In case you missed them, these were the best read pieces on Uncut in the last seven days:
Stella Creasy on the effects of the riots and the power of community
Matt Cavanagh fact checks Cameron’s claims on police cuts
Dan Hodges says there is lots of debate to be had, but not today
Peter Watt on the people and the politicians
Atul Hatwal’s memo to Westminster from Croydon
Rob Marchant takes a look at party reform
by Stella Creasy
Fear is a powerful motivation for action. As I stood on Sunday night with other terrified and angry residents and watched looters turn up and trash Walthamstow I wanted it just to stop. This was our home. Our shops. Our people frightened. Nothing justifies this and ever will.
Since then I have worked with police, outreach workers, residents and the council to try to restore order and calm to our streets– to sweep up the glass, separate internet fact from fiction, account for the welfare of people and try to assess the damage. To channel this fear into something positive. To draw strength from a commitment to the capacity of collective endeavour to restore and replenish rather than demolish and destroy. Because to do otherwise is to give up hope.
Those who label these events indicative of a sickness in the areas where they happened get short shrift in Walthamstow. Only a strong community could put together a pop up canteen for all those helping to keep our community safe. Springing up overnight, with hundreds of volunteers we are providing cakes, tea, hot food and friends for our police and outreach workers. That tells you what we are capable of – not the broken glass outside our local bank.
Following the weekend, young people have played cat and mouse with the authorities in Walthamstow. They are setting fires, taunting officers, frightening residents and damaging local businesses. My community, like many others in the UK, is now dealing the fact that the looters have unravelled the boundaries of socially acceptable behaviour.
Changing this isn’t about shutting down twitter, or handwringing about liberal elites. It is about restoring those boundaries and showing those testing them there are consequences to their behaviour. That’s why speedy justice and strong sentences are important as a means to illustrate to those rioting and looting- and those who help them- that it isn’t worth it.
It is also about our increased police presence. Our Borough Commander Steve Wisbey and his team have had less sleep than anyone, working round the clock. Only when the calm has held for several days will the emotion of this time dissipate- and so too the rumours driving the tweets, bbms and texts which are fuelling disorder and fear.
Yet it is too easy to see this as solely about criminal acts and mindless thugs. On Sunday night there were agitators who instigated events, exploiting tension and technology to organise criminal activity in a way not seen before. But a strategy that only deals with these people is one which only sees half the story. Read the rest of this entry »
by Atul Hatwal
Walking down, past Reeves Corner in Croydon on Thursday evening, one thing was crystal clear.
The government doesn’t get it.
Cameron’s proposals in the parliamentary statement didn’t come near addressing the reality of what has happened.
And while Labour did slightly better, particularly on police numbers, the response didn’t give a clear sense of an alternative.
When David Cameron talks of a sick section of society and the need for a moral fightback, he sounds like an opposition politician.
‘Broken Britain’ was a decent routine two years ago, but he’s in power now. Government’s job in this situation is to identify what failed and fix it – not opine impotently on social morality.
Instead, the prime minister’s parliamentary statement gave us some irrelevant commentary, a pointless inquiry on gang culture and a re-heat of existing plans.
There’s nothing new in the police being able to force people to remove facemasks or in social landlords evicting tenants found guilty of looting. Councils across the country are already pushing ahead on this front.
Ed Miliband was cautious in his response. He asked pertinent questions, but didn’t frame a narrative for how Labour would make a difference. The net result is a political vacuum from our leaders.
