Utter bollocks.....just carry on blaming everyone else except those that cause this mayhem and it will continue. This is an insult to all hard working decent people who choose to improve themselves by their own endeavours and not by clinging onto the state and if that does not yield enough new mobile phones, trainers and LCD TV's, then go out robbing...
Blimey, the hypocrisy on here is outstanding....
You do appear to be implying that all of those people rioting are in fact living from the State. Something which,as far as I know, has not yet been proved - there may indeed be hard working people amongst them as well ! What I am saying here is not that we can blame society for everything - obviously there comes a point where all people must bare responsibility for their own actions - however, the idea that all people can improve their lot by their own endeavours is not born out by statistical analysis which shows a remarkably sluggish rate of social mobility in all western countries. Show me one millionaire who came by their money without inheritance, criminal activity, dodgy speculations or tax evation ! Of course those involved need to be punished - but at the same time we cannot lose sight of the larger picture of society. In Britain we have the worst figures of teenage binge drinking in Europe. Children being treated for alcoholic poisoning at ages of 10,11 or 12 - is it all their fault ? We also have 3 times more teenage pregnancies than other European countries - can we focus all of this on the individual ? Or do we come to the conclusion that we are failing our youth in some way ?
Fantastic post cologne!! I agree that the class divide is a big issue in why a lot of these things happen. However, there are a lot of people out there who use that excuse and hind behind that logic to continue to leech off the state and the hard working men and women. I am not saying I am a saint but since I was fired from my job (for my own stupidity, no one else's) I have not claimed a penny yet I am more than entitled to. I just would prefer to stand on my own two feet and support myself as my parents and grandparents did! There is a member of my family who refused to work for 20 years and claimed every benefit she could, whilst having an affair and getting maintenance from he father of the two kids resulting from it. There was no reason she could not work, it was just easier not to and she got more money on the benefits. The government make it too easy to sit and not work but and arse to get into work and then you get charged an arm and a leg in tax for the privilege.
I understand the shock tactics did not work under the thatcher regime but in the 50's it did work. If you want an example of what I mean type "Bad lads army" into YouTube and watch some videos. They took criminals and lazy gits and made them work and it opened their eyes. I think this would work even with today's teens and 20-30 year olds as it is them who are the major offenders.
Oh and welcome to the site!!
Can you remind me of Maggies shock tactics, I don't recall them apart from a pretty effective raid on the falklands. Hard line with that commie criminal scargill worked to rid the country of an inefficient industry, if we'd been harder on BL earlier we'd still have a decent British owned car industry. Look into the corruption of that eminent labour leader of the time whilst at Uni (I was at the same uni a few years later and heard of his exploits). Stop blaming society and government, they provide a framework which for the most part is effective and I agree is not perfect but the vast majority of this problem is from the family and yes the national lottery, big brother, katie price fame and fortune culture. Oops shouldnt use that word culture for this total lack of culture.
I lived through the Maggie years and as Norway can testify I was pretty far to the left in those days but then I experienced life and grew up! Even though we had problems with high unemployment, the nuclear threat and when I was at Uni the severe cutting of grants I never rioted. I was apalled at the time when I did go on a student march which ended in a park in Cardiff where we were adressed by some ANC representatives. They were sp;outing about how we should take up arms and topple our evil regime. It was at that point I left and started to leave the left!! There have always been those who incite violence but I fear the current generation are more vulnerable as we havent taught them proper values.
I think you can partition these "rioters" into a couple of groups. 1) Criminals who before this have been living a life of crime outside the law. These are involved in drugs, gangs etc and used the opportunity to expand their activity. 2) Youths caught up in the culture of have what you want without working for it and society will turn a blind eye anyway. The second group are the majority and are also the ones who are easy to deter/turn back to normality. The former are the ones who need hard action. How to diferentiate, well thats a problem.
so much better than recent evenings! Whats happened riot wise tonight are the authorities regaining control ? Are our political leaders coming up with any good ideas?(well I can hope)!