The riots that have afflicted much of London and Kent, as well breaking out in other large cities around the country have drawn interesting reasons for them from both left and right. The left-leaning commentariat portray it either as a symptom of the cuts or as The Guardian puts it “a rage against exclusion from consumerist fulfilment.” The right attacks the ‘failure of multiculturalism’ – insidious code for immigration – while of course finding some angle to attack the BBC, which in the midst of the crisis is truly pathetic). The former continues the New Labour policy of proclaiming that if everyone has material wealth they will be happy and have an investment in society, while ignoring their consistent denigration of the family, boosting individual rights over that of any communitarian ideal – very odd for socialists. The latter are repeatedly demanding that the drawbridges are hauled up, even though the youthful idiots who are causing this destruction are a speck in the sea of well-behaved immigrants (and there are plenty of white kids involved too), not a microcosm. British insularity has often targeted the ‘alien’, even when great benefits have accrued to the country from immigration – if it wasn’t for the Angles and Saxons taking over much of the island, there wouldn’t even be an English race.
If these thugs were brought up correctly then they wouldn’t be doing this. A nuclear family unit isn’t a panacea and some single parents could also do a good job, but a lot of these young fools don’t really have anything in the way of a supportive family and so the gangs become their ‘family’. Thus, some Labour politicians are saying the budgetary cuts that are closing youth centres are causing the problem but it is only because of the failure of New Labour in office to promote family and social cohesion.
Anyway, it is too late to do something immediately, what is needed is generational and Labourite short-termism (which was terrified of being portrayed as nannying) was never going to be effective. These hoodlums have now meant that Mogadishu (since the Islamist rebels retreated) is now safer than London and that is truly unacceptable. This goes far beyond the death of one gangster muppet who was both big-time charlie and small-time loser – most of the rioters will have never have heard of him. This would not be tolerated in Northern Ireland – it is time to import those measures over here. Give the police (who may be playing a political game by tacitly standing by while the riots go on in a silent protest against cuts) rubber bullets and water cannons. Make the rioters feel the full force of the law by making sure sentencing puts them away for 20-30 years and remove whole echelon of scum from our streets. If this is war, then it should be fought with vigour. The responsible people must reclaim the streets.