It shouldn’t be this difficult. All our leaders need do is to listen to their constituents. Read the rest of this entry »
Cameron criticised by Police
One of Britain’s most senior police officers has defended forces’ handling of the riots and dismissed the role of politicians as an “irrelevance” in bringing them under control. Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, spoke out hours after David Cameron told MPs that “far too few” officers had initially been deployed. He told the BBC’s Newsnight programme that police had learned from and reacted quickly to the disorder. Sir Hugh derided the eventual decisions of top politicians including Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May to cut short their holidays to return during the crisis. “The fact that politicians chose to come back is an irrelevance in terms of the tactics that were by then developing,” he said. “The more robust policing tactics you saw were not a function of political interference; they were a function of the numbers being available to allow the chief constables to change their tactics.” Asked if budget cuts would reduce public safety, he said it would “inevitably” lead to fewer police officers – and therefore make the job more difficult. “We need to have some very honest conversations with Government about what we stop doing if we are to maintain front line service delivery at current levels,” he said. – Telegraph
David Cameron is on a collision course with the police after the government used an emergency Commons debate on the English riots to issue a point-by-point dissection of the police’s “insufficient” tactics during the week. The prime minister praised the bravery of the police but said they had made a major miscalculation when violence first erupted in Tottenham on Saturday night after a demonstration over the shooting of Mark Duggan. Cameron said: “Police chiefs have been frank with me about why this happened. Initially the police treated the situation too much as a public order issue – rather than essentially one of crime. The truth is that the police have been facing a new and unique challenge with different people doing the same thing – basically looting – in different places all at the same time.” But a few hours later, home secretary Theresa May, who opened the lengthy Commons debate on the riots on Thursday, warned that the failure of the police to contain violence in the early part of the week jeopardised a core British tradition. – the Guardian
A man of old fashioned values: Richard Mannington Bowes, 68, dies after defending his neighbourhood
Richard Mannington Bowes was pictured lying face down in a pool of blood after being attacked on Monday while trying to stop youths setting fire to large rubbish bins across the green from the flat where he lived alone. This morning a 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of his murder. Yesterday it emerged that Mr Mannington Bowes was a recluse who was tormented by youths repeatedly urinating and throwing litter in the street outside his home. He was placed on a life support machine but from the outset his condition was so serious that doctors did not believe he would pull through. His estranged sister travelled down from her home in Derby yesterday, for a chance to say goodbye. Police described the former accountant as “reclusive and private” and said it had taken two days to work out his identity because he had cut himself off from the world since his retirement. The 68-year-old, originally from Bournemouth, had lived alone in a flat overlooking Ealing’s Haven Green in west London for more than 10 years and had no mobile telephone or landline. Neighbours said he was a man of “old-fashioned values” and had a history of confronting anti-social behaviour in the area, regularly reprimanding youths for littering in the alley outside his flat. – the Telegraph
More powers? Less cuts
Ministers and the security services are planning draconian powers to shut down or disrupt mobile phone messaging services and social networks in times of civil disorder. Downing Street sources said they were considering the “moral and technical” questions of how to grant new powers blocking all mobile communications to prevent rioters organising through websites such as Twitter and the BlackBerry Messenger service. David Cameron said “nothing should be off the table” in efforts to prevent a repeat of this week’s rioting in London and cities across England. He also spoke out about how “free flow of information… can also be used for ill”. The new powers prompted politicians, social media companies and civil liberties campaigners to warn against a “knee-jerk” response that could infringe the freedom of expression and business of law-abiding web users. Privately, senior police officers also expressed doubt that the measure would have anything more than a “marginal effect” on preventing disorder and said the real issue was the numbers of officers on the streets. The president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Sir Hugh Orde, has also warned in The Independent that “to suggest human rights get in the way of effective policing is simply wrong”. – the Independent
Olympic ambassador reported by mother
An Olympics ambassador allegedly hurled bricks at a police car in a frenzied attack during the London riots that forced officers to flee. Chelsea Ives, 18, also took part in attacks on mobile phone stores in Enfield, north London, on Sunday night, Westminster magistrates court heard. Ives, who has met London mayor Boris Johnson and London Olympics chief Sebastian Coe and visited the House of Commons, was reported to the police by her mother Adrienne, who said she saw her throwing bricks at a police car on a BBC news report. The teenager, whose lawyer described her as a “talented sportswoman”, boasted that she was having “the best day ever”, the court heard. Prosecutor Becky Owen said Ives had led an attack on a Vodafone store. “She was first to pick up masonry and hurl it at the window,” she told the court. The court also heard Ives took part in an attack on Phones4U. – the Guardian
by Matt Cavanagh
Two weeks ago, I highlighted the embarrassing gulf between David Cameron’s pre-election promise that cuts would not affect the front line, and the reality of the planned police cuts, as set out in the recent report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.
There is undoubtedly scope for efficiency savings in the police, but as HMIC set out, with 81% of police funding going on staff costs, and another 10% going on areas like transport and premises, cuts of 20% were always going to cut deep into police numbers. HMIC’s report is the most systematic and rigorous attempt so far, to estimate not just the likely effect on total police numbers – a cut of 16,000 by 2015, ironically the exact number the Met have deployed on London’s streets in recent nights – but also the likely effect on the front line for different forces around the country.
