Politics Needs to Wake Up and Admit they Have FAILED

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say we're a little fed up of the politicians using these riots as an excuse to score points off each other. The Conservatives try to make every attempt that Labour makes at explaining the root cause of the riots as a condoning of the riots. I'm thinking in particular of Diane Abbot's comments being chopped up to make it look as if she did exactly that, which she very clearly didn't - and they refused to apologise to her for it. Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London, appears to be the only person who knows how and why the riots kicked off. He rightly called Boris Johnson out about his flip-flopping; Johnson agreed to the cuts in police, and has only changed his mind with the benefit of hindsight. Livingstone would never have done that.

David Cameron as can be expected seems more interested in spouting out meaningless rhetoric. He calls for firmer penalties for breaking the law, he calls for harsher police tactics and has even called in a US ‘supercop’ who - no offence to my American friends - does NOT reflect the needs of the British public diddly-squwit. Moreover the US police force are not really the ideal people to be asking on riot control, and while I have never liked to defend the British police, I can understand out police's frustration at Cameron's pointless and potentially harmful actions statements about their inability to handle the situation. It was them who ultimately put down the riots, not him. Even if they were slow to react to the situation, the best response Cameron can expect from his empty statements about the police are "pot. kettle. black."

Where was he and the rest of the cabinet when these riots were going on? On holiday! While London was literally burning, he was playing his fiddle on a beach in Italy. Many of us haven't been able to afford a holiday in years. But I don't envy them because I'm happy to go without a holiday to pay for other things I need and if I were to choose a holiday, it would be to visit my family in Scotland or Lancashire, not a fancy villa in Italy. It's the fact that Cameron, nor the rest of the cabinet, chose to come back until it became so serious that to have no come came would have been more damaging to THEM rather than us. The damage has already been done TO US.

Ed Miliband has been shaky at best. His initially reaction was to do as Cameron did and parrot the horror and disgust that all of us had. He managed to do it with a considerably greater level-headedness and calmness than Cameron did, not appears to be trying to mimic the public reaction in a bid to make us feel as if he is "one of us", but his words were ultimately as meaningless. After all who here ever denied that a lack of responsibility was what drove the rioters to commit their crimes? It was basically stating the bleeding obvious and any moron who believes what they read in the Daily Mail could have said the same thing.

In his defence Miliband, unlike Cameron, has moved on from this point and is trying now to bring us the question of what led to these riots happening. Is it to do with the cuts? Is it to do with the lack of services and welfare for young people now the coalition government have cut them to save money? Is it due to a lack of responsibility in the upper classes amongst the politicians and the bankers, who likewise gambled people's money and stole from the public purse for their own greed? Is it due to the fact that the under-class have been neglected and ignore for the past 30 years since Thatcher closed down the factories? How many of these factors have led to the production of careless, disenchanted young people who have no respect for society or law?

At least these are the questions you feel that Ed Miliband wants to ask but feel he can't at the risk of offending the middle-classes or walking into a trap by the Conservatives that any attempt to find reasons for why the riots started equals condoning the riots. Yet no one ever denied that smashing up shops was wrong - and Miliband, and the Labour MPs of affected areas, and the rest of the Labour Party need to point that out. There is no doubt that criminal activity was the primary concern of some of the rioters. The riots that took place in Manchester is particular seemed to be motivated by just that. But the initial riots in London started when a peaceful protest over the shooting of a man named Mark Duggen in Tottenham got out of hand. There is no doubt in my mind that class struggle and anger at the current government's actions at least partly contributed to the riots. Even if they didn't, the issue has risen now and will not go away no matter how many times David Cameron appeals to mindless rhetoric about tougher crime. Ed Miliband needs to embrace the question of the link between lack of opportunities and crime, and show more clearly that he is willing to address it.

Ed Miliband said there needed to be an inquiry, and their does. It is the only language that politicians seem to understand. He said he would start it if Cameron didn't - so get starting Miliband because Cameron is no closer to moving away from his rants about lawlessness and punishing the people who rioted by taking away their council houses, which is a frankly counterproductive action to take to keep people off crime. Ed Miliband needs to call on the support of the working class and under classes who did not riot. They need help organisations protesting peacefully against government sanctions that Labour have gone on record as condemning, such as the harshness of the government cuts. They need to rally these people who feel that they have previously been abandoned by all governments and made it clear that they are the party willing to work on improving society on all levels.

