Riots

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm surprised to read that Harman is 61 and Gove 43. Are those ages the right way around.

I don't honestly know: I was always hopeless at maths. Gove is a young fogey, I am an old fogey, Ms Harman is a person.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Those photo's Anna, ....very very very funny....exceedingly quick and sharp....

[scottycelt]

"All platitudes, Dave, as usual. You are all the same."


There is a delightful if unintended logic to that remark ...

[Serial_Apologist]

"All platitudes, Dave, as usual. You are all the same."


There is a delightful if unintended logic to that remark ...

Contradicts the old plattitude about no one north of Watford knowing any words of more than 2 syllables

[PatrickOD]

[QUOTE=Lateralthinking1;73715
We won't see too many changes rapidly. But it is a bleaker place than anywhere anyone born post-1945 has lived in and it is going to be dire beyond anyone's current comprehension. When my parents go, I have decided. I will be getting the first plane out.[/QUOTE]

Lat,
In 1969/70, when the Civil Rights protests were at their height, a neighbour of mine said the same sort of things. He predicted the escalation of violence, the extreme polarisation of communities, the rise and rise of Paisley, the emergence of armed resistance, the arrival of the British Army, the mass destruction of property, and the murder and mayhem that characterised NI society for decades. And what's more, he did take the first plane out - to Australia.
Another, less thoughtful neighbour, dismissed the early violence with the question: 'What do the thugs want?'

Now, I don't know if anyone sees any similarity between the two situations - though there have been subliminal flashes of deja vu in my mind by way of some of the references in this thread - but I wonder, Lat, if the thoughtless attitude of my other neighbour could lead in some way to bringing about a worsening of the situation along the lines you suggest?

I would add that there were not many scenes that I witnessed over here which were as menacing as those which people in English cities have been/are experiencing. I don't go along with pussyfooting approaches to such serious disorder, but there has to be an answer to the question of what young people are up to, before somebody starts to organise them. 'What do the thugs want?' is not the right question.

[Nick Armstrong]

"All platitudes, Dave, as usual. You are all the same."


There is a delightful if unintended logic to that remark ...

Perfection, ain't it Scotty??!

[Nick Armstrong]

On a lighter note, there has been a lot of clever work done to photos of the looting. OK, you may think some of it in bad taste in such serious times, but there are 3 pages of them here (scroll down), some of them hilarious

http://photoshoplooter.tumblr.com/

Some crackers there, Anna!! Brightened my afternoon and that of the various people I have forwarded that link to!

[Stillhomewardbound]

I didn't mention this before verifying it, but on my way home - near where I saw the loot filled BMW - I stopped on Blackheath Hill and a side street was sealed off with police in attendance.

I've now had it confirmed that a fifty year old man was set on and stabbed when he refused to hand over his possessions.

What, honestly, would have been their maximum yield on such a robbery. Maybe 40/50 quid or something.

Really worth having a crack at killing someone for?

[Stillhomewardbound]

Another thought about the Mark Duggan case that is being attrbiuted as the spark for all of this.

Does the black community never look to itself and wonder why it is that it puts up with such appalling levels of gangsterism and black-on-black murders and gun crime amongst its own. Indeed, a level of crime that it has its own dedicated police unit.

[eighthobstruction]

Yes we will find there's a great deal of 'that' has gone on Shb....

[StephenO]

In 1969/70, when the Civil Rights protests were at their height, a neighbour of mine said the same sort of things. He predicted the escalation of violence, the extreme polarisation of communities, the rise and rise of Paisley, the emergence of armed resistance, the arrival of the British Army, the mass destruction of property, and the murder and mayhem that characterised NI society for decades. And what's more, he did take the first plane out - to Australia.
Another, less thoughtful neighbour, dismissed the early violence with the question: 'What do the thugs want?'

Except that these riots have little to do with civil rights. Whatever emerges about Mark Duggan, it's clear that all the thugs want to do is smash things up and nick tellies and trainers. It's reminiscent not so much of Northern Ireland in the 60s and 70s as of the football terraces in the 70s and 80s. There are certainly legitimate grievances in our inner cities but setting fire to shops and terrorising pensioners isn't the way to solve them.

And thanks, Anna, for cheering us all up. Brilliant photos!

[Serial_Apologist]

Another thought about the Mark Duggan case that is being attrbiuted as the spark for all of this.

Does the black community never look to itself and wonder why it is that it puts up with such appalling levels of gangsterism and black-on-black murders and gun crime amongst its own. Indeed, a level of crime that it has its own dedicated police unit.

I sometimes wonder whether the Pentecostal churches, with all their talk of sin and the devil, aren't part and parcel of the problem of making people see themselves in the polarised images of saved and condemned. My cousin got involved in this end of the Christian spectrum just over 40 years ago; he said I was in the hands of the Devil and prayed for me constantly, so in consequence we have hardly communicated with each other since. Tell a person often enough from early childhood that they are weak and sinful, and maybe even possessed by devils, until they believe it through and through, and what do you expect?

I have seen parents bewildered to find out one of their sons had been involved in gangs and drug dealing: he was always a good boy, went to church every Sunday, etc. And then there's the case of little Victoria Climbie. The Powers That Were overlooked her case, it being assumed that she was in safe hands through her church.

I'm not saying belief in sorcery, evil spirits and so on did not exist before the missionaries, but they did nothing to discountenance those ideas, they just put the Christian gloss on them... and now it comes back to haunt us.

[Pianorak]

Wasn't going to post here but couldn't resist this one:

http://nathanieltapley.com/2011/08/10/an-open-letter-to-david-camerons-parents/

[scottycelt]

I blame the Archbishop of Canterbury ...

[amateur51]

Wasn't going to post here but couldn't resist this one:

http://nathanieltapley.com/2011/08/1...erons-parents/

Lovely stuff