This is relevant to Cameron’s defence of the policing cuts today, when he was confronted in the Commons by former Home Secretary Jack Straw. To justify his assertion that the cuts will not affect the front line, or visible patrolling, Cameron chose to discuss his own local force, Thames Valley. This choice was either ignorant, or disingenuous. A glance at the graph on page 22 of the HMIC report shows the difference in the scale of the challenge faced by Thames Valley Police, in trying to protect the front line from spending cuts, compared to those forces who have been dealing with the riots, including the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, and Merseyside. Thames Valley Police would have to reduce their non-front-line officers by just under 50%, in order to avoid cutting into the front line. That is challenging, but arguably possible. By contrast, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, and Merseyside forces would have to cut their non-front-line officers by 100%. Even those who hold the simplistic view that almost all ‘back office’ jobs are unnecessary would have to admit that to cut at this level without affecting front line police numbers is simply impossible.
As public concern about crime and policing soars, the government seems to be trapped in defending two increasingly indefensible claims: first, that the cuts won’t reduce front line police numbers, and second, that anyway police numbers don’t affect crime. This position was already starting to look naïve or complacent before the riots, especially with the signs that the long downward trend in crime may be on the turn. Now it looks reckless and hopelessly out of touch, as even Conservative MPs and ‘ministerial sources’ admit.
It has been amusing, if also a bit depressing, to watch Tory cheerleaders like Tim Montgomerie suggest that the way out of this problem is for Theresa May to introduce a new target for how much time police officers actually spend doing visible work. In fact, May inherited such a target from Labour. Admittedly, it was applied only to Neighbourhood Policing Teams, but she could have chosen to extend it; instead, in those heady days of last summer when ministers were falling over themselves to mock Labour’s ‘top-down targets’, she scrapped it.
Even more ridiculous is the spectacle of Conservative MPs and Conservative-leaning think-tankers trying to use the riots to back up the case for elected police commissioners – just like they did with the scandal over the Met’s links to News International – without realising that the Met is precisely the one police force which is already very close to the elected commissioner model.
These rather desperate moves are not surprising, since other than elected commissioners, and some useful development of Labour’s introduction of online crime maps, the government doesn’t really have any crime policies – and yet they need to talk about something other than police cuts. But these moves aren’t working. As John McTernan noted this morning, Cameron’s reluctance to break off his holiday to grip the riots ignored the “basic political law, that if you’re going to have to do something, you should do it of your own free will, rather than being forced to.” He needs to realise that rethinking the police cuts falls in the same category.
Matt Cavanagh was a special adviser on crime and justice under the last Labour government.
by Peter Watt
Politics has never had such a bad name. Well, that is one of those slight exaggerations that help to colour opinionated blog posts like this one. But there is surely no doubt that politics and politicians are pretty unpopular at the moment. A succession of scandals, and a sense that they are in it for themselves, has meant that most people look on politicians with disdain. The ongoing hacking furore has just added to a sense that those inside of the elite bubble don’t live in the same space as the rest of the country. This isn’t just a UK problem, but that hardly matters to those who live here and are disdainful of UK politicians.
A large part of the problem is that people just don’t think that politicians get their lives. That the language used, and the solutions offered, just don’t resonate with their own experiences. For instance, for years people have felt that some young people have been out of control. Not many, certainly nothing like a majority, but some. No one seems to be in charge of them and they don’t seem to listen to anyone or respect or fear authority. They put their feet upon the seats of trains and tell the guard to “fuck off” if they are asked to move them, with no apparent sense of embarrassment. They mouth off at anyone who looks at them in the wrong way and are never at school, college or work. Normal deterrents, like parental sanction, fear of arrest, fines, public shame or worse, don’t seem to work.
Over the years, politicians’ responses have included more education, boot camp style discipline, national service, more youth clubs or more benefits. Most people knew that there were elements of a solution in all of these, that some would benefit from each. But they also knew that it wouldn’t help those who were really out of control, because the problem for them was something else. It was a problem with parenting or rather the lack of parenting.