I wrote this comment on the Labour Party Facebook feed when Ed Miliband made his statement about responsibility:

If I were to recommend anything to Ed and the Labour Party, it would be for them to come out and confess that the under-class of British society has been ignored by them (and that their conditions have been worsened more than ever under the current government) - and this lack of opportunity, of purpose and of pride has led to development of emotionally crippled young people who lack the respect for society that most people have... because society has abandoned them and so they take pleasure in smashing up society.

Yes, yes - there is no excuse for criminality but happy people don't riot. These people take pleasure out of criminality because they have nothing else and putting them in prison is nothing more than an occupational hazard. It is time the government tackled poverty in this country and created more jobs for these young people; skilled, unskilled and professional jobs for ALL the classes, so we do not create another generation of young people with a weak work ethic. And I say that as a young person myself, fearing the prospect of not being able to find work once I leave university... imagine what it’s like for teenagers from poor families who barely got their GCSEs. Where are the jobs for them?

An attitude of conservativism, to simply lock up these people and then forget about them, will not help society overall. Those in power need to look at the lives these people lead and ask themselves "what has gone wrong and how do we fix it?"

I still think that argument is true. These poverty issues have been hoodwinked for too long and people from more privileged backgrounds have taken advantage of the majority for a long time while completely blocking out even the existence of Britain's underclass. I agree that crime should pay - but there is no denying that this type of disorder has been going on in poorer communities and ignored by the ruling elite for too long. Moreover the middle classes have not helped as there seems to be this assumption amongst some people that once you earn more than the average person does (about £20,000 a year) you are no longer of the same thinking as you were when you only earned £15,000 a year and therefore have more to gain by voting Conservative at the next election. In reality most floating voters like these, and member of the working class who also vote Conservative, are really voting for policies like anti-immigration and anti-EU than anything else, in which case most of them would probably vote UKIP under any other voting system than first-past-the-post. In some cases people just vote for the Conservative Party because people feel that Labour has "had their turn" and now it’s their turn.

It is understandable why the social question has come up following the riots. When the lower classes are caught between the whims of the centre-left Labour movement that spends money to increase services and the centre-right who cut services to save money, it is understandable also that ordinary people have grown to resent government as a whole regardless of who they are or what they do.

These riots should serve as a wake-up call to everyone that we need to look at our society and wonder why it has come to be that children think it is fun to smash up shops. Don’t be lazy and say ‘Blame the parents!’ because odds are on these parents are just as down and out and disenchanted as their kids are. Where do you think these kids got it from? And it is wrong to stereotype the whole class. When I say these riots need to make people think about where most of these kids come from, I’m talking about learning from it to try and prevent these kids from doing it again. You can’t expect to treat them rough now and think they will learn from their mistakes. David Cameron’s meaningless, empty words do nothing to help society – and will help people even less if his council house, benefits and harsher sanctions ideas (which he appears to have dreamed up as a result of looking at one of those annoying e-petitions).

Take away people’s homes and livelihood but don’t look into the problem that festers underneath it all – you are going to generate more crime than you already have. It will generate more distrust and hatred of the police, and the fear of them will lead to people reaffirming the rule that ‘you don’t grass.’

But this is all meaningless at the end of the day. Eventually people will forget about this and become angry at something else. David Cameron will decide another policy is his top priority and nothing will change – unless someone else in a high authority forces the changes to be made.

The UK Riots, Continued...

These riots are making me hate my own country.

What started out as a peaceful demonstration against what has turned out to be a potentially unfair shooting of a father of four by police has turned into a greed-driven robbing fest for the under-classes and a group of greedy thirty-year-olds, it seems, taking advantage of the tragedy in Tottenham. It's now spread to Manchester and Nottingham. London seems quiet due to the heavy police presence but there have been a few fires in Tottenham and Canning Town (which isn't far from my stop on the Jubilee line).

I admit I felt a little scared earlier when I heard a large group of youths running past my window. I doubt they were going to do anything as nothing has kicked off here but it just shows how the bias of the news can scare the living day lights out of people.

