goes back a lot longer TSY – as in the two posts I quoted from Ernie and Elf. We as a society have created an underclass of dienfranchised and alienated youth. See the quotes below.
So – solutions? Redistribution of wealth, end to the deliberate policy of creating a large pool of unemployed, thus a return to (nearly) full employment. Sensible drug laws, reform of the Met, investment in education.
Investment in social work / youth work.
and of course now – regain control of the streets calmly and methodically by using appropriate force by the police.
Still the most sensible stuff posted on here about the riots and how our society got so fracured as to allow this to happen. In order to heal we first must diagnose what went wrong.
Personally, I feel what has sparked off this massive amount of unrest is the fact that many young people feel utterly powerless over many aspects of their own lives, and are exercising the one form of power they feel they actually have; aggression. I’m not condoning any of the violence in any way whatsoever, regardless of what various dickheads on here may think and have suggested; I think it’s a tragedy that so many people seem to think violence and crime is acceptable and even ‘fun’. It’s a f-ed up situation when so many people get caught up in the hysteria and madness. Those mindless idiots out there don’t even know what damage they are doing to their own communities, innocent people and even their own futures.
But I think it’s pointless to condemn; of course it’s flipping wrong. Of course it is. Any right-minded person knows this, and I dare say most of those involved will regret their actions once they grow up a bit and reflect on the consequences.
What concerns me is the level of hatred and anger within so many people. Including those making moronic statements on here.
Why are we living in a society where this is so rife? Why such massive divisions between members of our society?
Truth is that increasing numbers of people just don’t care any more, about their society, their community, and worst of all, themselves.
The situation were are witnessing today was always eventually going to arrive, whichever party was in power – it’s been a pressure cooker ready to explode for a very long time. Youth unemployment stands at almost 1 million, the highest ever. And the total including those studying etc, is 3 million, ie 3 million young people not earning any wages at all. And yet they are sold daily the false unachievable dreams of fame and wealth. They are told day in and day out that they should aspire to own vast amounts of material wealth, and that to aspire for anything less than that represents failure.
And yet youth in huge swathes of our communities are given zero chance of achieving anything. Employers would rather opt for the easier and cheaper alternative of offering jobs to fully trained Poles or Lithuanians, than to give British school-leavers any hope of learning a trade. This attitude is backed up by the typical half-wits on this forum, who at any given opportunity vilify young people dismissing them all as chavs, lazy, feckless, etc.
Well all the pent-up frustrations have finally turned ugly, and very ugly too – I will be surprised if there are no fatalities after tonight. But no one should be very surprised – did anyone really think we could cripple Britain’s youth and then taunt them for being lame indefinitely ? And blaming it all on the Tories is far too simplistic. We haven’t arrived where we are because of something which happened back in May last year – you need to go much further back, years, if not decades.
