The latest news just in is that NATO has recognized a group of rioters in Hackney as being the legitimate government of Great Britain and will start bombing the shit out of schools and hospitals across the country tomorrow morning
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Tuesday, August 09, 2011
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64 comments:
I'm not sure who's more angry, the commentators of the "right" on blogs and forums, or the rioters themselves.
henceforth all 'rioters' are now to be identified as 'rebels'
furthermore, the Metropolitan Police and British Army are now to be referred to as 'forces loyal to David Cameron'
.. there's more going up:
http://tinyurl.com/4yzu6ag
I've heard that troops loyal to that Cameron are engaging in systematic mass rape of 16-year old girls. This is awful, why doesn't anybody stop this Hitler from the Thames?!?
... The Bullingdon Butcher
One thing any humanitarian coalition won't be doing is seizing the UK's sovereign wealth fund
Not calling for ground forces:
http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/sports-breakfast/blog/2011-08-09/mercer-london-riots-par-worst-northern-ireland
... because it 'smacks of revolution'!
Peter Power on BBC calling for the police to act like infantry and mentions his role in writing the new cabinet office guidelines on crises.
"Peter Power on BBC calling for the police to act like infantry"
I've got some news for Pete, police in a couple of neighbourhoods did work like infantry - with armoured vehicles bombing down the high street and the police jogging behind in support
Expect more of the same next time
Peter Power announced he was running a drill covering the exact same events at the exact same locations at the exact same time as last night's events.
All a paper-based drill of course.
*May not have happened
It's all a conspiracy, apparently....
" Both conspiracy and deprivation are part of the complex and grim story, as is the cult of violence, especially guns, and a rage against exclusion from consumerist fulfilment. A new Scarman would no longer be able to explain these riots as an outburst of resentment against the police. But they are an outburst of resentment and a mark of manifold failure all the same."
Either that or a mechanism to get the public primed for times to come...
It's just possible that those times have actually arrived
Fars News Agency :: Iran Calls on Britain to Avoid Violence against Protesters
The sad thing is, there does not seem to be any united political front espoused by the rioters (I wouldn't call them protestors - what are they protesting about?)
It is the sad underclass of Britain today, devoid of any fulfilment (consumerist, family, society, artistic, employment).
Innit?
Only small subset of the generation being fucked over participated in last night's frolicks. A kind of demographic canary in the social coal mine
And, nice as a unifying ideology would be, it's not an essential requirement to give the existing system a serious headache
There's nothing preventing you being hungry for something - food, warmth, love, respect, a sense of purpose - without any underlying ideological basis
This time next year; rozzers - there'll be millions 'ere.
"LOOTERS, get over to the British Museum and see how the big boys do it"
http://twitterfall.com/ #londonriots
I'll just quote something from B3ta.com - "A few mishaps but the Olympic torch's journey begins."
Does anyone know if the big bagel shop on tottenham high street survived?It was one of my favourites.
"Does anyone know if the big bagel shop on tottenham high street survived?It was one of my favourites"
apparently, according to some people The Jews were enticing the rioters to destroy western civilisation with the offer of free beigels*
whilst meanwhile, in Woolwich
*=the spelling should give away where I get mine from
let's try that Woolwich link again
Problem, reaction, soft cheese and salmon.
A voice from the street and a voice that will remain unheard by the majority:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmo8DG1gno4
bloody joos undermining our way of life with their tasty chewy salty beef snacks.
I wonder if a met copper with clout at the home office has responded to the riots with a post-budget riot squad - y'know? 'Sorry PM,we misunderestimated the size of the problem and thought it would be a good test of your new proposals for a smaller police force'.
the guy in Bridgets link makes a good point..
A copper left his 2 dogs to roast to death in his car - almost immediately he was investigated and suspended.
A man is shot to death and we get an ever changing story about the shooting or silence from the police.
Is it any wonder they act like animals when they're treated worse than dogs?