There have been a couple of scandals today. Not surprisingly the two least tasteful ones were from the Tories, who first tried to make it look as if Diane Abbot (Probably one of the most liked politicians around and the Labour MP for Hackney, one of the trouble areas) condoned the violence by cutting a part of her speech which (*coughs*) condoned the riots, and then another Tory MP said that the riots couldn't have a political issue for young people by cutting their services, EMA and raising tution fees because "They haven't looted Waterstones." Twat.

I have to say that as usual the BBC reporters are as brave as ever. They seem to have gone out into potentially scary areas where the rioters are roaming through the narrow streets looking for a place to loot where there are no police in Manchester. In Nottingham a police station has been firebombed. It's strange -- it seems that while some rioters seem to genuinely still be targetting the police as a result of the killing of Mark Duggen while most are just taking advantage of the situation.

The police had this coming for a very long time because of their conduct, no one can deny that. However it's just spiraled completely out of control now. People are just taking advantage of a genuine reason to riot protest (Sorry, I was tired). As the Independant's front cover says today -- this will force the government to finally think about the under-class. They have been forgotten for too long. The governments of the past have been more interested in pandering to the lower-middle class and the working class than trying to help the poor in this country... because there is genuine poor. The Labour Party tried to ignore them while the LibDems and Tories have damn-well pissed over them with the cuts. They go on about how we are all in this together but the under-class are outsiders in society...

So why should they respect it? That's what it has come down to. It has literally become a case where people are so unhappy with their lives that the only pleasure they can find is setting fire to and smashing up other people's livelihood. It is a disgrace to this country that this children - yes, children - have been completely abandoned by society. They have rubbish parents, bad schools, light-weight teachers, no chance of getting a degree, no chance of getting a job and earning a living, services have been cut by the government...

It has all become an excuse for the anti-social to take their revenge on high street shops. I don't care about them - they're rich enough already. However it's the ordinary small businesses I feel for. They have lost their livelihood, and it's the police and government's fault because they were all on their holidays, they were all ignoring this problem... and now it's gone too far. It's too late.

You know the image of Nero fiddling while Rome burns. Replace the image with Boris Johnson (who got yelled at by the victims of the riots, and so went off to find a publicity stunt where people were cleaning-up Croydon), George Osborne, David Cameron and Nick Clegg (who got heckled by the victims of the riots when he went out) - playing Guitar Hero next to a burned out bus and looted branch of Primark.

The Cameron/Coulson Affair

Michael Fallon is a tosser anyway.

His interview aired on Channel 4 News a few days ago (09/07/2011) showed that. The Tories try to blame Labour again but Krishan's not having it. BTW for those of you who are unaware Andy Coulson HAS been arrested and charged. That happened the day after this interview; he is now released on bail.

It is silly what Fallon is saying because only Tony Blair dealt with Murdoch. Gordon Brown had nothing to do with him (and it was because of that he lost the election) and Ed Miliband hasn't either. In fact it has come out now the the News of the World targetted Gordon Brown by hacking into his back accounts and the medical records of his son. It was in the BBC news tonight as well.

Gordon Brown suspect that his phones were being hacked all the way back in January and he suspect that it wasn't the NOTW that did it, but the Sunday Times. This is another Murrdoch paper. Hence why the papers are all saying News International targetted Gordon Brown. Apparently Brown is set to lob another bomb in Murdoch's way because of this. Frankly, I don't see why it should be surprising. If one or Murdoch's papers did it, they're probably all doing it. Here the FT did a piece on it.

Memo to our American and Australian cousins -- get your independant newspapers to investigate his dealings there too. There is a reason why Murdoch has kept Rebekah Brooks close; it because she knows where all the bodies are buried. If he's doing it in the UK, he probably doing it in all the other countries too. I do hope it does make other countries touched by Murdoch stop and think, "Maybe we should investigate his dealings with these places before he shreds all the evidence."

Pressure is mounting on David Cameron to halt the BSkyB takeover and Ed Miliband was successful in calling for a vote on stopping the BSkyB takeover on Wednesday. I even wrote an email to my MP (who I hate because she's a useless Tory) asking her to vote in favour of stopping the BSkyB takeover. Fat chance but at least it's something Thurrock can hold against her later if she doesn't vote in favour of it.

