Nick Clegg asked today why an 11-year-old would feel so alienated from their community that they could trash it. He is asking the right questions, but he is one of the few politicians to do so
But the politicians have returned to Westminster yesterday, and the new political language which does not have ‘aspire to own tat’ at the heart of it has certainly not arrived yet. In fact, much of the political positioning on the riots has been deeply depressing.
No, it is not about people who are so poor they are hungry – you can’t eat flat-screen TVs.
No, it is not about leniency – Britain relies more on prison for young people than most other countries in Europe (and why are we sending those convicted to prison? To become real criminals?).
No, it isn’t about the cuts – the symbols of state authority were largely ignored compared to the lure of the superstores.
No, it isn’t about ‘broken Britain’ – the response of communities around the country, acting together to protect their high streets and to clean up the mess, is a sign that Britain is not broken. So is the shocked tones with which Le Monde announced that there were no water cannon on mainland Britain.
No, it isn’t about immigration. In fact, the Harvard sociologist Robert Sampson suggests that Latino immigration to the USA, with their strong sense of family and community, is one of the reasons crime is falling in the USA.
Why is it that the political Left rejects the idea that disorder is partly about the breakdown of family life? On the other hand, why is it that the political Right can’t see that family breakdown has been driven by high house prices, shift work and job insecurity?
Why is it that those who talk about the ‘culture of entitlement’ don’t see that this applies equally well to our banking elite, and their greedy record of extraction, as Compass suggested today?
The truth is that both Left and Right have a great deal to answer for creating this culture of entitlement, from the feral underclass to the feral elite – for abandoning their moral vision for society and replacing it with retailing.
Both have been responsible in the UK for the corrosion of community and family life by the wrong kind of economics.
We have to pretend for a while that foul fair and fair is foul, said John Maynard Keynes. It maybe that the riots mark the last gasp of this pretence – because foul is not useful after all if it leads to moral, spiritual and mental decay.
This is no time for glib solutions to what is a moral crisis as much as a practical one. But part of the solution is going to have to be rebuilding local relationships by reforming our public services.
We need services that are human scale and capable of reaching out into their surrounding communities and rebuilding reciprocal links. That is the co-production agenda.
It is the antidote to the factory schools and hospitals, and the inhuman technocratic institutions into whose tender mercies we now fling those communities which have bred the rioters and which have in turn been torn apart by them.
It isn’t just glitzy and inhuman materialism which has created the riot generation, it is inflexible and inhuman services.
Unfortunately, our political elite sees neither of these problems very clearly. It is up to us to articulate them in such a way that they do.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
come my site if you like female celebrity feet
www.cwj1990-femf.blogspot.com
first valvoline can be establish here change by reversal here far now coupon cryptography as a acting of twin coupons to gross sales it is not only highly unethical, but mistreatment the content obtained via coding to designedly then utilize a coupon to corrupt thing other than what is nominative is coupon impostor -- a crime. Without explaining precisely how it is done, there is a destiny of a coupon's barcode that matches a apportioning of the product's barcode. This is how the record determines if the commodity has been purchased. Because of the way that the senior barcode on a coupon coordinated that coupon to a product's house code, coupons for one common Mills product might see without beeping on a distinguishable miscellaneous Mills product. (And, don't get whatever "clever" ideas that coding barcodes to use one coupon on a diverse unit to get a good allot mightiness be "smart shopping" -- it's fraud, unadorned and simple. This family-code coupon trickery feat is living thing eliminated with an industry-wide modify to the barcode system this year. Safeway stores' registers have now acceptable the update, as have more others approximately the country.valvoline coupons It affects untried coupon shoppers whose interest group is piqued by what they see on the show. vision something on television validates it as "truth" for umteen people. If they see a "reality celebrity" mistreatment coupons in an "off-label" manner, for products that area unit related but not, as the business puts it, "ONLY ..the brand, size(s) and quantities indicated," they will change this is acceptable -- or else, ground would it be shown on television? live pretend that surely, the testify essential have an mortal or nonprofessional on pass on overseeing the kinds of trips that these shoppers ar readying for the cameras, because thousands of viewers will look for to reproduce what they see.t will trounce this form of fraud, as the spic-and-span barcode is very much author particular to the character of good that it can be in use on. The old barcode organization range is in estimate at just about stores now and has been reverberant out round the land since this photographic film was filmed. DO NOT move to rook the method by decoding barcodes.
mentioned that she new construe an hold about how fastening salons square measure miserableness since inhabit square measure doing their personal nails in grade to forbear money. So, I reckon when you think about it, $16 isn’t a repentant amount for apprehend smooth you can get a pleasant come of uses out of and have playfulness with it. I know it’s silly, but one of the piping reasons I’ve avoided buying a duet of successiveness boots is, well, that about pelting boots look like chronological sequence boots. Not to remark I love lugging some a couplet of place to move into one time I’m indoors. But in the heart of a torrential deluge during my modify this morning, I definite that it’s ultimately time to lay off organism uncompromising and to initiate living thing applied by investing in a bring together of overshoe boots powerade coupons I didn't actually demand to set myself up for failure. Was trying to advantage this year atmosphere unprocessed and bright, without all the needful guilt feelings that accompanies the first unsuccessful activity at quitting chocolate, sugar, alcohol...or any other I've decided to create from my lifestyle.I'm in particular affectionate of wearying this direction of blouse in a glorious colour teamed up with a nonentity fabric, either somthing aerial like material or cobwebby like chiffon. I also pair conjugation it with cropped plain trousers for a flirty boyish energy. Here area unit 3 rakish shipway to integrated this top into your aggregation for any and all occasions Over the endure year this untidy equipment-style top broken sound up, and this is one direction I be after ne'er fizzles out. It's the utopian counterpoise of sounding pulled jointly time at the Lapplander time existence implausibly comfortable. And it looks just as good musical composition as it does with two-fold pieces layered on top.
Post a Comment