Politicians from the right would demand tough love, and those from the left more understanding. But people out there knew that the real problem was that for some family life was not providing the support, discipline and example that we all need to become responsible adults. In fact, for some family life was providing exactly the opposite. It was nurturing irresponsibility and lessons in how to operate outside of the mainstream. Read the rest of this entry »
Cameron under pressure to rethink police cuts
David Cameron is facing growing cabinet pressure to rethink the coalition’s policing cuts in the wake of the deaths of three youngBirmingham men, who were hit by a car during violent disturbances in the city. As the Police Federation warned of a “catastrophe” if similar riots erupted after the cuts were introduced, a senior government source said the Home Office would be advised to take a fresh look at its plans to cut £2bn from police funding over the next few years. “The optics have changed,” the source told the Guardian. Cameron said the cuts would not lead to a “reduction in visible policing”. He is expected to announce some emergency funding when he addresses the Commons on Thursday, to cover the extra costs of policing this week’s riots, as well as the possibility of insurance claims against police on the grounds they provided no protection to businesses in a riot. But there are fears in Whitehall that the Home Office plan to make savings in the police service could leave an “exposed flank” in any future riots. London‘s mayor Boris Johnson warned the government against cutting numbers. “The case was always pretty frail and it’s been substantially weakened. This is not the time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. – the Guardian
David Cameron appeared increasingly isolated last night after senior police officers, MPs and even the Conservative Mayor of London united in a call for him to reconsider police cuts in the face of four days of sustained rioting. In an attempt to regain the political initiative the Prime Minister had declared that a police “fightback” was under way, and that water cannon were being made available at 24 hours’ notice. But senior police chiefs said these would be ineffectual and the real question was not whether they could cope with the current disturbances, but whether they would be able to deal with similar civil disturbances in future with thousands fewer officers. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, defied Mr Cameron’s position and openly criticised the plan for 20 per cent cuts in police budgets. “The case was always pretty frail and it has been substantially weakened,” he said. “This is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers.” – the Independent
Parliament returns to debate riots
The Prime Minister will use an emergency Commons debate to set out plans to ensure that people have confidence in the justice system. He will say that severe punishments will be meted out to those responsible for the destruction and robbery of the past five days. He backs plans to ensure that council tenants found guilty of taking part in the mayhem will be evicted. Ministers are redrafting consultation documents to ensure that councils get those powers. Some councils, including Greenwich and Hammersmith and Fulham in London and Salford in Manchester, announced yesterday that they were already pushing ahead with the measure. Grant Shapps, the housing minister, was tightening the law to make sure that even if a rioter was convicted of a crime outside their borough they could lose their council home — something that is not possible at the moment. “Criminal or anti-social behaviour in the local neighbourhood by a tenant or a member of their family can provide grounds for eviction,” he said. “The Government is looking to strengthen those powers and so anyone involved in the unrest should stop and think about the long-term impact that their actions will have on the rest of their lives.” – the Telegraph
An emergency session of Parliament will be held today to discuss the rioting and looting which has caused devastation across England and left three men who attempted to protect their community from the violence dead. MPs have been recalled to the Commons by Prime Minister David Cameron who yesterday declared a fightback against those responsible for causing widespread destruction during four nights of unrest in towns and cities up and down the country. Mr Cameron will today make a statement to Parliament in which he is expected to spell out further plans to deal with the disorder and compensate riot-damaged businesses. He will also chair another meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee and discuss the rioting with fellow Cabinet members. – the Independent
King warns of “headwinds”
Sir Mervyn King warned that the headwinds facing Britain’s fragile economic recovery were becoming “stronger by the day”, as the Bank of England cut its growth forecasts. City analysts predicted that interest rates would remain at their record low of 0.5% until 2013, after the governor used his quarterly inflation report briefing to warn that the UK could not be isolated from the turmoil in the global economy. As George Osborne, the chancellor, prepared to address the House of Commons on Thursday on the risks for the UK from the mayhem in world financial markets, the Bank’s nine-member monetary policy committee (MPC) downgraded its growth forecast to about 1.5% this year. That was down from 1.8% in its last report three months ago, and weaker than the 1.7% pencilled in by the Office for Budget Responsibility. King warned that the Bank’s number-crunchers had not included in their forecasts what he called “the unimaginable and the unmentionable” – risks impossible to quantify, such as a full-blown sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone. “It is very important that we do not see the development of a sovereign debt crisis.” – the Guardian
by Jonathan Todd
People make their own history, as Karl Marx knew and Angela Merkel and Barack Obama cannot deny, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. Over hundreds of years America has evolved to a fiercely divided, uncompromising polis wedded to a system demanding compromise. Over decades Europe has achieved monetary union. Thousands of years of history hang over its fiscal consummation, which is required to avoid collapse and further calamity. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.