Now you can smash all the windows that you want
All you really need are some friends and a rock
Throwing a brick never felt so damn good
Smash more glass
Scream with a laugh
And wallow with the crowds
Watch them kicking peoples' ass
But you get to the place
Where the real slavedrivers live
It's walled off by the riot squad
Aiming guns right at your head
So you turn right around
And play right into their hands
And set your own neighbourhood
Burning to the ground instead
Get your kicks in quick
They're callin' the national guard
Now could be your only chance
To torch a police car
Climb the roof, kick the siren in
And jump and yelp for joy
Quickly-dive back in the crowd
Slip away, now don't get caught
Let's loot the spiffy hi-fi store
Grab as much as you can hold
Pray your full arms don't fall off
Here comes the owner with a gun
The barricades spring up from nowhere
Cops in helmets line the lines
Shotguns prod into your bellies
The trigger fingers want an excuse
Now
The raging mob has lost its nerve
There's more of us but who goes first
No one dares to cross the line
The cops know that they've won
It's all over but not quite
The pigs have just begun to fight
They club your heads, kick your teeth
Police can riot all that they please
Riot-the unbeatable high
Riot-shoots your nerves to the sky
Riot-playing into their hands
Tomorrow you're homeless
Tonight it's a blast
Tomorrow you're homeless
Tonight it's a blast
Those police dogs are quite expensive
'Peter Power on BBC calling for the police to act like infantry'
Presumably many of the extra police drafted in to London tonight will actually be the infantry dressed up as cops?
Will NATO also be implementing a no-fly zone until Cameron agrees to leave the country?
Peter Power advocating the new normal.
PP is a little thin on detail in that extract
For instance, he doesn't mention if the police could shoot* kids in the back or whether they should wait until they turn around
Either way that's going to looking just fucking great on television, for all the world to see
* = with their Magic Wellness Bullets
Presumably many of the extra police drafted in to London tonight will actually be the infantry dressed up as cops?
My understanding is that there are already quite a few ex-infantry dressing up as cops full time
Loving the no-fly zone idea
If you don't mind me linking to Prison Planet, Paul Watson has written a piece on the riots:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-rioting-underclass-product-of-a-diseased-culture.html
I read that Watson piece earlier. Whilst it contains some valid material it struck me that there was no mention of the steady deterioration of the economic prospects of young people in Britain
It almost certainly must be part of the picture, whether Watson's 'droogs' can articulate it or not
Compared to when I was a teenager, inner city kids today have to pay for tertiary education through the nose, have fuck all chances of decent employment, with or without a degree and its associated debt, and even if they do get a job there's no way they'll be able to afford a place of their own. On top of that, when I was a kid the future was depicted as something to look forward to - all bacofoil jetpacks, personal robots and holidays on Moon bases. Kids today are constantly told that they're a burden on the Earth, everything's going to run out and they're destined to boil or drown
Given all that, does Watson expect them to actually give a fuck?
I would say you have a fair point there Stef, I'm having a tough time surviving myself - but I'm not rioting or looting the local electrical stores...
Economic reform won't come about through violent means, that's for sure.
Speaking of Prison Planet, wasn't there an article on austerity fascism written by one of the Watsons? I'm sure it's been covered on the site...
"but I'm not rioting or looting the local electrical stores..."
neither are the majority of kids
so, yes, other factors are at play here
what Watson's piece is lacking is any sense of empathy for the 'underclass' he is writing about
he talks about how 'We all need to wake up and realize we are being played off against each other...' but at the same time writes about the victims of our bankrupt culture as if they were vermin
I get that sense of internal contradiction a lot from Prison Planet articles which is one of the reasons why I am suspicious of AJ's crew
Well observed Stef, did you also pick up on a couple of colours being implied within Watson's piece?
"inner city kids today have to pay for tertiary education through the nose, have fuck all chances of decent employment, with or without a degree"
Tertiary education is now part of an apartheid system: those without a degree have a very much poorer chance of getting a job than those with a degree, even though the job doesn't require a degree.
(As an aside, I'm curious to know how many jobs require a degree?)
