Well, Saturday night I was sat in Spain around the pool and enjoying the relaxing atmosphere. Sunday I was vaguely aware of a rumour of trouble in Tottenham that reflected my childhood in a bizarre way; I was 13 in 1981 and remember the TV footage of Toxteth, Brixton and Handsworth in Birmingham. My son is 13 now and watching the developing crisis with much the same mixture of fear and amazement. This time he lives in Manchester so it's a little closer to home than my sleepy medium sized town in the east was..
Night four of rioting has just closed with Manchester, Birmingham and - strangely - Gloucester becoming involved. The footage is quite extra-ordinary on youtube; St Ann's Square being looted for gods sake, parts of the Arndale on fire? cars driving straight at people just protecting their own homes in Birmingham (with a resulting 3 people dead)?
Soon, hopefully soon the British establishment is going to start asking the awkward questions; the political issues beihnd the reason why this has happened beyond the sheer greed of a few young people who have been brought up on a diet of consumerism and having anything they want without having to work or it, and the generation just above theirs; the twenty-somethings who seem to be in denial that it can be anything to do with social structures and is all about the lack of fairness or disgruntlement with the current government?
To me the only real question is, 'what makes the rioters think they can do this?' but then a good friend just asked me if I honestly thought the rioters even thought before acting...
Good point...
What next for this nation that proudly boasts some of the 'highest' low educational achievement in the West?
Hopefully, the British weather has come to the rescue as it has started raining today and nobody likes getting wet - least of all the pathetic, cowardly little kids that have formed a large number of the looters...
Here's hoping...
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