What do they know of our ways?

Way back in the middle of August, upon leaving my local pub after having a pint and waiting for it to all blow over, I pondered just how long it would be for the Government to sweep under the carpet the background reasons for the large scale rioting we saw. Today was finally the day that it happened.

For those who have yet to catch up with the news (and if I’m you’re primary source of news, God help you), Home Secretary Theresa May today attempted to distance the role the Government and the economic downturn had in the escalation of the riots that spread from an isolated incident in Tottenham to all over the country in the Summer.

Speaking at the Reading the Riots conference, May said (excuse the lengthy quotation); "What the LSE/Guardian report tells me more than anything is that the rioters still have not accepted responsibility for their actions. They are still blaming others – the police, the government, society. They are still making excuses, but I don't accept those excuses. The riots weren't about protests, unemployment, cuts. The riots were not about the future, about tomorrow. They were about today. They were about now. They were about instant gratification."

Whilst the theory that the Tories, and every Government since to be fair, are reaping what they sowed back in the 1980s with their “get rich and fuck everyone else” policy is interesting. In layman’s terms, if you encourage consumerism and link aspiration to buying nice things, poorer people resorting to looting when they can’t afford these things isn’t an implausible outcome. But I’m no socio-political expert so it would be foolish to look into that in any detail

Anyway, this blog post is about what I do know and can form a coherent and semi-conceivable opinion on, not what I can speculate on.

There probably is a certain element of truth in May’s statement today. I do not believe there was an element of protest to the rioting, the fact that there appeared to be no united political message quite clearly backs this up. And there probably was an element of instant gratification to it; stealing a TV to acquire a TV, smashing a window for the thrill of it, that sort of thing.

However, just because the actions themselves aren’t political, it does not mean politics cannot be associated with the reasons for the actions.

Let me give you an idea of what it’s like to be young in this country today; it’s difficult. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not “down t’pit at 12 and that’s your life” difficult but it sure as hell isn’t easy.

All of the major steps forward you can make in your life to better yourself or give you more of a chance of success are near as damn it out of your reach.

Want your own car to open up new job opportunities further afield? Good luck with paying the insurance on it. Want to get an education to degree level to open up more career doors? You better be prepared to have debt over your head for the rest of your life. Want to move out form your parent’s house? Direct all of your potential mortgage savings to some arsehole landlord in a rented property or you’re going to be in that bedroom of yours for a few more decades yet. Want a job that pays minimum wage but, hey, at least it’s a foot in the door? Get to the back of that million-long person queue buddy and good luck trying to further yourself without “relevant experience”. Have a previous conviction? That’s you fucked for life when it comes to many higher paid jobs Pentonville, no matter your qualities. Want to get the relevant experience by working for free? Have fun funding semi-essential things like eating whilst you do it.

I graduated in the Summer just gone and I currently work stacking shelves whilst I look for any employment related to my degree in a job market that, to say it’s an employer’s market would be the most tremendous understatement. For the time being, I’ve had to put moving out and building a life for myself on the back burner whilst I clamber on to the treadmill every morning to save up enough money to move up the ladder.  There are plenty of other people who graduated with me who are in the same situation or worse. The system has, arguably, failed us just as much as it failed so many of the rioters who had no access to employment or re-entering education.

The only thing stopping me from chucking it all in and claiming benefits is a (possibly stupid) sense of pride.

When you see bankers earning millions of pounds in bonuses, celebrities spending ridiculous amounts on cosmetic treatments and other examples of excess and greed, it’s no wonder why people get angry. Whether its anger directed at the excess itself and how disengaged these people are from reality or anger that one can’t perform these exercises in greed themselves is immaterial. The anger is there and nothing is being done to readdress the balance which then breeds apathy and laziness because what’s the point of contributing to the system when nothing will ever change? Combine the two and you get nihilism on the scale we saw across London and other metropolitan areas earlier this year.

When it comes down to it, the political classes just have no idea what life is like on the other side. You obviously need more intelligent people in charge of a country as that is how the system should work but when the big wigs of your three main political parties are from largely upper/upper-middle class backgrounds, you have a problem.

What does David Cameron know of the problems facing a working single mother? How can Nick Clegg understand the frustrations of the unemployed person who wants to get into work? What common ground does Ed Miliband share with the working class 18 year-old who is put off going to university due to £9,000 a year fees?

For May to take a nice, broad, sweeping generalisation and saying that the rioters blaming the Government or unemployment or the police as “excuses” just illustrates the point that her ilk have little idea what life is like in our cities and, worse than that, have little interest in bothering to find out either. Yes, instant gratification was a cause but to focus on one reason for the entire issue is simplistic and irresponsibility of the highest level from someone who is meant to help those she represents. A lack of social cohesion and homage to the social contract is an issue for all of us, regardless of our background.

The solutions to the problems of disillusionment, apathy and anger many people feel come from the political/economic sphere and for May to so crudely cut out the Government’s role in causing the riots, and in so doing, effectively severing its potential for preventing them happening again, is just even more irresponsible.