One of the ironies of Marx is that communism was supposedly inevitable, but his tombstone declares that the point is to change the world, not interpret it. What’s to change if history’s terminus is already determined? What was the point of agitating publications like the Communist Manifesto if we were all, in spite of ourselves, destined for communism?
Such publications imply that Marx himself may not have seen communism as quite the iron certainty that rigid interpretations of his writing suggest. But one of the divisions between Marxism and much of the rest of the left concerns the extent to which we are prisoners of history. Parties such Labour predicate themselves on an assumption that the institutions of advanced capitalist democracies can be moulded to serve socially just ends. Ed Miliband’s father, of course, like other Marxists, thought this naive.
Recent economic events seem to vindicate Ralph Miliband. Political leadership seems oxymoronic when our nominal leaders appear only witnesses to events that they can barely fathom, let alone command. (In the non-economic sphere, our Tuscan prime minister is similarly bemused by the revenge of the lumpenproletariat). Nothing has happened to undermine James Carville’s famous wish to come back as the bond market and intimidate everybody. It’s these markets that are in the box seat and our political leaders that are cowered.
What they demand are credible plans from governments to repay their creditors. This isn’t unreasonable. I expect you’d want to see credible repayment plans before you leant non-trivial amounts of money. The governments of the third and fourth largest economies in the eurozone, Italy and Spain, seem increasingly unable to produce such plans. The downgrade of the USA, though unjustified, speaks to a similar lack of confidence in America’s ability to manage its debts.
While events seem to lead towards the largest country in the world that still professes to be communist, China, being an ever more dominant geo-political force, the Marxists should not be too triumphant. The markets are, of course, as powerful as James Carville’s wildest dream and Ralph Miliband’s bleakest nightmare. But they do not remain beyond the capacity of political leaders to have them becalmed. That is if political leaders do what it says on their tin; lead.
This doesn’t mean interpreting opinion polls as immovable. Germany, for example, could swing behind the full steps required to save the euro if Merkel articulated them well enough. It means seeing your electorate as intelligent beings capable of being won over by the force of your argument and your actions. Merkel and Obama can still do this. But only if they stop being intimidated not only by the bond markets but also by opinion polls, their political opponents and their own inevitable failure to hold in their minds every relevant fact and figure. Read the rest of this entry »
Riots spread across the country
Officers fought disturbances in Manchester and Birmingham, involving hundreds of youths who set fire to shops and smashed store windows. There were also riots in Gloucester. The Army’s emergency infantry battalion, known as the Spearhead Lead Element, has been put on standby should the civil unrest worsen, The Daily Telegraph has learned. In Birmingham, police clashed with up to 200 looters who attacked shops inside New Street station, closing off much of the city centre. Masked youths roamed the streets smashing windows and setting fire to cars. In Manchester, hundreds of masked and hooded youths gathered in Piccadilly Gardens and threw bricks at officers. A Miss Selfridge clothes shop was set alight while looters broke into a Foot Locker sports store in the Arndale Centre. Some reports said rioters were being allowed to ransack properties without police intervening. Residents claimed gangs were highly organised, with leaders warning them when to move on to avoid officers. – the Telegraph
Three men are reported dead in Birmingham after a car ploughed into a group of Asian men in Birmingham. The attack, which is being treated as a murder investigation, took place as there were more riots across England, although London remained largely calm thanks to a big increase in police numbers. Police confronted masked youths in Manchester, in what the city’s Chief Inspector called “extraordinary levels of violence”. In the West Midlands 87 people were arrested, while 44 were held in Liverpool and Nottingham saw a police station firebombed. Speaking to the BBC this morning, Labour leader Ed Milband said there were “complex” causes for the violence, but maintained there was “no excuse” for vandalism. – PoliticsHome
Three men killed in Birmingham
A murder investigation has been launched after three were killed and one critically injured in a road traffic collision in Birmingham, West Midlands Police said. The men were pedestrians hit by a car in the Winson Green area of the city at 1am, according to reports. Police said one man had been arrested in connection with the deaths and a car had been recovered. It is not yet known if the deaths are linked to overnight rioting in the area. A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: “Two men have died following a road traffic collision in the Winson Green area of Birmingham which detectives are treating as murder. “The incident occurred just after 1am in Dudley Road. Three men were taken to hospital where two subsequently died from their injuries. A third male remains in a critical condition. “West Midlands Police have launched a murder inquiry, arrested one man in connection with the incident and recovered a vehicle from near the scene which will be examined by forensics experts.” – the Telegraph
