Not signed in (Sign In)
Categories
- Main Junction
- CROSSED
- London Zoo
- Freakangels
- Music
- Printheads
- Culturegasm
- Web Nuggets
- WorldWeird
- Blogs
Welcome, Guest
Vanilla is a product of Lussumo:
Documentation and Support.
This discussion has been inactive for longer than 5 days, and doesn't want to be resurrected.
-
...and somehow the police have given the EDL permission to march through Whitechapel in two weeks. Some people never learn. Racist rioting. Click here to help get it banned:
http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/page/s/ban-edl-march-of-hate -
@nigredo - the BBC have just issued an official apology for that one.
-
the EDL and BNP is hardly likely to get much gain from this
Don't bet on it. Look at the pictures that have made the papers.
Rioters and looters: Overwhelmingly brown.
Riot wombles, tea-makers: Overwhelmingly white.
Whether or not that reflects any reality on the ground (the first people I saw in my Twitter timeline organising cleanup were Arabic), the EDL/BNP/etc. will pick it up and run with it. -
Not to want to scaremonger, but seeing unsubstantiated rumours of people travelling to Birmingham to take revenge for the deaths of three asian blokes in a hit and run and this rumour in turn causing Birmingham football gangs to turn out against them, and the EDL coming out to get involved too.
Fuck knows what the truth is, but the rumours and chinese whispers in themselves are probably enough to cause problems. If you can, I'd get out of Brum, at any rate. -
-
CommentAuthorVertigoJones
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011
I don't believe that the riots that are ongoing, even in London, are continuations, or in any direct way related to the riot that occurred first off In Tottenham, where a group of all ready angry people were pushed a little further by a careless, and hopefully soon unemployed police officer.
The riots that have spread outside Tottenham are bonfires that have been getting piled with fuel since the riots of the early eighties. This country effectively turned its back on the poor then. Following a period of unrest caused by the the lack of inclusion of some areas in the countries future, we embraced a 30 year spree of complete and utter selfishness. We were taught what the rich wanted the rich got, what the middle class wanted, they took loans out on, that it was acceptable to pay people slave wages in every field of work from Hospitality to industry and gave a big fat fuck you to people who's achievements would often fall even further than that. Nothing matters other than the size of your televison. Successive governments have started to shout more and more loudly about "ooh, benefit fraud" "aah, the terminally unemployed" but have never done a single thing to stop it, All of the government schemes over the last 30 years regarding the concern for the "underclass" has been window dressing, a media spin to cover up the fact that none of them, Tory or Labour, really give a fuck about the lower classes because frankly, it wouldn't generate enough cash to be worth it. The industries in this country that traditionally employed the masses are gone, and no effort was made to replace them. The people who carried on the rioting, and who started it in the areas it spread to, did it because it will possibly be the one outstanding moment in their lives as they see it, there are literally hundreds of thousands of piss poor and disenfranchised kids in this country who have in no uncertain terms been told "You are worth nothing", and in a society where you are defined almost entirely by what you own, that has to be a fairly crippling social comment.
I've seen white, black and asian faces on the news the last couple of days and the common theme is probably that they are all piss poor and probably will never be anything else, Opportunity does not extend it's hand equally. Some of these people will be the the 4th or 5th generations of families that have been shunted under the carpet.
Added to this, There are people who just want to kick off, because it's fun, entertaining, fires are cool, and this is making the situation worse, because there are individuals who don't have an axe to grind, or grudge to bear, getting in on the act just to be in on it and personally I think this is the most vile possibility of these situations, not to say that they are acceptable even if there is a possible cause and effect.
I think the EDF and BNP will stand to do really well out of this, hideously enough . Blackburn appointed the BNP after the riots there, following.... Whites attacking asians. What the hate brigades do in situations like this is tout "cause" not "effect" and often the dialogue is "No wonder these kids attack minorities, they've taken everything from them" and in areas where there are extremely poor people, it works. Ricky Tomlinson, when being interviewed about being "in" the BNP as a teenager, stated "When you're young and your life is shit, you'll blame anyone for it".
In regards to the EDF marching in Whitechapel, I don't agree with banning it. If these idiots aren't allowed to exist in daylight, they'll exist in the Dark and that has much more severe consequences, Normally wherever there is a rally of dumb nazis, people with a little intelligence and humanity turn up to prove that we all can just get along, and the bonds between other groups get stronger.
Sorry. I've been listening to bankers voting for executing and flaying and at one point, "Putting them on the ark Royal and scuttling it" today. -
-
That is quite close to my vision of things, Mark. That is how I felt when shit happened in France a few years ago. I'm afraid such nightmares cost much more to the taxpayers than social helps which our government cut.
My better half told me that Cameron shut down public libraries at a tremendous scale, that too is fuel for that bonfire. Isn't it?
HAve you read the Motown guy Blog (André retweeted it so I guess you have) it's awesome and dramatically well written.