Kate Tempest - Cannibal Kids - YouTube
We were suckled on the milk that they soured
Told the future was ours
And then disembowelled and disempowered
Weve been disgraced, deafened and deflowered
Our brains brutalised and our defiance devoured
In terms of policing, one of the clearest effects to emerge from studies of riots and crowd control is that an indiscriminate kicking from riot police can massively increase the number of people in the crowd who become violent.
Mind Hacks
Well quite
Which is why the fact that the police stood back doesn't strike me as prima facie evidence that a riot is what the state wanted
And the flaws in alternative media analyses are becoming increasingly clear
Most of the net based commentators I'm reading seem to be prisoners of their dogma as much as their corporate media counterparts
I find it hard to empathise with kids who:
-Probably still live with their parents, and therefore don't have the same concerns of paying rent\bills\homelessness that I do
-Burn down people's stores and homes, effectively nullifying any sympathy I may have had for them, especially as it will reduce their own job opportunities
-Aren't starving like the ones in the Middle East, where people rioted over basic freedoms and food prices, not LCD TVs.
Sorry Stef, I'm finding it hard to agree with you on this. We'll just have to call it a day on this discussion.
Do we actually disagree that much?
I empathise with them but that doesn't mean for a second that I condone what they have done
I know people who personally defended their own businesses and livelihoods this week and fair play to them
Like I said, the Watson article discussed above has points that I agree with but he seems to lose sight of the fact that the people he despises are victims of the system he opposes
There's a line in Manhunter where the hero says something like..
"As a child, my heart bleeds for him. Someone took a little boy and turned him into a monster. But as an adult... as an adult, he's irredeemable ... As an adult, I think someone should blow the sick fuck out of his socks"
The question is, now that we've got to where we are, what should the rest of us do for or to the rioters?
Lock them all up? The UK already has world-class prison demographics
Hit them with sticks until they stop feeling alienated?
Blow them out of their socks?
Work on the basis that they probably are redeemable?
These people are just the tip of the iceberg. The majority of their generation is fucked and that's the bit I empathise with - not the violence and the thieving
"Which is why the fact that the police stood back doesn't strike me as prima facie evidence that a riot is what the state wanted"
I get the impression that the vast majority of public order policing has been aimed at political rallies. That is, people who are committed to the political process and their country/community/whatever. When confronted with people intent on robbery and looting, the police appear to be snookered: previously developed strategies appear to be non-applicable.
"That is, people who are committed to the political process and their country/community/whatever"
and, as a more practical issue, people committed to being in a particular place en masse at a particular time
easy peasy
unlike a huge number of small, mobile groups popping up all over the place
not so easy peasy
...and, yes, snookered is the word
problem-reaction-incapable of offering any solutions
When we see Peter Power on TV calling for people to be shot on sight, it might be worth bearing in mind Peter Power's chequered past involving his 'promotion' from The Met™ to the most prestigious Dorset police, just prior to his 'retirement' on grounds of 'ill health' after a file on him was passed to the Director of Public Prosecutions following an internal investigation.
Mind you, factoring in the turgid, racist bile he spouts everytime the opportunity arises, it may well have been grounds of ill mental health.
Hit them with sticks until they stop feeling alienated?
Blow them out of their socks?
Work on the basis that they probably are redeemable?
Well if someone throws a molotov at me, they can expect equal force used in response. If this were the US, I'd be within my rights to shoot such an attacker.
As for actual solutions: well, the middle class were too busy voting themselves free money in land values\house prices to care about the destruction of the real economy... the working class generally don't vote... and the rest benefit from the current arrangement.
It's all very well me spouting off a list of a policy reforms, but if they can't actually be implemented it's not very realistic is it?
"the middle class were too busy voting themselves free money in land values\house prices to care about the destruction of the real economy"
and we're still suffering the consequences.
Stacy Herbert pointed out that in oil rich countries the rulers didn't have to worry about the population. The population didn't matter to the overall economy of the country and hence ruling elite. Looking at our economy from 1996 onwards, we had the city of London as the largest income provider for the country. As a consequence, everyone else (unless they were a special interest group, read public sector) could get stuffed.
