Burnt out England
Cameron rushed back from his Tuscan villa to contend with a nightmare of the Tories’ own making.
For several evenings in August 2011, police lost control of parts of London, once one of the world’s proudest cities. England’s youth underclass having embarked upon a sustained campaign of violence and looting. Mass rioting also broke out in numerous other cities throughout England whilst Wales and Scotland remained quiet.
Nightmare of their own making
Neither Cameron, Clegg or Miliband accepted any responsibility for the conditions that gave rise to the riots preferring to act tough for the cameras.
Thatchers’ ideology of “No such thing as society” and subsequent generations brought up on the glorification of greed, individualism and ruthless competition has, as Malcolm X once famously said, ‘come home to roost’.
The rioters were angry youths from deprived inner cities with no specific political demands other that to “get their own back”. Exploiting the chaos to steal as many consumer goods as posible whilst getting off on mindless violence.
England’s establishment hoped that London’s recent Royal Wedding and forthcoming Olympics would divert the public’s attentions from real issues. However terrified Londoners were hardly likely to have been clutching their royal wedding souvenirs for safety as they watched their city engulfed.
Cameron – only too happy to stoke up uprisings in the Arab world calling violent protests there ’the people’s democratic voice’ – must be thanking his lucky stars that no foreign power sent air cover to support England’s rebel forces.
England’s broken society and political system
London based political parties – Tories, Liberal, Labour (all incidentally headed by ex pupils of elite private schools) were left dumbfounded by the uprisings.
However in a BBC Radio phone-in programme almost as many callers condemed the greed of bankers and politican’s hypocrisy as did the looters.
Bloggers have been quick to point out that Clegg was convicted of arson as the age of 16 for buring down two greenhouses. But was let off with community service no doubt due to his privileged background.
Top Tories Cameron, Osbourne and Johnson as a students at Oxford were members of the infamous Bullingdon Club which ritualistically smashed up local restaurants. Unlike the rioters, however, the damages were hushed up
Waiting for the clampdown
Victims of the riots in the poorer neighbourhoods of London were angered as their streets turned to near war-zones whilst police expended stretched resources on defending more affluent areas.
During the worst of the rioting the London Police had multiple police vans parked in Oxford Circus, including three parked directly in front of the Apple Store on Regent Street.
The waves of terror ensures the public will overwhelmingly support whatever heavy handed measures are proposed to clamp down on rioters.
No riots in Wales or Scotland?
Despite also having areas of deprivation, neither Wales and Scotland saw any of the mass riots that engulfed England. South Wales Police claimed to have only dealt with a number of ‘small, isolated incidents’ in Cardiff’. Police from both Wales and Scotland were drafted over the border as reinforcements.
Can we hope that Wales is better able to withstand England’s broken political and archaic class system?
This post is also available in: Welsh
