- Let’s be honest. There’s a clear link with Islam (£) by David Aaronovitch, The Times
- Intellectual property is an innovation killer by Joshua Lachkovic , KernalMag
- Dumb Idea Hall of Fame by Aaron David Miller, Foreign Policy
- Nadine Dorries threatens Cameron's Party Leadership by Nadine Dorries, Daily Mail
- Boris set for party leadership? by Traci Watson, USAToday
- Anti-Israel students deface Star of David at student conference by Jonny Paul, Jerusalem Post
- Jihadist Videos on University Facebook by Rupert Sutton, Huffington Post UK
- Skintland: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose by Alex Massie, Spectator UK
- Green tax on conservatories by James Slack and Tamara Cohen, Daily Mail
- Saudi princess: What I'd change about my country by Staff writers, BBC
London rioters are the pampered children of the welfare state
London rioters don't need sympathy from leftist sociologists, they need to be taken off welfare dependency and to pay for their crimes.
For the last two nights, like many other Londoners, I have stayed up late watching clashes outside my window between Police and rioters. After seeing the burned out flats of Tottenham I wanted to make sure I could go to sleep safely.
What I saw, a Police car being trashed and a baton charge on Sunday and fighting again last night, was rather subdued by the standards of elsewhere in the capital. Following on from the arson in Tottenham, buildings were burned in Hackney, Croydon and Ealing.
There was always the danger that people on the left would seek to use this unrest as a vehicle for their own pet causes. Ken Livingstone proved again just what an irrelevant lump of 80’s nostalgia he is by blaming, not the current government, but that of Margaret Thatcher. Others have consulted their A level Sociology textbooks and pinned the blame on the rioting youths' “disenfranchisement” or “deprivation”.
None of this third rate Marxist rubbish holds up if you leave the lecture hall and come face to face with the rioters. It is almost impossible to think of a way these people are disenfranchised. Each and every one of them has the franchise. When they reach 18 they will have the right to vote. They may choose not to use it, but that’s up to them.
Neither did the rioters I saw look particularly deprived. The closest thing they have to a uniform are Franklin & Marshall jumpers which retail for about £60 each. Most of them were filming their rampages on iPhones which can retail at over £400.
The poverty these kids have is moral, not financial. Many of them come from broken families which derive most of their support from the state. Neither they, nor their parents, have ever had to face consequences or take responsibility in their lives. If a girl gets pregnant the state pays. If they’d rather pose about like a gangster than get a job, the state pays. And if they commit a crime state punishment is often a joke. So, they behave as they please.
It is true that they have no hope or aspiration but this is not a question of “exclusion”. They are forced by law to attend state schools.
White, black or whatever else, it is because many of them come from a culture which places no value on education. They would rather emulate some dim witted "music" star than knuckle down to school work. This accounts for much of their poor educational performance which adversely affects their prospects later in life.
And why should they value education and hard work? People who are used to having money thrown at them by the state have seen that you can be rewarded for doing nothing.
Happily, the sociological nonsense has been less widespread than it could have been and than it once would have been.
Tottenham MP David Lammy’s reaction was solid and unspectacular but after the disgusting response of the late, unlamented former Tottenham MP Bernie Grant after the brutal murder of PC Keith Blakelock (“What the police got was a bloody good hiding” he crowed after the policeman had had his head hacked off by a mob during 1985’s riots in Broadwater Farm) we have come some distance.
Even Diane Abbot broke the habit of a lifetime this morning by saying something sensible and backing curfews.
Curfews should be an obvious start. Beyond that, the police should be more proactive, seeking to hit and disperse the rioters -- take the fight to them. They should be looking at a range of tools from water cannons to tear gas to rubber bullets. And this is a perfectly liberal response, if you know what true liberalism is about.
The first governments arose out of the need for mutual defence. Over time, particularly in the last century, governments have taken on more and more roles. The state now tells you how often to exercise and spies on your bin bags.
But whether you agree with the state’s new functions or not, it cannot be denied that one of its core functions, before anything else, remains the protection of the people from domestic and foreign enemies. If the state cannot do that then it is well and truly failing.
Even a small state can do this. All but the most fervent of anarcho-capitalist should agree that this protection is the one core duty of the state above all others. There is no reason why a strong government must also be a big government.
One of the defining characteristics of the modern state is its monopoly on violence. It is now time to assert that monopoly. The government needs to act, it needs to act hard, and it needs to act now.
