where I live, my property.
Until this activity becomes unhealthy enough ( as in literally killing the little cretins – not all of them – just enough to set the precedence and example ), expect it to continue.
Why would it stop ?
There are NO consequences for this animal behavior !