General discussion for (Tottenham) riots

macaque_2

Clearly the Tottenham riots have implications for house prices, social inclusion, policing etc. So I would like to kick the discussion off with the following:

There was a young lady of Tottenham,
Who'd no manners, or else she'd forgotten 'em;
At tea at the vicar's
She tore off her knickers
Because, she explained, she felt 'ot in 'em.

flashnazia

Tottenham has a reputation for being 'rough'. Some car insurers won't even insure.

Never mind, it's all "the fault of the torees, bleat, they didn't give us enough money ennit, with my relative poverty and not being able to get the latest iPhone on my benefit money..."

jojo1964

Here we go again, Broadwater springs to mind, now waiting the copycat riots, wonder what spin the estate agents can put on it, lively nightlife possibly?

vivatifosi

I grew up in an area of urban deprivation and will never understand why, when people have such scant resources to start with, then destroy part of that which they do have.

Whatever the wrongs and rights of what happened on Thursday, what does that have to do with a little independent florist that has been burned out, or the people who have lost their homes above the shops, or those who need a low price local source of food but have lost their supermarket?

stonethrower

I was just going through Wood Green. A lot of windows broken and a few cars burned out, I haven't seen wood green mentioned on the news so I can only imagine what it is like in Tottenham.

lostinrates

I heard the report this morning on radio 4 and was shocked to find myself laughing at the closing line of the GNC in wood green being looted. Perhaps making sure the loot'll be fit enough for future rioting?

Viva, its an excuse for angry and greedy people. Its nothing to do with any form of outrage against injustice IMO, really...poeple gpoijng home with a rucksack full of the vit/min supplement of their choice are feeling outrage about the incident (of which I don't know the full details, but am I right that the police said someone was shooting at them from a taxi? Highly odd!). Or the person going home with a tv for himself or to sell on ebay is feeling his actions are directly attributable to an incident and are made not for self gain but as a stark and pointed political protest? It can only be about greed.

Now, whether peole are right to feel they deserve....that's a different issue.


I had an ''issue'' on a bus years ago in wood green. A gang of black girls didn't want to let me on a bus and asked me ''what u fink, you part da ghetto?''. I replied in broad west indian that I probably had spent more time close to their roots than they had. Today, I wouldn;t be brave enough. IMO, this is not a sign of deprivation....though I believe deprivation is very evident in that area, but rather a sign of people fieeling entitled, and frankly, that our society has been to ''soft'' with this attitude, and that this hasn't helped those people acheive...(I wonder what those girls on the bus are doing now?,) nor us as now it bites us. I wonder if the looted goods will substantially improve their lots in life? I very much doubt it.

drc

stonethrower wrote: »

I was just going through Wood Green. A lot of windows broken and a few cars burned out, I haven't seen wood green mentioned on the news so I can only imagine what it is like in Tottenham.

To buy a house in sunny, glamourous Wood Green, you would still need at least £150k.

stonethrower

drc wrote: »

To buy a house in sunny, glamourous Wood Green, you would still need at least £150k.

You would probably need a bit more than that.

Generali

I've lived in some of the more excitable bits of London and IMO there is a minority in those sorts of places that want things to kick off because it's fun. Balham used to be like that in the early 90s for example. If a drug seller was arrested then the next morning there'd be tens of young black men fronting up to the police by the tube station the next morning. It was rarely violent but the situation felt a bit like I imagine prison to be where the 'prisoners' didn't just want to be pushed around by authority figures.

My experience is that poverty can be imprisoning, being poor is bloody hard work so getting out of the situation requires a super effort. My hatred of socialism is driven by my personal experience of poverty: if it's easy to accept being poor then people will do just that. The role of Government addressing poverty should be to help people help themselves to get rich!

Then there are thieves that will take advantage of a situation when they can. That's a separate thing entirely.

stonethrower wrote: »

You would probably need a bit more than that.

£230,000 asked for a 2 bed terrace:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-19168902.html?premiumA=true

Presumably you'd get it for 210-220.

michaels

I wonder if the estate agents describe it as a 'stones throw' from the High Road?

vivatifosi

Yeah, get your own back on those fraudulent MPs, phone hackers, bankers and policemen by looting a local charity shop.

Though the twitter joke about the police having CCTV of people leaving with Bros albums and a stack of Clarkson books did amuse me.