My thoughts are on you tonight again my friends and to anyone you can think of. Be safe! -
Police beating for no apparent reason
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
This pretty much guarantees another night of it. -
- CommentAuthoricelandbob
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011
Essentialy what VertigoJones has just said
what will be interesting is if David Cameron will use this as his "Falklands" moment. For those who may not know what this means Back in the Early 80's, his Gran Margaret Thatcher was VERY unpopular with record unemployment, riots, and scraping along the bottom in the opinion polls. Just then, Argentina decided to "take back" the Falklands and she used this to make a "War" that the UK easily won and meant that Britain became swamped in a tide of Feelgood jingoistic nationalism. She then swooped home on a massive majority a year later and we've been suffering for it ever since.
I'm waiting for people to start up again all those unpopular Right-wing ideas again. National Service, the death Penalty, getting out of Europe, more rights for businesses, the dismantling of the Welfare state (and then the NHS). And what worries me a little is that a few of these ideas may get some serious traction... -
-
CommentAuthorAndre Navarro
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011 edited
VertigoJones: well said.HAve you read the Motown guy Blog (André retweeted it so I guess you have) it's awesome and dramatically well written.
This is the piece Gekko mentioned. Also there's this Open Letter to David Cameron's Parents. Both quite worth a read.
Reuters quotes Assistant Chief Constable Gary Shewan as saying the following about the riots: "These people have nothing to protest against -- there is no sense of injustice or any spark that has led to this. It is, pure and simple, acts of criminal behaviour which are the worst I have seen on this scale." (UPDATE: I just checked the link again and for some reason his comments have been cut down to, "These people have nothing to protest against," Greater Manchester's Assistant Chief Constable Gary Shewan said. "It is, pure and simple, acts of criminal behaviour.")
I expect to hear a lot of similarly disingenuous comments over the next few days. Cameron's already got quite a headstart, as usual, with his disgusting speech that pretends all of this is happening because of a bunch of simplistically evil "thugs". -
-
- CommentAuthorEon
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011
Simply expressed:
When these things happen abroad it's a sign the country needs a change of government
when they happen here, it's time to change the people. -
- CommentAuthorroadscum
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011
I am too tired to make much sense here, so i'll just agree wholeheartedly with VertigoJones and show you a few pictures:
-
-
CommentAuthoreDave
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011
@ iceland bob : don't get me started on the falklands war. but raymond briggs got it right.
He doesn't get enough credit in the comics world, I think. -
-
- CommentAuthorWill Ellwood
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011
I have been told by my mum, who clearly is an honourable woman, that as a toddler I once threw up on Raymond Briggs at a Library Campagine event.
Just saying. -
-
CommentAuthormister hex
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011
If plastic bullets are good enough for the Irish, then they're good enough for the British.
Few complained when they were deployed against Irish children. (And they were and you know it.)
Just sayin'. -
-
- CommentAuthorFlabyo
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011
I can show you photos of loads of people in Guildford having a normal summer night out with their mates tonight if you want.
The way some sites are spinning it, the whole country is burning. When what we're really talking about is less people, nationally, than it would take to fill the away end at a Forest match. -
-
CommentAuthorYoav
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011
@ VertigoJones - I'm for the ban for many reasons. To avoid calculated, cruel escalation. To avoid public expressions and egging on of the racial element to a fearful and receptive media audience. To avoid the actual mortal danger of street violence. I do hear you though and similarly have had to sit through a conversation this evening where people suggested the police should using live ammo... and the people chatting were musicians.
I was on the streets before the elections door stopping Dagenham, and yes, the BNP was smashed there. Good, rational people came out. I just think that there is such a volatile atmosphere that this month a EDL march is just a bomb waiting to go off. On the flip side I've made films about the battle of Cable Street (75 years ago on October 4th) and Jews, Irish, Communists, Unions, the working classes and the local community came out to stop the fascists - this battle though was with the police trying to clear a way for the 'legal' march. These 'legal' marches are calculated to enflame racial hatred and maybe I just don't have faith the response will be the same as in the 30s. There's so much virile hatred out there now. Frankly I can't believe how little context it's being reported with. -
-
-
CommentAuthorGreasemonkey
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011
@Hex - check yer email!
@Flabyo - A mate of mine lives in Guildford, just posted on Facebook that everything's calm there. -
-
-
CommentAuthorJP Stargazer
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011 edited
-
-
-
CommentAuthorJP Stargazer
- CommentTimeAug 10th 2011
OK, now, seriously: I do extend my support for all the people who fight oppression in any form, anywhere in the world. My support for the rioters, IF they are in their right, that is. I'm amazed that it has been already three or more days since the incident that claimed Mark duggan's life and there has been no clarification whatsoever about the real circumstances surrounding said incident. The media could at least try to do a proper job about that.
-
-
- CommentAuthorEvJ
- CommentTimeAug 11th 2011
If plastic bullets are good enough for the Irish, then they're good enough for the British.
Few complained when they were deployed against Irish children.
Irish people complained, which is exactly why they shouldn't be used here. If the priority is stopping the riots, shooting rioters non-fatally is counter productive as it will just create a sense of grievance and encourage rioters to refuse to back down. Like in Northern Ireland.
In better news, there have been arrests in the Snoy/Pias fire case:
http://www.london24.com/news/crime/london_riots_arrests_over_sony_warehouse_fire_as_music_labels_mull_future_1_991056
Which is an encouraging development. I would have thought the really big stuff would be impossible to charge becase of a kind of rioter omerta.
This discussion has been inactive for longer than 5 days, and doesn't want to be resurrected.