I'm sure I heard that Tottenham were doing something.
And I know that the guy who owned Carpet Right in Tottenham (that building that was torched on Saturday night, very iconic photo) said that he was looking for the people who lived above the store so that he could help them out however he could.

Sony has come forward and is repressing most of the DVDs and BDs lost in the fire, not sure about the music. I'm guessing that's a combo of insurance and being nice.

i liked this article

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

^ Fucking Harperite eh !

uhhh. actually i'm a south african living in Canada. so i'm more 'bru' then 'eh'

..and harper can go lick a goat's salty nutsack.

cool then ! But that kinda anti-liberal right wing recuperation of the UK riots can also lick a goats salty nuts as far as i'm concerned.

Yeah i'm not clicking on a Daily Fail link. Ever.

If it's not the dirty immigrants it's the youth. Nevermind the bankers awarding themselves millions in bonuses, or the MPs who for years have taken taxpayer-paid holidays and fiddled their expenses

jesus guys, it's not that bad an article.

dismissing it immediately as right wing bullshit or daily mail spew is not exactly taking the conversation forward.

he makes one or two interesting points. not everything has to be black and white.

seeing as you have some hate for right wing media though, here's a pretty good piece on Roger Ailes

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/au ... CMP=twt_gu

In all seriousness, you may not know just how the Daily Fail is viewed over here. Not even strictly as right wing filth, but just as the ultimate in trash, hardly worth using as kitty litter filler.
There's a reason, Geoff wouldn't even click on the link, many people refuse to do so, so as to avoid increasing their stats.
Beyond that, I personally doubt, considering the amount of middle class twattiness and racist bullshit they spout, that reading that article will do anything other than increase my blood pressure.

This is a fairly complex matter, that may not be full of shades of grey, but I think that most people can agree... or ought to agree, that the core issues will not be addressed properly, no matter what we want.
The police and politicians over here have been found out to be corrupt, scamming, thieves, who have been completely let off the hook and continuously making excuses for each other or covering their tracks only to be found out time and time again.
Meanwhile, they are denying and berating the younger generation. Collapsing the economy, racial profiling, beating and killing people without even being put on suspension or held accountable AT ALL. Just passing on blame.
How are they going to address the issue of the riot?
They are talking about removing benefits from people convicted.... yeah, making them homeless and penniless.... bright idea, huh?

The riots are over due to rain.

Well said, backtrack! I read the article yesterday, and was immediately shocked and horrified by many of the author's statements. I think he may have a more palatable take on the situation than what's immediately on the surface, but it's so obscured in name-calling and bigotry that he just comes across as someone who is completely out of touch with reality. On the surface he appears to blame the youths' problems on them as individuals, but I seem to recall some recognition of social issues at work - which, IMO, is where most of the "blame" lies. When wide swathes of the population are dumber than their social equivalents from decades past it's a social issue.

i didn't know that, thanks for taking the time to address it. I can't even find decent coverage of what's happening on TV here (admittedly I have a very basic cable package) which I find really worrying.
I've resorted to just following events on the live Guardian blog.



in moments like these where you witness the absurdity of logic and action from the forces that are meant to be in charge, it's really hard to see a positive outcome.
I was reading an article here on the fukushima fall out which centered around the Japanese governments hiding of information that put people at risk.
With examples like this of late, you can't help but feel that we are heading to a boiling point. There is just such a severe distrust of corporations, governments and leaders that it's easy to see a showdown coming.

i tend to be more emotion than logic driven, and so for me what I really can't understand is, at a very basic level, the complete lack of empathy from everyone involved. From the powers that govern, to the cops with families that enforce absurd procedures, to the kids that rifle through a kid's backpack, while he bleeds out on the street with a broken jaw.

Hold on! You live in Mexico??
No, seriously, unfortunately this is not exclusive for the UK, apparently it has gotten to a boiling point there but I think it's just a matter of time for other to follow.

An open letter to David Cameron's parents.

my favourite part

---
"Just let me be clear about this (It’s a good phrase, Mr and Mrs Cameron, and one I looted from every sentence your son utters, just as he looted it from Tony Blair), I am not justifying or minimising in any way what has been done by the looters over the last few nights. What I am doing, however, is expressing shock and dismay that your son and his friends feel themselves in any way to be guardians of morality in this country.

Can they really, as 650 people who have shown themselves to be venal pygmies, moral dwarves at every opportunity over the last 20 years, bleat at others about ‘criminality’. Those who decided that when they broke the rules (the rules they themselves set) they, on the whole wouldn’t face the consequences of their actions?

Are they really surprised that this country’s culture is swamped in greed..."
---

It appears I left just in time. No wonder so many police were out after Field Day, as Tottenham was going off as we all left the fest in Hackney last Saturday.

Makes me sad. And talking every night to family in London - they are even sadder. The charity owned thrift stores where my partner shops regularly were smashed in and destroyed - thats really sticking it to teh man eh? Wankers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/1 ... CMP=twt_gu


Probably the best article i've seen on the riots so far, and from a quite unexpected source!

ha! what does the English youth think of Mr. Brand? Is he popular over there?

You can add Italy to the list any day...

I can only agree with you, thanks for posting.

so I'm guessing A Child Called "It" is not on the reading curriculum in the UK. I was an abused/neglected child both from my parents and society and every time I feel bitter about it I think of having read that book and I think to myself wow I'm a little I FART A LOT for whining about this shit, life sucks no matter where you live, I can think of few countries were the interests of the rich are not looked after 1st and formost over all, but lashng out at the other chunk of the populous that suffers with you is asinine, I just hope the majority of these kids snap to it and learn a few lessons before they do irreversable damage to themselves and there cities

I think people tend to either love him or hate him here, i personally really like him.

Ugh, painful reading but I agree with these nuggets:

"I found those protests exciting, yes, because I was young and a bit of a twerp but also, I suppose, because there was a void in me. A lack of direction, a sense that I was not invested in the dominant culture, that government existed not to look after the interests of the people it was elected to represent but the big businesses that they were in bed with."

"Politicians don't represent the interests of people who don't vote. They barely care about the people who do vote. They look after the corporations who get them elected. Cameron only spoke out against News International when it became evident to us, US, the people, not to him (like Rose West, "He must've known") that the newspapers Murdoch controlled were happy to desecrate the dead in the pursuit of another exploitative, distracting story.

Why am I surprised that these young people behave destructively, "mindlessly", motivated only by self-interest? How should we describe the actions of the city bankers who brought our economy to its knees in 2010? Altruistic? Mindful? Kind? But then again, they do wear suits, so they deserve to be bailed out, perhaps that's why not one of them has been imprisoned. And they got away with a lot more than a few fucking pairs of trainers."

I don't know.... if lack of money, education, parenting, jobs, etc. are the cause of all the rioting, we should be having more riots all over the world right now.


personally I think when a spark is ignited, idiots take the opportunity to fuck shit up.

reminds me a bit when the Lakers won the championship and the idiots in LA started a riot in celebration...

And, like, all throughout history it should have been a daily occurrence.

David Cameron considers banning suspected rioters from social media
PM says sites such as Twitter and Facebook 'can be used for ill' and that broadcasters should hand footage of riots to police

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/au ... cial-media

seriously? wtf? why not block cell phones and internet access at the same time?

this guy is an idiot too