Oh Britain
It wouldn’t be a simple matter of breaking down the riots in to layman’s terms and only condemn the looters without acknowledging that something has gone majorly ballistic to drag our once great country down to anarchy.
Prime Minister David Cameron has already come out saying everyone who took part in the rioting and looting anywhere in the country would feel the full force of the law.
That’s of course attracted a lot of scepticism from the more liberal-minded people, who feel it’s too harsh to punish them for something which is a direct result of getting no opportunities, no hope and no scope to do something with their lives.
While that may be a justified way of looking at things, the issues are far more complex to start passing the bucket around – something we’ve become exceedingly good at over the past few years.
The riots sparked off from the shooting of Mark Duggan, who the police claimed fired at them first before being taken out. Bystanders and witnesses said otherwise and the ballistics report confirmed the latter.
This resulted in a reportedly peaceful protest against the police, which turned violent when ‘outsiders’ apparently infiltrated the proceedings. A similar story was heard not so long ago when the student protest marches took a nasty turn.
It’s difficult to judge who started the violence. A few harsh words here and there might have been all it took for things to blow up. What didn’t happen after that though, was a mere continuation of these protests against police brutality. If that’s what they were angry about, then that’s what you’d logically expect them to do.
But we all know logic has long ago gone out of a proverbial window in this country. Those who feel it’s not the rioters fault for losing control due to years of pent up anger and frustration, might want to consider who these people ended up hitting out against – the common man, the people who had nothing to do with any of this in the first place.
Small businesses, shopkeepers, your average Joe Briton came under siege who were just going about with their days, trying to earn an honest living. The riots weren’t just a statement against the government or police brutality but clearly a chaotic comeback from those who’re said to have nothing against those who have…well, anything.
A youth, when asked by a BBC correspondent, said: “We’re doing this to show the rich people we can also do what we like.”
Sorry darling, but by smashing the windows of businesses and blowing up buses, you haven’t even touched the rich people you’re apparently making a statement towards. The rich don’t shop in Lidl and they bloody well don’t avail public transport.
Firstly, if these people rioting and looting, were truly against the government side-tracking them all the way through, then protesting outside Westminster and Whitehall would’ve made more sense. Other parts of England, like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, et cetera wouldn’t have been swept under by a wave of angry youths and thugs breaking in to shops on a massive scale and taking big flat screen televisions, if all these people wanted, were just jobs and opportunities.
The countless youth programmes produce results but a lot of them also fall on deaf ears. It’s very easy to say they don’t listen because they don’t have any hope. Yet there are thousands of people born in to underprivileged lives, who have still chosen to work hard and do something with their lives – even if that means still being on jobseekers and volunteering for the communities they live in.
Even if the riots in London are justified by a stretch of imagination, because it was the ground zero in the context of the shooting of Mark Duggan, what were those in the rest of England doing the same things for? It’s because they saw a window. Not a window of hope, but literally a window they could smash past as well and load up on their consumerism. Most of it wasn’t even food. They were gadgets – televisions, stereos, laptops, DVD players. Ah yes those look great on a CV don’t they?
Having said all that, as mentioned right at the beginning, this wasn’t just a case of low lives going bananas for no reason. The financial class divide in Britain today is enormous.
There are people at one end of the spectrum who get paid millions and millions of pounds, which they pump back in to the upper class businesses and consumer services who have everyone believe, that the real recognition of your success is to pay an arm and a leg for anything and everything.
These people wouldn’t invest in small businesses because they won’t be able to charge extortionate rates for a piece of living room eye candy. Their children would go to lovely schools, afford universities, which now seem more and more out of reach for the wider masses, and then lo-and-behold – they’re the ones who can have a career earning fat pay packets.
People at the other end of the spectrum, which is at the very bottom, get paid a pittance an hour (if they’re fortunate enough to have a job at all) or they’re on the dole. They’re brought up on the idea that there is no place for them in society apart from the far edges. Their children grow up in a surrounding attitude of 'dog eat dog, so sod everyone as they feel the same about us’ and the vicious cycle continues.
The main reason to have all of this pinned on, is the lack of jobs and rightly so. Well of course there aren’t any jobs in Britain when most companies choose to outsource themselves in as many departments as possible to save their own costs and maximise profits.
Most major businesses have customer service numbers, which when the customers ring, they get connected to someone in India, or wherever they may be.
Under other circumstances this wouldn’t have been a problem, but the main reason these jobs are held over in India is because of the exchange rate making sure a more than decent salary paid to an employee would be a scrap when converted to British Sterling. It isn’t as if these savings and profits find their way to the common people. Prices and interest rates and all kinds of charges keep going up while the money going towards the common person keeps diminishing.
These riots couldn’t possibly be just a bunch of greedy hoodie wearers going on a mass shop. The moment you see atrocities like bankers paying themselves hundreds of thousands in year end bonuses, despite having lost a fair amount of the money their customers saved with them already, it’s only natural you’d start thinking you have to go out there and take what isn’t yours just to survive.
However, the crux of the matter is this. All said and done, acknowledging every kind of economic and social downfall which might have led to the images we see today of an injured boy getting robbed by rioters.
Let’s call a spade a spade. It doesn’t take university education to not harm someone who isn’t at fault. It doesn’t take a PhD to work out who you should be angry at. There will never be a valid enough excuse for anyone to go destroying public property and subjecting regular citizens through hell, because you’re angry at the government.
At the same time, David Cameron and all the big decision makers need to do some serious re-thinking. Something somewhere has gone monumentally wrong.
Everything that could go belly up, well it did. And if there ever was a time, this is it, to throw aside political manoeuvres and bridge this larger than life gap between the rich and the poor.
Everything said and done, if a certain section of the society has to resign itself to re-stocking shelves at groceries, or taking orders for our double whopper cheeseburgers, while they see the more affluent ones getting the red carpet rolled out for them just for being born, it’s only natural and a matter of time before they decide to throw in the towels and broom handles.
If this isn’t looked in to now, these riots – they may be contained for the time being, but the anger and tension will only escalate. Until we reach a boiling point. Then remember those images of conflict in other countries?
Throwing everything in to bigger chaos than what we’ve experienced over the past few days?
That’ll be us.
Disclaimer: As with everything on theSprout, the views in this piece are those of the author and not necessarily those of theSprout
Info » World, Europe, UK & Wales » Politics
2 Comments – Postiwch sylw
RoLouG
Rhoddwyd sylw 9 mis yn ôl - 12th August 2011 - 15:36pm
Great article! I've been in London the past week, and I was a little bit scared by these terrible riots. I read a feature in an newspaper about the "Riot Wombles", who united in areas in London to clear up the mess, and help people who had lost everything which was truly inspiring.
abhijanb
Rhoddwyd sylw 9 mis yn ôl - 12th August 2011 - 22:22pm
that's what Britain is all about! The spirit, the never say die attitude. I don't want rioting misguided youths defining us abroad.