come and get it: anarchy in the uk
Many of you will already know me as a bleedin’ heart middle-of-the-road Liberal who will never be able to vote anything other than Labour as long as there’s breath in my body, but even I was shouting for the Government to bring in the army and unleash the water canon, baton rounds and rubber bullets last week. There’s nothing like a knee-jerk reaction to highlight exactly where you stand on any particular issue and when it became apparent that these actions were being brought to you by Adidas, Carhatt and Hugo Boss I knew where my sympathies lay. Looters on the rampage certainly brought out the Norman Tebbit in me.
Apart from the initial legitimate vigil and justified request for further information and communication re Mark Duggan (which would have confirmed his no-mark firearm owning ‘gangsta’ status) all other riots were commercially fuelled ‘grab-all’ adventures, played out for high jinks, laughs and the sheer thrill of it all. The orgy of violence and destruction that followed had precious little to do with Duggan’s death; these were not angry crowds, these were greedy crowds. Not one of the rioters and looters was able to convey anything but their own personal greed and endorphin high search. A couple of young women on Radio 5 at least had an unconvincing attempt at blaming disenchantment and disenfranchisement as responsible factors but being drunk on stolen rose wine at 8.30am detracted somewhat from their legitimacy…and clarity. And besides, who in their right mind would even contemplate drinking rose wine, irrespective of the time of the day? The ballerina who stole two tellies, the organic chef who smashed up Nandos, the daughter of a millionaire stealing a pair of Puma pumps. Disenfranchisement? Nah. It speaks volumes when the principal targets in these copy-cat riots are the retail parks, malls and superstores of today’s materialistic society. The exception to the rule surely has to be the much-publicised plundering of PoundLand! It also speaks volumes that all three of the UK’s top politicians (Cammy, Cleggy and Georgey-Boy), along with London’s buffoon of a mayor, were all abroad on holiday and had to be dragged kicking and screaming back to the UK.
Of course, the media and middle-class search for some deeper context has now begun and there is an ever-widening checklist of causes for this disorder: rap music, drugs, single parenthood, economic pressure, unemployment, the huge gap between rich and poor, political correctness, overly aggressive policing, too soft policing etc. etc. Some, or all, perhaps have had some impact in where we find ourselves today but personally I point the finger fairly and squarely at the relentless surge of consumerism and materialism as being one of the major factors in our social decline.
The smash and grab nature of today’s individualistic and self-obsessed society can be clearly seen in all social strata and most tellingly, top down: conniving CEOs looking after themselves first and at the expense of their workers; looting bankers on the make through the promotion of junk bonds and toxic debt; fiddling MPs on the take from the public purse, only to blame the complicit expense system; big-business cunningly seeking to avoid their tax liability via intentionally complex structures; corrupt police taking a bung here and a brown paper bag contribution to their pension fund there; the self-righteous media who peddle lies and half-truths in the search for ever-increasing readership figures. All have believed they were beyond reproach and whose actions were above the law. Don’t be surprised when Peckham’s proletariat rise up and seek to take what they want, for free, and we ignore these higher echelon examples at our peril. Our society openly rewards the maximum gain for minimum input, it positively encourages the premise of something for nothing.
I’ll give the final word on morals to Rotherham MP Denis MacShane who claimed that what the looters had wanted was “for a few minutes to enter the world of Sloane Street consumption”. Denis should know as this was the man who claimed £5,900 on expenses for EIGHT laptops. Britain does indeed need to tackle a culture of greed and impunity but let’s not pretend it’s one confined to the underclass. What does it say about today’s society when the ‘new ‘honesty’ is determined by the admission of guilt only when caught as opposed to avoiding the dishonest action in the first place?