"the middle class were too busy voting themselves free money in land values\house prices to care about the destruction of the real economy... the working class generally don't vote... and the rest benefit from the current arrangement"
nicely summarised
BRITAIN was last night urged to avoid the schoolboy error of thinking people like Melanie Phillips may have been right all along.
"It's all very well me spouting off a list of a policy reforms, but if they can't actually be implemented it's not very realistic is it?"
People don't see any meaningful reforms being proposed, much less getting anywhere near being implemented, which itself is a source of much anger and frustration.
Quite the opposite in fact. There's a generation+ confronted with the prospect of cuts, closures and claw-backs in tandem with the most recent global crisis of capitalism, all presided over by a coterie of ruling class crooks.
And all of this is now on track to be backed by even more legalised brutality unleashed by the biggest gang of armed gangsters of all, the State.
With meaningful reform completely off every politico's agenda, what options are left the dispossessed, the disenfranchised and the downtrodden?
Or, as JFK succinctly put it nearly 50 years ago:
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
"the middle class were too busy voting themselves free money in land values\house prices to care about the destruction of the real economy... the working class generally don't vote... and the rest benefit from the current arrangement"
What a load of fucing crap.
In what way?
There's a huge divide between those who locked in their housing costs by buying before the boom and those who were too young, debt-averse or otherwise incapable of doing so
And many of those home-owners are complicit in the on-going shagging of the economy which they believe will protect their unearned gain
Housing is the only essential commodity that I can think of which some consumers are absolutely gagging to see double or treble in price - just as long as it's after they've bought one
.. the bit I would quibble with is that it's the young rather than the working class who generally don't vote
grannies are old enough to know what's good for them and pursue it tirelessly
ok, maybe not tirelessly
the question uppermost in my mind right now is whether tossing a couple of cinnamon sticks into a demijohn of apple juice I've just set up for fermenting is a stupid idea or not
the net is suprisingly quiet on the matter
fuck it, why not...
Changing demographics brought on by the gentrification of many of the London boroughs that were hit, Hackney, Brixton etc, predicated on house prices is one of the issues for many communities and has certainly informed the response of so many of the middle-classes living check by jowl with these council estates. David Lammy even talked about house prices in Tottenham falling ffs.
“I genuinely think that there are people out there, in the church and the judiciary and politics and the media, who actually fear, physically fear the idea of this great, gold bling-dripping lumpenproleteriat that might one day kick their front door in and eat their au pair.” Stephen Pound MP (quoted in Chavs by Owen Jones)
One rare occasion that we actually heard any of the voices of the youth aboove the shrill educated voices denouncing feral scum:
"It's us versus them, the police, the system," said an unemployed man of Kurdish origin in his early 20s, sitting at the entrance to a Hackney housing estate with four Afro-Caribbean friends who nodded in agreement.
"They call it looting and criminality. It's not that. There's a real hatred against the system," he added, listing what he saw as the police prejudice, discrimination and lack of opportunity that led him and his friends to loot shops, torch bins and hurl missiles at police on Monday.
"There's two worlds in this borough. More and more middle classes are coming and we're being pushed out. The shops are pricing stuff like it's the West End, we can't afford the rents. We're the outcasts, we're not wanted any more.
"There's nothing for us."
Source
Tonight's Question Time audience reflected this changed demographic - no doubt Lib/Con voters to the core. If the rioting had only affected working-class neighbourhoods - as they previously had in the 80's, the response would be different. As it is the terrified middle class who are the most dangerous class in society (as could be heard with their complete contempt for these youth) whilst staring into the abyss when their credit cards run out who will scream for the state to protect them.
Singling out Con/ Dem voters doesn't work for me. The Labour Party and its supporters are plenty culpable. Come to think of it, the Labour government was able to pull off some heinous stuff the Tories would never have dreamed of getting away with
And, as has already been mentioned earlier, it would be a lot easier to make the case that the riot and looting this week was a cry of rage against the politicians and bankers if the rioters had lashed out at some actual politicians or bankers
What a load of fucing crap.
