Blame it on the cuts

hallmark

D'oh yes tax not inflation.

geoffky

DervProf wrote: »

You may well be right. However, it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that this sort of behaviour could be triggered by the youth feeling hopeless about their future. Yes, these hooligans could get a good education and a decent job, but could it be that they are now thinking that getting access to a decent education and a job afterwards is now limited.

It's OK for those who live in their ivory towers to critisise the current rioters, telling them that they behave themselves and be more responsible. I'm sure a lot of these young people are probably unemployed and we'd be happier to see them working in McDonalds rather than wrecking it.

To those tower dwellers who look down on "burger flippers", how about showing a little more respect to those who do bother to work (even if it is a low skilled job), rather than treating them as a failure in life. I think that part of the reason for these riots is the feeling of being the "have nots", rather than just being totally random vandalism. Not that I'm excusing their actions or saying that it is exclusively down to the current economic climate.

The most sensible post in 3 days...at last someone gets it...get out and talk to young lads and oh boy are they !!!!ed off at their future.This is not to excuse the destruction but when you have no representation were do you turn.

And the people who are just calling them mindless thugs and criminals are stopping the politicians from being asked the really hard questions they all have to answer..you are letting the politicians off the hook.

Loughton_Monkey

geoffky wrote: »

The most sensible post in 3 days...at last someone gets it...get out and talk to young lads and oh boy are they !!!!ed off at their future.This is not to excuse the destruction but when you have no representation were do you turn.

I don't understand what 'representation' you mean, or what it really has to do with it? The main issue is that whatever plight you are referring to [and let's all agree these lads may feel little hope] we must remember that there are literally tens of thousands in exactly the same boat. 99.5% do not choose to go out onto the street with petrol bombs, set fire to shops/factories, and steal from all the shops. Only a few hundred - perhaps a thousand are choosing to do this.

I find that even the slightest ounce of sympathy, or even 'understanding' of this 0.5% is about the biggest insult you can make to the other 99.5% in the same boat who 'live with it'.

geoffky wrote: »

And the people who are just calling them mindless thugs and criminals are stopping the politicians from being asked the really hard questions they all have to answer..you are letting the politicians off the hook.

Not quite. The mindless thugs and criminals are, themselves, creating huge financial damage, and diverting politicians and others from dealing with economic matters that ultimately could improve things.

Joe_Bloggs

The fact that these events can and do repeatedly happen undermines the confidence that the people have in the police and those that claim to have any authority over them.

Clearly the Metropolitan Police cannot act unsupervised without the Home secretary or Major of London , given their respective recall to base. Clearly the Metropolitan Police can not act without reinforcement from the rest of the UK. What has happened to their intelligence and effectiveness ? Was it lost in a bureaucratic misunderstanding or was it ...

J_B.

freeoffers

MacMickster wrote: »

I agree with you largely, but as a parent there have to be times when its "do as I say".

Of course, but I would not ask him to do anything I wouldn't do, or haven't done. Yes, there are "discussions", but I remind him that he isn't quite 16 yet!

StevieJ

ButterflyBee wrote: »

There were 6000 police on the streets of london last night, the police are prohibited by red tape from clobbering the culprits regardless of the destruction they are causing. All they can do is arrest, when it all calms down, take them in without causing physical harm and start the long drawn out process of interview and question (at a huge cost to an already overstreched budget). If the police handled the rioters with the necessary robust action this would once again have been called racist?
.

Not quite in tune with some of the videos I have seen on youtube.