John Phelan blogs at The Boy Phelan and has written for Conservative Home and The Cobden Centre
Print
Brilliant article, describes the social situation perfectly. Well dont to point out that lefties will say this because of cuts etc.The riots should have, if anything, encouraged people to be against benefits as this is the sort of people it breeds.
Utter nonsense. Wake up and smell the coffee. The poorer people are the more desperate they are. Jobseeker's allowance is the primary reason that every youth in my street hasn't joined the riots, or started their own. You people have no idea.
Gerald Ford once said "a state that's big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take it all away" - a nice line, but I think it was writer Mark Steyn who actually nailed it by saying "a state that's big enough to give you everything you want isn't big enough to *stop* giving you everything you want...".
Jack, these people arent poor, they have designer gear and iPhones! I can smell something, but its not coffee.
Jack - utter nonsense yourself. Poor people are generally more decent than you give them credit for. That's why they are still poor. Theives are often quite well off. Drug-dealers make serious money and it's tax free. Your patronising tone suggests you don't atually know any poor people, other than in some air-head ageing adolescent view of the world, where they are "victims".
When East-European metal gangs recently nicked all the garden gates in my street, two lefty friends immediately sourced the problem. It's the cuts dont you know. The poor driven to stealing. Friends, but politically, niaeve twats
It was the problem identified after the riots of the 1980's. The problem was resolved in section 17(1) of the Children Act 1989. Services includes welfare benefits and are only provided if the child flourishes. In the event that the child didn't flourish in education, behaviour (i.e. not disorder) and health, then welfare benefits, including housing, were withdrawn. A series of fall back options were in place in the eventuality that housing benefit was withdrawn. One more generation on benefits, but their children must flourish. The left over Town Hall socialist interventionists in the local authorities couldn't bear it and it was never implemented it. Labour quietly evaded it with their Every Child Matters Agenda.
The Western welfare state that has grown out the evolution of capitalism in the last 100 years or so is almost akin to paying off the marginalised of society. I would expect to see more of this type of disturbance throughout the West in the coming months as all governments make cuts to adjust deficits that have arisen out of the excesses of previous years. The perceived injustice of the cutbacks that have happened and are to come will be will be paid for in looted goods and when enough has been taken the rioting will subside ....... for a while.
Jack 'Wake up and smell the coffee' Ugh, what a tiresome, herd mentality cliche. What is desperate about thuggish youths beating up an elderly Ealing man who protested their thuggery? What is desperate about a group of rioting thugs robbing a bleeding backpacker at the roadside? And what is desperate about these thugs torching shops with residents living above? Not financial, as you assert, but moral and rationale impoverishment.
Couldn't agree more with this article. The riots are a product of Labour's welfare state, but also of other decisions they took such as those which brought in migrants to take the unskilled jobs they should have had. Although I don't disagree that they don't place enough focus on education, part of this is because they have been driven towards poor subjects in order to boost league table rankings and have suffered from constant changes in education policy. www.tory-inquisitor.blogspot.com
Sickens me the way people make excuses for them. Bleating the likes of "you don't know what it's like to be poor and not have a job". I know EXACTLY what it's like to grow up poor (proper poor, not what these morons call poor) and not have a job. I also therefore know EXACTLY what it's like to grow up in a community blighted by these violent people who terrorise decent people on a day to day basis. The only difference between what your average council estate resident has been putting up with for years is that now they're ganging up on society as a whole instead of in their smaller groups their neighbour or the passer by. Idiot apologists have stopped us dealing with this menace for too long. Enough is enough. This article is bang on.
Why is the UK "debating" whether or not to use tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets? In the US the cops would have had those things from the start and used them as soon as the situation turned violent. It's not like the cops would be quashing a legitimate political movement. We're talking about criminals wantonly destroying/stealing the property of private citizens, attacking law enforcement, instilling a sense of fear amongst the citizenry, etc...
The article is spot on. The damage done to society by PC liberal thinking is immense. If any good comes out of these riots then it will be to shut the PC liberals up. The thugs behaved like this because they thought they could 'get away with it' They have in past why not now ? Lets wait and see what sentences are imposed on the first rioter, preferably blck to test the resolve of the judiciary, who is found guilty of looting.
What a pathetic A-hole you are. Support from the state? Are you serious? Do you work for the bankers?
Michael P McDonald Very articulate and well thought out response. I take it you seriously think it a given that the state - read taxpayer including tax paying 'bankers' - should fund feckless individuals who have no intention of realising their potential or contributing to society?
