According to a report due to go before the government that examines the underlying social problems that led to this months riots in London and other major cities, has cited a mistrust of politicans as a "major factor"
The report There will be Burning and A-Looting Tonight put together by researchers at Essex Univeristy and Royal Holloway University says that, though poverty and lax moral standards were also a factor in people's decision to riot, a dislike and mistrust of the Government and Polticians in general seems to have been the biggest reason.
It states that politicians are seen as a "class apart" who abide "by their own rules" and also warns that mesures used to punish rioters such as stripping them of their benefits will only backfire and lead to a further alienation of certain sections of society.
But then this really isn't suprising is it? It was the Banks that caused the recession, but the working classes who had to pay the price and accept the cuts to their salaries and benefits while those responsible (such as Fred Goodwin) escape with six figure pay outs and pensions (in Goodwins case amounting to an intial £700,000 per year).
The Banking Crisis and the subsequent Expenses Scandal have from an outside perspective seem to have shown that politicans and others at the top of society are (to use their own favourite phrase) ring fenced from the rest of society and allowed to do what they want and to take what they want without adequate punishment when they are caught. And if that is the case, say those further down the society ladder, than why shouldn't we be able to do the same.
I'm not saying this is the right attidue and I'm certainly not condoing it - rioting and looting are of course never the right course of action and arson is beyond the pale - but I can certainly see why people may think this way. And as each election only seems to bring in a government that is as bad as the last I can understand why they didn't feel like waiting for polling day to make their feelings known.
When news of this report reached Whitehall it - as you would probably expect - showed the major differences between the three major parties. Mr Milliband and Mr Clegg representing Labour and the Lib Dems respectivly were more open minded about whether alienation played a role in the riots with Mr Clegg saying that " the perception that politicans, bankers and others at the top were "getting away with it" may have been a factor in the rioters ignoring the "rules of the game" as well." Downing Street on the other hand played down the idea with a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister saying "One can speculate but we are not necessarily going to know exactly what the causes were."
Now while I'm happy to see the Lib Dems speaking their mind for a change, in this instance I would be happier if their opinion was also the opinion of the Coalition. They are after all the ones who need to make sure, that something like the Riots don't happen again.
I had a comment all made out for this, but the computer ate it. So ...
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad day for the Liberal Democrats when such a weak statement is considered them "speaking their mind". Only a miracle can save them now.
Meanwhile, I'm a little sceptical about some of these findings. I'm not an expert on this by any means, but I find it unlikely that these people were rioting because they feel politicians are a class apart. Not only do I suspect most of the rioters had little engagement with politics at all, but it doesn't seem exactly likely that distrust of politicians - as you say hardly something new - would beat out factors affecting people's lives directly.