The American Spectator : Anarchy in Britain

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Anarchy in Britain

By Robert Taylor on 8.11.11 @ 6:07AM

After forty years of turning a blind eye, everyone shares in the blame.

LONDON — The anarchy in British cities should surprise no one. Britain has been sleepwalking into this catastrophe for 40 years. The riots up and down the country this week are the logical conclusion to the decades-long disintegration of civilized behavior. While youths throughout the Arab world rise up to demand basic human rights and democracy, our British kids smash shop windows for want of an iPad.

Any visitors to these shores in the last decade who have ventured beyond central London have seen it for themselves. In town centers on weekends drunkenness and anti-social behavior abound. There’s no place to take your family for a quiet meal, unless you want to witness gangs of marauding youths and beer-swilling thugs urinating against people’s door steps and throwing up on street corners.

But we Brits have put up with this. We’ve turned a blind eye, seeing our stoicism as a virtue. Sure, when we travel to other countries we remark to each other how much nicer, cleaner and more civilized these places are. But we forget as soon as we land at Heathrow. And because our social disintegration has happened gradually, over years, we’ve failed to notice how bad it has become. We’ve even kidded ourselves into thinking that it has some kind of quirky benefit, and we use euphemisms like “edgy” to describe London, which helps us bring the Olympic Games to our shores.

Now, this week, we’ve changed our tune. The tweeters are up in arms. “I’m so sad for my city,” said one Londoner. “Has anyone else noticed that the world has gone mad?” asked another. “Anarchy” is the word on many people’s lips.

Commentators, politicians, tweeters and pub conversationalists are asking the same question. Why did it happen? Right-wingers think it’s a lack of discipline and personal responsibility. Left-wingers say it’s the absence of opportunity and hope, made worse by cuts in public services.

These are interesting theories. But we’re debating it all 40 years too late. As long ago as the 1970s, when I was a boy, I witnessed a riot at a soccer match in my home city of Birmingham. It made the regional news headlines, but no more. Soccer hooliganism was common currency by then, and had been for a decade.

We dealt with violence in soccer grounds — only after scores of people were killed — but failed to tackle the causes. So it sprouted up in our town and city centers, getting worse and worse with each passing decade, with the police containing it, never eradicating it. At the same time, home life decayed, putting Britain at the top of the league tables for broken families. Our education system has failed too many. A whole section of our community has been disenfranchised, so much so that the term “underclass” is common currency. We’ve become a selfish, me-first society, where it’s OK to do something wrong as long as you get away with it — from dodging train fares to grabbing someone’s wallet.

Hardly surprising then that youths with an inclination to intimidate, loot, and riot have grown bolder and bolder.

Who is to blame for all this? Just about every British person who is only now asking “why?” We are all to blame for turning a blind eye for 40 years, like an obese man who’s been getting bigger and bigger — and only notices when he has a heart attack.

It remains to be seen whether Britain’s riot-fueled heart attack is serious enough for us all to realize that our society is “broken,” as a few of our braver politicians have described it. If we fail to realize this, and fail to transform our way of doing things, then the riots of the last few days will be pigeon feed compared with what will follow.

There’s no reason why Britain has to be like this. Violence isn’t ingrained in our DNA. We can change. First we must follow New York’s lead — from as long ago as the mid-'80s — and arrive on a zero-tolerance approach to crime and anti-social behavior of any sort. We need to put people in the cells without listening to the sob stories that have traditionally made Brits go soft on crime. That alone will be a massive change, consuming vast police resources and hugely extending our prison capacity.

Secondly, we must use every tool at our disposal — financial, educational, and cultural — to transform our society, promoting respect, tolerance, honesty, generosity of spirit and sharing of wealth in all its forms. We must see family breakdown as our collective failure. Again, a massive change.

A combination of enforcement and social transformation will lead to more decency and less selfishness and aggression. We’ll begin to create the kind of society that other Western countries have. A society that cares.

People up and down the land, especially those like me with young kids, will be looking to see what happens next. We’ll study the reaction. We’ll analyze whether anarchy will finally produce action.

And some of us, I’m afraid, will ready ourselves for a move elsewhere.

About the Author

Robert Taylor is a writer and business columnist in London.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (128) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

jd| 8.11.11 @ 6:38AM

Max Hastings has an excellent article in the Daily Mail. What we are witnessing is the result of liberalism -- a generation of amoral, aimless youth dependent on the government. Poverty and lack of opportunities is just an excuse. These hooligans are a product of a liberal society that does not want to judge others, does not believe in right and wrong, hold anyone accountable for their actions, or enforce punishment. It is a sickness of liberal society that has manifested in a class of uneducated, unmotivated, amoral youth.

Timothy L. Pennell| 8.11.11 @ 8:25AM

EXACTLY the same thing, that is going on in THIS COUNTRY.
There is something WRONG with these people. Something GENETIC.
There's a REASON that HAITI, is the way it is, while, on the other side of the Island, the Dominican Republic, is fine.
ALL of Africa isn't a TOTAL DISASTER. Just the parts with Black Self Rule.
Detroit. Philadelphia. Camden. Newark. Baltimore. The list goes on and on.
Once, THRIVING Metropolises. Now? Not so much.
The Democrat White Liberal has achieved what the Democrat KKK Grand Wizard, could only dream about. The Democrat White Liberal has put the SLAVE, back on the Plantation. Subservient to his White Master, for the SCRAPS from his table. But, even the Democrat White Liberal, can't be blamed for all of it.
It CANNOT be a coincidence, that Blacks are on the BOTTOM RUNG of Society, in every country that they live in.
Am I wrong?