Innit blad! I get millions off of the state so I'm gonna go loot JD Sports just because I get millions off of the state!! If only you had sold off the schools and the NHS I'd get moral values, respect for the police and grow a better "culture" in my backyard rather than ganja. innit blad!! If only it wasn't for the international left-wing conspiracy to subdue the unremitting greatness of the White Man on his march to a North Oxford utopia. Oh and I don't give a f**** about pigs capping people in minicabs, nor the 333 people to die in police custody in the last 10 years, for me it's all about gettin' mo' money!! Actually it's about gettin' mo' shizz coz I'm so rich I could buy 64 iPods but I'm gonna go loot them instead. ;)
Michael P, can I ask why you felt the need to open your mouth when you had nothing to say? Oh, I actually work in the public sector.
"Curfews should be an obvious start. Beyond that, the police should be more proactive, seeking to hit and disperse the rioters -- take the fight to them. They should be looking at a range of tools from water cannons to tear gas to rubber bullets. And this is a perfectly liberal response, if you know what true liberalism is about."
No, collective punishment - curfews - are not liberal, and neither are you.
A small state doing a robust job in one of its core functions, protecting people from others who want to attack them and destroy their property, is perfectly liberal. There is nothing liberal about allowing people to destroy jobs, homes and commit murder. Liberalism doesnt equal license.
Spot on. These rioters have grown up in a welfare state that has done nothing but instill in them a sense of entitlement. They claim to be too poor to provide for their families yet many appear to have expensive clothing & phones. My concern is there is no sufficient deterrent. Today’s news reports someone was sentenced to 1 day in jail & has already been released. Prison is not an effective punishment. A day in prison is akin to a trophy for them, something to brag about. Community service is preferable-make them spend 100 hours repairing their destroyed communities. Similarly those needlessly on benefits should be made to do 10-20 hours a week community service-they’d soon try to get a job. Living on benefits must become less appealing.
I totally agree - excellent article. The benefits children who are paid for by the state and left to do what they like, form gangs harass their neighbours. Time to reel them in and chase their feckless parents and so called 'community leaders' who are coing out with the usual nonsense.
A very good article John Phelan. The truth needs to be told about the ethnic makeup of the rioters. There is a common denominator at work with these groups, and no one will face up to it.....and so it goes on until we head into oblivion. Goodbye dear England, it was good while it lasted.
What a shit article coming from someone who is obviously part of the privileged class. Power to the People.
"privileged class"? Yes Jenny, thats why I live in east London. I suppose we ca include you in the non-thinking class.
@ Jenny Power to the people indeed, but power to the decent, hard-working, law abiding people of this country who have put up with everything that cultural Marxism has thrown at them these last 30 years. Lots has been set about how these rioters feel 'disenfranchised and disconnected with society' - well, so do I. I've had enough of multi-culti, diversity, gender equality, community outreach workers, dumbed-down education (sorry, edukashun) and throwing money at problems. I would like my country back, please.
@ Michael Agree with you 100%. I would like my country back too, please. However, I am worried enough that it will never happen that I have obtained a permanent visa for New Zealand (gained through having studied through to BSc Hons and worked in science for 30 years - ie through my own hard work).
Jenny says:"Power to the People" You'd have to be thick to realise that when 'the people' thought they were gaining (and gaining in power) they were actually being manipulated by the Fabian/Marxist lot who were laughing at them behind their backs..
I don't see why one can't supposrt stronger measures and punishments for looters AND seek to understand their behaviour beyond dismissing them as mollycoddled thugs. Without trying to make excuses I've seen first hand the disregard for education and lack of aspiration and work ethic as a teacher and employer, and agree that the welfare situation has something to do with it. However, to dismiss perceived disenfranchisement as a precondition for this kind of anti-societal outburst shows how shallow and priviledged you view is. But, if these kids don't have the country, and people like Johanna don't either, then who does? Well, I have a good idea who and they clearly don't care either way...
This is not a protest *against* government. It’s a protest *in favour* of government. More government - much more. More benefits, more handouts, more ‘services’, provided by the government for ‘free’. And it is free, because people and businesses who work and pay tax foot the bill. By looting businesses and stealing from them, they are simply cutting out the middle-man of the benefits office. Because the government has taken the first tentative steps towards removing the warm, milky teat of the state in the form of spending cuts, they don’t like it. So they are simply taking their freebies by force. It is likely their violence will be rewarded with more ‘benefits’, and ‘community outreach’. And so it will go on.