In what way?
you'll have to forgive me lapsing from my usual levels of politeness and spelling, but:
I don't agree with the implicit definition of middle class, there is the underclass, the working class and the ruling class.
The upper end of the working class (in the highly skewed top quintile) could be described as middle class but the majority of them will be dependent on working for their standard of living.
Take away their jobs and they'll end up gawking dreamily outside JD sports.
The bottom 60% of rely on transfer payments to supplement their income
No one in the under or working class chooses anything. There has been no policy competition for the last 30 years.
Its a set menu and the only option is the business lunch
The benefits of house price ramping are temporally,spatially and economically limited. For the vast majority of owners, its merely a nominal gain. If you've missed the boat, you're fucked. The median household income won't even get you a starter flat in dagenham, assuming you can save the deposit.
A housing boom is a direct analogue of a smashed JD sports window. You might not have created the situation, but if everybody else is at it at, you'd be a mug not to join in.
Early adopters benefit most.
Late entrants get fucked.
There's a huge divide between those who locked in their housing costs by buying before the boom and those who were too young, debt-averse or otherwise incapable of doing so
That is the inevitable outcome.
And many of those home-owners are complicit in the on-going shagging of the economy which they believe will protect their unearned gain
Beyond the policy elite, I don't think it was intended by the participants. And there will be no long term unearned gain if demand is so drastically constricted. Few real winenrs, but that's the way its supposed to work.
Housing is the only essential commodity that I can think of which some consumers are absolutely gagging to see double or treble in price - just as long as it's after they've bought one
I think the Bank of England were equally happy to take this view, while focusing its hawkish eye on the economic terrorism of wage inflation.
This is the most incisive analysis I have yet to read:
Public opinion has seen a massive shift to the right. This has been demonstrated by the thousands of tweets and Facebook messages calling for violent retribution to be enforced on those caught rioting instead of a sensible call for us all to understand the social conditons that have led people to riot (be that consumer ideology, thuggery or general disaffection). This deeply conservative shift has been surprising, but perhaps it shouldn’t be.
What this really shows is the inherant contradiction in postmodern liberal ideology. Indeed, there seems to be a nasty undercurrent of middle class resentment towards disenfranchised, perhaps working class, youths expressed in the aftermath of the riots. The ideological manipulation at the heart of the clean up operation doesn’t help. As my compadre and Birkbeck classmate Jacob Bard-Rosenberg of The Third Estate puts it:
Sifting through the tweets tagged with #riotcleanup there is swift equivocation: at once the physical act of clearing rubble from the streets merges with the act of cleansing the street of black youths. The cleaning of streets amounts to the wiping away of traces of social unrest. Cracks in society are smoothed over and at once an oppressed underclass is rendered invisible again.
The London Riots and the Liberal Crypto-Fascist Aftermath | Geist Bites
which strangely I came across just after writing my own far less coherent analysis above and quoted the youth who said:
"There's two worlds in this borough. More and more middle classes are coming and we're being pushed out. The shops are pricing stuff like it's the West End, we can't afford the rents. We're the outcasts, we're not wanted any more.
"There's nothing for us."
As for Lib/Con voters, the middle classes deserted Labour at the last election for that 'nice Mr Clegg' which is why we have this bunch in. However you choose to categorise the Labour government, the Labour Party was the party of the working class. That they serve the same masters is undeniable, Blair's first act was to destroy the Socialist nature of Labour via amending Clause IV.
The main reason I looked into the events of 7/7 was because I instinctively felt a massive change occurring - a change that would herald in fascism. Divide and rule. Now the voice of Britain is a Muslim man who lost his son - caughty up in a maelstrom of media attention in his heroic acceptance of his fate.
"...the Labour Party was the party of the working class."
And jolly ungrateful they were for it too. Sidney Webb must be dancing in his grave.
I wonder what they said about the Peasants' Revolt?
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