London's Burning

Once a childhood song and popular television show, the term could now be adapted to the riots of 2011 and future generations of our children may well be told of a different story to the origin of this song.

On Thursday August 4th 2011 a man named Mark Duggan was shot dead by the police in Ferry Lane, Tottenham.  The circumstances around this are not clear and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) say they will investigate it.  The police of late however have not fared too well when it comes to publicity.
The Jean Charles De Menezes case in July 2005 came shortly after the July 7th bombings, when tensions in the UK were high.  This left the police reputation in tatters as stories leaked, counter stories and contradiction reigned supreme, add this to the more recent hacking enquiry and a lot of the public just do not believe what is said by the authorities, or have much in the way of faith.
The resulting shooting of Mark Duggan led to a protest outside the police station in Tottenham on Saturday, August 6th.  It is not known exactly what sparked the unrest but the BBC News website claims it was provoked by a confrontation between a young protestor and a police officer, though this has not been substantiated.

What happened next was like a trip back in time to the riots of the 1980's.

Map of incidents

Long in to Saturday night the police and protestors battled it out and this unrest soon spread around the country with incidents in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Gloucester.  These disturbances went on into the early hours of Wednesday morning when things seemed to calm down some what.
There was tragedy too with 3 young men being run down in Birmingham, the police investigation is under way but it is understood that the car was involved in looting.

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, returned to England and it was all guns blazing.  He made a big booming speech outside Downing Street whereby he laid down the law quite chilling claiming that if you were "old enough to commit the crime, the you were old enough to face the punishment" as he told the world that 16,000 police officers would be deployed in London to quell the rebellion.  This the same guy that is planning to slash police numbers and slash the pension which they work and pay in to for so long and hard to earn.

The man has a nerve to publicly praise the public services (police, fire and ambulance) on the one hand and stab them in the back with the other.

Fire fighters in Croydon battle a blaze

Cameron went on to Parliament where he criticised the initial police response and laid out a list of potential responses to these "acts of criminality" which include looking in to what actions the army could under take to release police on to the front line, monitoring and subsequent closure of social networks where it is deemed there may be criminal activity or intent, authorising the use of water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse crowds, reviewing curfews and dispersal of large numbers of people gathering. Phew.  This was not exhaustive as the Prime Minister has declared this the "fight back".  It was interesting to note that at no point did Cameron try to discus the role he and his predecessors have had in fostering the environment in which these people rioted, burned and looted throughout the country.

The cuts, the banking bail out (where these were deemed to be institutions too big to fail) the lack of education, lack of jobs and the price of living were left firmly alone by virtually all MPs of note.  No one it seemed was prepared to shoulder some of the blame for it is now being described as 'the lost generation'.

This lost generation is a product of an environment, a system, that system has failed them and is failing billions of people around the globe.


The system catapults talentless nobodies in to positions of 'stardom', via the social conditioning box, with such gems as Big Brother, X-factor, Only Way is Essex, Geordie Shore, Katie and Peter, I'm a Celebrity etc, then complains when this generation of kids (raised by kids) that have both been immersed in this trash on our screens riot. Take a look at a news stand next time you go shopping.  There are literally hundred of magazines parading 'celebrities' and glamorising their way of life.  Lets face it the majority of the people featured in these magazines are not famous for being talented or skilled, rather famous for being famous.  So an entire generation want the same thing but do not understand the meaning of self discipline and sacrifice to earn and achieve such things.


People like Cameron come out and state that these people want "something for nothing" or that the "world owes them something". Yes the world does owe them something. An apology for creating them in this mould to start off with.