Burn, London, Burn!

I'm writing in this in the early hours of the morning, as I watch the events in London unfold. Please bear in mind that much of what I write is alcohol fuelled as I've just got back from the pub. But I have to say that the main emotion I'm feeling is frustration. Frustration that I'm stuck here in Crapchester whilst, less than forty miles away the capital is ablaze and the revolution is apparently starting in earnest. Look, I don't want to seem as if I'm condoning lawlessness and criminality, but we can't keep trying to write this off as simple criminally-motivated rioting. This has been coming for a long, long time. The news channels are full of middle class voices wringing their hands and bewailing these awful events. The common themes emerging are that the underlying causes are 'youth'. 'lack of respect for authority' and that the solution is 'getting tough on these people'. These middle class tossers - a lot of them small business owners who have seen their premises go up in smoke - clearly don't have a fucking clue.

Really, what did they think was going to happen after decades of an increasingly unfair and unjust society, where wealth was increasingly concentrated into the hands of a privileged few? What did they think would be the long term result of an ever more materialistic society which teaches that success and happiness can only be measured in terms of material possessions? What did they think would be the consequences of ever greater restrictions on people's civil liberties and increasing powers for the police and security forces? What did they think was going to happen when people at the bottom were told that not only were their jobs now at risk, but that their benefits, pensions, social services, schools and libraries were going to be slashed, because wealthy bankers had fucked up the global economy? Sooner or later, something was going to give. I'm not condoning the looting going on, but I can understand it - people have been told that ownership of all this shit is what they're meant to aspire to, but suddenly they've been told, tough, there's no way we're going to allow you any opportunity to attain those goals legitimately.

Like I said, something was going to blow. Clearly, the shooting in Tottenham was a catalyst, another example, so many local people obviously thought, of the authorities, in the form of the police, exercising their power arbitrarily. The poor morale of the police in London and the damage to their moral authority in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, clearly left many of the rioters feeling that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I've heard some of the reporters prattling on about how some of the rioters are walking around with an air of empowerment, in the face of police powerlessness, characterising this as a 'bad thing'. But, you middle class twats, that's the fucking point! These are people who feel that they've been shit upon by the state for all their lives and, finally, they feel that they;re in control. As a society, we need to be asking ourselves how we could ever allow so many people to feel so embittered and disaffected.

But, of course, that isn't the reaction of our politicians, (except Ken Livingstone who, so far, has spoken the only sense I've heard during this crisis). I've already heard various senior Labour figures condemning these disturbances out of hand. For fuck's sake, try and remember that you are meant to be the party of the disaffected and powerless! Grow some balls and start looking for ways you can harness all the anger underlying these riots to legitimate political campaigning! Stop pandering to the Daily Mail! As for all those small business owners calling for the return of the birch - I'm afraid my sympathy for them is limited. Let's face it, most of them have spent years ripping off their local communities with their inflated prices and poor service, then complained when the big supermarkets moved in and had the audacity to offer consumers lower prices and better service! It's no good, I've got to go to bed. Like I said, I don't want to condone violence, theft and destruction of property, but really, this shouldn't be coming as a surprise. Yes, I know people are being scared shitless by all this. But that's actually a good thing - these middle class bastards need to be shaken out of their complacency. Welcome to the fucking revolution!