Interestingly enough the cowardly Cameron has been keeping his head down the last few days. Instead of going to the house to answer Ed Miliband's questions he got Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, to answer them. Would you like to know his weighty actions to halt the BSkyB takeover? He wrote a letter to Ofcom. Wow.

David Cameron was off trying to sell the Big Society for the millionth time. What does that involve I hear you cry? Privitisation through the back door. Go to Hell, Cameron!

Trouble with the NHS? Tories just don't get it, do they?

Pledges of NHS waiting times in doubt.

The moral of the story? Never trust conservatives with the public sector.

My dad has been waiting for his hernia operation since the end of March. He has a blood disorder and so he needs to have blood taken out regularly in order for it to be safe to operate on him. It should have been sorted out months ago but they're still messing around as they keep pushing his operation back, which means he has to keep having blood take out to make it safer for them to operate on him. They have cancelled his operation three times now. That's just a simple hernia operation.

This whole thing has just proved that you NEED bureacracy in order to make an organisation like the NHS run smoothly. You need more managers all the time with a population growing all the time and nearly every single one of them using the NHS at some point in their life. You can't ship out duties or look for cheap deals in the NHS. That's just the Tories' brainless and uninformed tinking.

Least we don't live in America. If we did my mum would be dead and by dad would be on the way out too. At least he is on a sodding waiting list - I guess they're just treating all the more seriously ill people first. But it's just a hernia operation! It's not fair that my dad has to keep having his blood fixed over and over again. It tires him out, for Christ's sake! He's an ill man.

Cameron talks a load of crap but has yet to deliver on anything, even the polices he was supposedly passionate about. Given that his family relied on the NHS for so many years, he should be ashamed of himself. Yes, Blair was the first true 'career' politician and career PM but at least he was good at it. Cameron and Clegg have always been nothing more than Tony Blair wannabes. They are trying to become 'the next Blair' but lack the charisma and the ability to sweat out the critics of press and opposition. They care more about their non-existant image than about doing their jobs. They don't appear to care about anything and lack even the illusion of substance to make up for lack of leadership. Say what you like about Gordon Brown, he was the last true party leader. They are all faceless wonders now he's gone. They might as well be the same bloody nasty, poorly made Tony Blair clone.

At least Ed Milliband is vaguely recognisable because he's a geek. :p

1st entry

I have always been a blogger at LiveJournal but I decided I needed to start a new blog, elsewhere. In a place where no one new me and where my private ramblings that I don't mind being public can be viewed. Given that I'm quite opinionated but have two parents pushing sixty (and have long since stopped caring about things as much) I find myself ranting to a death audience. At least here I can rant to a deaf internet audience.

When starting a new blog most people just jump in and tell people about themselves, who they are and what they do. I can't be bothered to tell people about that so I will settle for just pointing you to the About Me section of the blog. If I manage to keep this thing up-to-date then I guess you'll learn more about me as a go along. If not, then you're no worse off and I haven't yet again stuck my heart and soul into a blog I may or may not be bothered with.

It takes a lot of motivation to keep a blog when your life is a mental-case.

Probably the best-ish news that has happened to me today is that my mother, who is more or less disabled being only able to walk short distances before she is tired/in pain as a result of arthritis and anemia, caused by a poorly functioning kidney, who has also been suffering from a winter bug... has started eating again. Sort of.

But I don't want to talk about my private life here. That's my business and it is damnwell staying on LiveJournal in my private journal. However if I have a political rant or an opinion on how my generation - who the press are already calling the 'lost generation' - have been pissed all over by the scum that are David Cameron and camera-shy wanker George Osbourne, they you will be the first to know.

Not to mention opinions on the weak-minded Clegg who is now about as popular as a bount of swine flu. The man who single-handedly went from hero to zero in the space of six months following his failure to stand up for his principles and the policies for which the voters put him where he is. My greatest hope, ironically although I agree with it, is that the vote on voting reform fails, the LibDems pull the plug on the coalition and Clegg disappears.

The same will doubtless happen to David Cameron, potentially one of the most unremarkable PMs this country has ever seen. He is a name who is destined to earn no more than five points on the 22nd series of 'Pointless', if the show is still going in some form. No reason why is shouldn't -- it's more popular than he is.