Right on cue the socialists start to recount the reasons why young men in London, Birmingham and Liverpool are rioting. But before we read the excuses let's remember what these rioters are doing. Destroying private property and invading private homes. Thieving from and terrorising private individuals.
This isn't some sort of intellectual response to material deprivation directed at the state. It may be a subconscious, base response to emotional deprivation. That is the most generous response I can summon.
It certainly jars with the idea that the welfare state would prevent such malcontent.
Hell, these guys don't even have the balls to chance their arms at real crime with real risk. No. They create a contrived circumstance whereby they can loot and assault without consequence. Cowards. Creeps. And there is another word beginning with 'c' I have never uttered in my life. I hope those who are detained feel the full contempt of the already incarcerated in due course.
In recent months the government has tripled the cost of university tuition and abolished the Education Maintenance Allowance, paid to some 640,000 16-18 year olds to help them continue in higher education.
Areas like Tottenham, amongst the most deprived in the country, have been particularly hard hit. Unemployment officially stands at 8.8 percent, but will be much higher amongst young people. Claims for Jobseeker’s Allowance have risen by 10 percent in the last year, while Haringey Council has cut £41 million from its budget, reducing its youth services by 75 percent.
This is the social reality that underlies the London disturbances. It is replicated in working class areas across the country. It is the reason Cooper anticipates “repeated” disorder in the coming months.
4 comments:
Earlier today Lindsay I posed a question which when answered throws the material deprivation excuse for rioting right out the window.
http://nzconservative.blogspot.com/2011/08/todays-puzzle.html
The real reasons are over here:
http://winstonsmith33.blogspot.com/
Zero responsibility or accountability for the lower class losers.
The welfare state will always end in the violence of false entitlement. But just like Hayek's famed road to economic serfdom, too many politicians will take from this that the problems caused by welfare will only be solved by more welfare.
I touched on this in my own blog here:
http://tribelesshispursuitofhappiness.blogspot.com/2011/08/freedom-looks-like-we-lost.html
Tribeless, State-enforced charity always comes unstuck eventually because it changes cultural norms. It is cyclical but with a very long cycle. When it came unstuck in the UK in the 1800s the result was the Poor Act and the workhouses. Then public attitude swung the other way and in the 1900s Beveridge's welfare state was created.
So while some will claim this episode demands more welfare, the general public - smarter than politicians give them credit for - are starting to join the dots. I am certain we (the western world) are once again on the downslope away from bloated welfare. As nasty as these incidents are (an understatement) the silver lining is the awakening of those people who still hold constructive values (most).
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