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| Will we see more of these on our streets soon? |
Rioting, social disorder and challenges to authority have not been new in British Society. The latest problem dates from the vigil for Mark Duggan,killed by police in Tottenham,overheating into something different and violent. Some of the rioters were angry with the Police about this particular killing whilst others were just angry with the Police full stop and others probably wanted to exploit the situation for their own economic ends, in a period of high social pressure in areas of relative poverty. In 1981 I was a trainee accountant working for Greater Manchester Council when the Moss side riots broke out and I was seconded to the Riot Damages team. In those days if a riot occurred, the Police Authority (Us) was responsible for funding the damage. My job was to deal with the people who had lost their homes and possessions and who were claiming compensation from us for failing to control that explosive situation. It was an interesting but very difficult job and I really do understand the losses that people suffered last week. In the early 80's expenditure cuts contributed to a high level of unemployment and a lot of the riots were directed at the police and at destroying certain buildings although looting did not seem to be as prevalent as it was last week. There was also more of a racial element to the violence at that time. The riots then, seemed to be more driven by explosions of violence caused by groups reacting to their deprived and under invested surroundings. I am not sure that last week's riots were due to exactly the same factors.
In last week's riots there were clear pressures in place -- but these were also linked to criminality and a desire to steal valuable things and also to destroy buildings as well. The people who did this acted with impunity and exploited low police numbers to do it. They obviously did not see this as being morally wrong in their own eyes and this is the most worrying thing about the whole episode. Did they have any pangs of conscience about stealing things and trashing neighbourhoods or did they think that only other people and not themselves would suffer? Probably yes.
Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of the Kids Company which works with disturbed and excluded youngsters has pointed to the existence of an underclass of young people who have never worked, been excluded from mainstream society and have developed a perverse morality where crooks and drug dealers become the heroes and everyone else is just a mug for not getting ahead. In many instances gangs take the role of parenting and give these people a sense of belonging to something, even if it is deeply flawed. Many of these people do not possess a father figure which, combined with the economic circumstances they find themselves in, does not help matters. The combination in some areas of high unemployment, poor education , diminishing job prospects and a minimal stake in society form a dangerous cocktail which will express itself in violence on the streets. The danger of violence on the streets was always a likely consequence of the Coalition's policies and reports by the Runnymede Trust even named Croydon and Birmingham as likely hot spots of conflict. To be fair,this underclass has been developing in the UK for nearly 40 years and it is time that something was done about it.
Clifford Longley has quoted Dickens from Barnaby Rudge about the characteristics of an angry mob. It is worth reproducing this quote as follows.
" A mob is usually a creature of mysterious existence,particularly in a large city. Where it comes from and whither it goes,few men can tell. Assembling and dispersing with equal suddenness,it is difficult to follow to its sources as the sea itself; nor does the parallel stop here, for the ocean is not more fickle and uncertain,more terrible when roused,more unreasonable or more cruel."
Where do we go from here? Greg Clark the Tory MP has been appointed as Minister for cities and charged with leading the social,environmental and commercial renewal of the largest 8 connurbations outside London. Nick Clegg will chair a senior group of ministers charged with moving forward Mr Clark's agenda. Haven't we been here before in the 1980's with Michael Heseltine as the minister for Merseyside? Will we just throw some money at the problem and make things better for a few years and then things will revert back to what they were before? Perhaps we need a sustainable approach so that people can change themselves and their own surroundings for the long term.
Perhaps it is time for a more radical solution. An article in the forthcoming Guardian has argued that power has been concentrated in too few hands to the detriment of the majority of people in the UK. It argues that 1,000 citizens should be selected at random to sit on a public jury that will propose reforms to banking, and politics. The jury, to be funded from the public purse, would examine:
• Media ownership.• The financial sector's role in the crash.
• MP selections and accountability.
• Policing and public interest.
• How to apply a "public interest first" test more generally to British political and corporate life.
The scandals of MP's expenses, bankers bonuses and phone hacking have undermined our democracy and given certain parts of society a licence to misbehave. We need to bring back greater honesty and trust into society and tackle inequality more robustly. The riots of 1981 are not the same as 2011 -- there was some excuse for the 1981 riots, much less so for their 2011 equivalents.
The spending cuts have not yet bitten as strongly as they will in 2012/13 -- We do need to address these issues now to avoid any repetiton of such events in the future. Locking up the current rioters is required - but if the same social conditions persist won't other potential troublemakers just take their places unless something concrete is not achieved?
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