Riots in london

I'm not in london, but some friends are, and some more are moving there at the end of the month. As the riots start to spread from london to the midlands and scotland there is a chance they could spread further, however it's very doubtful that they will spread it Ireland. The Irish had several good opportunities to rise up over the past year and since they haven't already I doubt they ever will.

The Guardian has had wonderful accounts of the nights and days of riots, much better than the BBC. From today's liveblog:

At the 8:32am marker:  Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington — an area that has seen a lot of the trouble — has told BBC Breakfast a curfew should be imposed.

"I have not heard of a curfew on mainland Britain in the past century. [It's] very difficult to impose. I'm not saying that it is definitely the way forward but it is something we have to consider. These young people, who seem to have no stake in society, are trashing their own communities. We cannot continue to have increasing numbers of looters on the streets night after night."

I understand the need to first put the fire out before investigating what started it, but it's quotes like this, wherein they show that they know what started the riots, how it's been that way for years and no one has tried to fix it, really grinds my gears.

Also, if you read it line by line it almost starts to steer into the philosophical with "These young people, who seem to have no stake in society, are trashing their own communities.." I kinda wish she went on to say "When this is over we need to take a look at ourselves to find the causes of these horrible symptoms..." but she jumps right back into the safe political rhetoric.

Also interestingly, there was a similar incident that sparked riots in Tottenham in the late 70s, where a mother, after the police busted down her door, died of a heart attack.