UK riots this week. . .

[TheCoatman]

I just watched the news on BBC1 (reminded me why I never watch the news anymore. . . ) and a fellow interrupted an interviewee mid question by breathing on the camera lens (scummy) and saying something along the lines of "Oi! Talk to me, yeah!”. This delightful chap then proceeded to tell the cameras about how you just have to riot and smash up these shops because the Polish have taken all the jobs.

Now . . . here's what I would like to say to this man: Bollocks. Scratch your a**e and think -really- hard about this for a second you p****ng moronic c**t! The reason these Polish have 'taken all the jobs' is because Britain (and yes, by Britain I do mean you) got so fat and so proud off it's welfare state that it decided it was too good for all the 'menial' jobs out there and could get by just dandy on benefits and laziness thank you very much; the Polish then came over to the country and, for all else they may be they are hard workers and so snapped up all the open jobs that the good old underclassman was too good for. Eventually you realised that you weren't really good enough for, or capable of doing, any job that was paying higher than minimum hourly wage and that your benefits weren't actually enough to fuel your desire for a four hundred and eighty inch television so you decide you will actually accept the 'menial' job after all. Oh s**t; it isn't there for you anymore. So what's to do? Blame everyone but yourself of course! That and get fat on benefits and take out a bank loan to buy your umpteen hundred inch TV. What? The country's running out of money so I get less benefit? No easy ride anymore? RIOT!!

Now then . . . What Mr. F**k-The-Police probably doesn't have any idea of is that because of an obscure and outdated law called the Riot (or Damages) Act of 1886, insurance companies can request, and are entitled to, the cost of repairs on any property damaged by rioting from local authorities, police authorities or the government. Damages are already estimated to be over £100million. Plus on top of that the fact that all the extra police men and hours that needed to be utilised to deal with this 'situation' have to be paid for.

So. . . Congratulations Mr. Polish-Have-Taken-The-Jobs and Mr. I-Really-Need-That-42"-Television-To-Feed-My-Starving-Family that was caught on CCTV. . . You may have single handedly bankrupt the country. Win, right?

 

[sparkchaser]

If it is any consolation, that attitude is prevalent in the U.S., too but it hasn't gotten to the point where people are rioting (and hopefully it won't).

I hope that in the UK, a combination of facial recognition technology, the prevalent surveillance cameras, and dumbasses posting their pics on Facebook that there will be many, many arrests.

 

[TheCoatman]

There have been hundreds of arrests so far. . . many of them being young teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18.

The stupidest thing was probably people talking openly about looting on Facebook events pages dedicated to the fact. . . several people were arrested in Cardiff thanks to this!

 

[sparkchaser]

Disgraceful.

 

[SFG75]

Too broad of a brush perhaps?

Years of liberal dogma has spawned a generation of amoral, uneducated, welfare dependent, brutalised youngsters.

Not only do they know nothing of Britain’s past, they care nothing for its present.

They have their being only in video games and street-fights, casual drug use and crime, sometimes petty, sometimes serious.

The notions of doing a nine-to-five job, marrying and sticking with a wife and kids, taking up DIY or learning to read properly, are beyond their imaginations.

Katharine Birbalsingh article: Everyone makes excuses for them.

The last writers is a bit caustic for my liking, wow.

 

[abecedarian]

Why blame only the Polish? Surely they aren't the only ethnic group to move into Britain and 'take over' jobs others don't seem to want. And I'm not just talking about in recent years. I was doing some genealogical research this spring and found a book about German Palatine refugees who were sent from Amsterdam to London so they could find a new home. So many came that some were channeled to Ireland to work in the mills. Here I'd thought the first of my dad's line in America was Irish, now it looks like all he did was drag his toes thru the Irish soil for short time. That was around 1709..Immigrant and refugees have always been around and naturally there have been good and bad things that result in their migrations. Rioting and looting is a ridiculous way to handle any problem, but in this case it's a ludicrous and petty excuse for bad behavior.

 

[TheCoatman]

SFG75: I'll get around to reading those articles very soon, they both look like interesting sociological commentaries on the population. The prime minister said earlier in the week that "pockets of our community are not simply broken, they are sick." and this is a very astute observation, but I don't think it's fair to blame the entire state of the country on this handful of children who have been raised by children and a generation of amoral people with sub-standard education and far too much to say about rights and nothing to say about responsibilities - we are facing a global crisis at the moment with growing tensions in every class and with every type of person facing growing concerns over their future; not all of this can be blamed on the 'hoodies', some of it needs to laid at the feet of the people in power and at the feet of the students who protest for lower fees who exhibited just as deplorable behavior as the teenagers seen looting this past week, if not more deplorable considering that they were all university students who should have, and probably did, know better. I'm digressing and getting carried away here, so I'm going to end there but I do think a lot of people need to look in the mirror before they condemn the council estate teenagers as the sole problem in communities. (Just to clarify though - none of this is meant as any sort of attack on you personally! I have no idea who you are or know anything about you to presume to comment on your character!)

abecedarian: That is all true - people from poorer economies and poorer countries have always gravitated towards the stronger and richer economies of the west for obvious reasons, and they have always been more than willing to do the jobs that the people of that richer economy would rather avoid to seek more respectable work - the problem is that recently people have been avoiding these jobs because they have felt they can get by doing no work at all and so don't bother to expand their skill base in any way and thus not making them eligible for any sort of job that they would deem 'respectable'. My post was directed very specifically at one comment and incident which was about the Polish, who do seem to be the focus of the disdain when it comes to the lack of jobs in the UK at the moment, though you are absolutely right to say that it isn't only the Polish that are working hard in the jobs the British would rather not do.

 

[abecedarian]

One thing I've gleaned from all my reading is that necessity is the motherhood of invention. The many inventions, medical breakthroughs, social leaps, etc, have all come from folks seeing problems that needed attention and applying some creativity to solve those problems. That meant SOMEBODY had to be in the trenches getting dirty, doing the 'menial' and 'mundane' tasks that have to be done in any society. If you look at who actually made those discoveries and fixed those problems, only a small proportion of those people were wealthy. Some were of course, but many came from "lowly" backgrounds and found ways to overcome their meager backgrounds. I don't believe any work is demeaning, but unfortunately I seem to be in the minority on this one.


* But I still would like to get a different family member to clean out the fridge this time...

 

[TheCoatman]

Agreed. The problem is that people don't look at their jobs in terms of benefit to the community but rather in terms of financial benefit to themselves and in terms of how it looks on paper when they brag to their friends about it. Personally I enjoyed my time working on a farm this summer and didn't find it in any way demeaning, and in actuality found it quite refreshing to be working outdoors with my hands after so many hours spent in libraries and lecture halls exercising only my mind. Being an Anthropology student I came to learn, in theory, the value of community and hard work by studying cultures where all they had was community and the only currency they had was what was produced by the sweat of their brows. The problem we have here is that the idea of community has been completely destroyed, at least in big cities. I live in a small rural town and I find that community there is still very much alive. City living clearly breeds a sense of solidarity and suspicion where people are more concerned with their own problems than with the problems of the collective.

"And it's no surprise that all the f*ck-ups
Didn't show up until the kids had grown up.
But when no one ever smiles or ever helps a stranger,
Is it any f*cking wonder our society's in danger of collapse?"