Osbornomics: keep calm and carry on…
George Osborne will insist that the government is sticking to its tough deficit-reduction programme when he updates MPs tomorrow about the turmoil in the global economy. Treasury sources said the chancellor intends to reassure the Commons that the UK authorities will be increasing their vigilance over the country’s banks and ensuring that contingency plans are in place to cope with the effects of a new credit crunch. In the aftermath of disappointing official figures for manufacturing and exports released on Tuesday, Osborne will also make it clear that the coalition intends to reform the supply side of Britain’s economy to boost growth. “The chancellor will give parliament an update on what has happened, on the discussions he has had and what we need to do domestically, internationally and in terms of contingency planning”, the source said. – the Guardian
US fears double-dip recession
The US Federal Reserve promised to keep interest rates in the world’s largest economy at rock-bottom levels well into 2013, in a signal that it is increasingly worried about a double-dip recession. The central bank’s declaration cheered investors who had been selling stocks relentlessly for the best part of a week, fearful that policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic have run out of ammunition to stimulate faltering economies. A big rally on Wall Street was the result, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average of US shares recovering 430 of the 635 points it lost in the previous session. The Fed has held official US interest rates at zero since December 2008, but yesterday was the first time it has set a timeline for keeping monetary policy that easy, and it had immediate effects across the financial markets. Interest rates on some US government bonds, whose rise and fall is reflected in borrowing costs for millions of American homebuyers and businesses, crashed to never-before-seen lows. – the Independent
by Dan Hodges
Not today. Please, just not today. Laurie Penny, I think you are a beautiful and gifted writer. But don’t tell me violence cannot be mindless. Or that it is all about catharsis. Not today.
Sunny Hundal, your real and passionate desire to break politics free from its straight jacket of committees and speeches and selection meetings does you credit. But please, don’t circulate any more time lapse photography of people’s homes burning and tell me it’s “brilliant” or that it’s “art’. Not today.
Owen Jones, the working class need a voice, and you are an articulate spokesman. But please, no more hand wringing about the dangers of an “authoritarian backlash” against those who tried to loot and burn our city to the ground. Not today.
Ken Livingstone, you were once a great and radical figure. But no one needs to hear your cheap politicking about your statesmanlike dash from the Olympic awards ceremony. Or your back of the envelope theories about how 14 and 15 year old rioters trashed JD sports because they are not able to provide for their wives and children. Not today.
Boris Johnson, I’d actually liked to have heard something from you. But instead I had to put up with your spokesman Kit Milhouse explaining why it was fit and proper for the Mayor of the world’s greatest capital city to watch from afar as his charge exploded in an orgy of destruction. We’ll no doubt hear the same excuses trotted out often this election year. If we must. But not today.
Theresa May, I understand being the only senior member of the government, (Nick Clegg hardly counts in these circumstances), is tough. But I don’t want to hear any more rubbish about “policing with consent” when that consent has been brutally withdrawn by a small but violent minority. And I’d park the protestations that cutting thousands of police officers won’t have had any operational impact. For today.
David Cameron, I don’t actually blame you for taking a much needed break in Tuscany. And it was nice you made friends with your waitress. But as you sit savouring the taste of your Tuscan Dream please, do one thing for me. For all of us. Don’t tell us we’re all in this together. We are, of course. But we don’t need to hear it from you. Not today.
There is lot we do need to hear. And lots that needs to be said. About the dislocation of inner-city youth. About the link between crime and poverty. About race and resentment. About lack of employment and educational opportunities. The widening gap between the rich and poor. The politics and the sociology and the criminology. All deserve, indeed require, an airing.
We must debate, and examine, and interrogate. We must argue and enquire and report. We must ask ourselves what sort of society we really want to be, and take a deep look within our own communities, and souls.
We must do all of these things. Just not today.
Dan Hodges is contributing editor of Labour Uncut.