The Big E| 8.11.11 @ 9:19AM

Pennell, you've had some extremely insightful and thought provoking comments this week. But this time, you are wrong.

Take a look at the photos from the riots in Great Britain. Look at the hundreds of looters running from the stores, their arms full of stolen goods. The overwhelming majority of them are white.

Regardless of where in the world such abominable barbarism breaks out, the common thread is not the race of the looters, which varies from place to place, nor the race of the leadership, which does as well. It is the extent to which the cancer of modern leftism has been allowed to run amok in the society.

In this country, when we see looters in pictures, they are more often than not black. In other countries, that's not necessarily the case. But they are always of the class of people who have been raised only to suckle on the government's teat.

We would well advised to remember that when the riots we now see in Great Britain visit themselves on our shores. Which they will do. Soon.

Timothy L. Pennell| 8.11.11 @ 9:54AM

The REPORTS coming out of England are that it is mostly EAST AFRICANS that are doing this. I will believe the REPORTS. You can stick with the CHERRY PICKED photos.
You can think what you like. I'm just making an OBSERVATION, using FACTS.
If that's too hard to take, maybe you should stick to Comic Books?

The Big E| 8.11.11 @ 2:33PM

I too, am making an observation based upon facts - facts as shown by photographic evidence. Are you basing your's on "facts" from actual reports? Or on opinion pieces, in which case you're getting your "facts" second hand?

Furthermore, let's not forget that rioting and looting takes place in other contexts as well - such as at G-8 or WTO conferences - and in those cases, the rioting and looting is almost EXCLUSIVELY being done by well-to-do whites. If you look at the problem solely as one of race, then you will miss the FACT that there is a common thread connecting the G-8 and WTO riots and the riots going on now in England - and that common thread is leftism, not race.

The leftist-progressivist governments which have run Great Britain on the rocks have destroyed an entire generation of young people in that country - white, black and otherwise. Treating it as simply a problem of race is doing EXACTLY what the left wants you to do. If view the problem solely as a problem of race, then you will have blinded yourself to the real problem, which is left-wing policies which rob all people of their human dignity and which turn people, regardless of race, into little more than beasts.

THAT is the problem, not race. The people who force the evil, leftist cult of death upon the world are our enemies. Not a bunch of ignorant kids roaming the streets at night.

Occam's Tool| 8.11.11 @ 6:46PM

Tim,

mild disagreement--wouldn't you be happy with a President West, Keyes, or Cain? I would.

It's not Melanin---it's philosophy. Most Africans are NOT Capitalists but socialists.

At any rate, here are the lyrics to the Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK:

"Right! NOW! ha ha ha ha ha

I am an anti-christ
I am an anarchist
Don't know what I want but
I know how to get it
I wanna destroy the passer by cos I

I wanna BE anarchy!
No dogs body!

Anarchy for the U.K it's coming sometime and maybe
I give a wrong time stop a traffic line
your future dream is a shopping scheme

cos I, I wanna BE anarchy!
In the city

How many ways to get what you want
I use the best I use the rest
I use the enemy
I use anarchy cos I

I wanna BE anarchy!
THE ONLY WAY TO BE!

Is this the M.P.L.A
Or is this the U.D.A
Or is this the I.R.A
I thought it was the U.K or just
another country
another council tenancy

I wanna be anarchy
and I wanna be anarchy
Know what I mean
And I wanna be anarchist!
Get PISSED DESTROY !"
[Pissed means drunk]

Wow. Prophetic.

Franco| 8.12.11 @ 9:30AM

Awesome album. though.

Skippy| 8.12.11 @ 4:09PM

It sucked then and it sucks now.
Moron attitude combined with violence and illiteracy.
Sex pistols=bullshit.

loulou| 8.11.11 @ 10:25AM

No, you are not wrong but you're going to get into big trouble for stating the truth.

Can't blame slavery for it either.

Seek| 8.11.11 @ 11:33AM

You're right. Blacks are incapable of self-rule. If the GOP had any balls, they would have, and listen to, a politician with the prescience and wisdom of Enoch Powell. No such luck. We're stuck with a bunch of lightweight "culture warriors" and "prayer warriors."

The Big E| 8.11.11 @ 2:37PM

What do blacks' ability to self-rule have to do with riots in England? Last I checked, the PM and pretty much all his ministers are white.

Race is an irrelevant distraction which can serve no purpose other than to take your eye of the ball. The problem is not race, it's politics.

Seek| 8.11.11 @ 5:44PM

By self-rule, I mean in the philosophical sense of having no capacity for self-regulation of impulse. Blacks, I'm afraid, do have this problem wherever they predominate, even (or should I say especially) where they hold political power. As for the baloney that the looter and rioters were white, those are photos cherry-picked by the BBC, desperately afraid that the British public might draw racial conclusions from these conflagurations. By showing as many white faces as possible, we whites are supposed to be relieved, you see (whew!); it's OK to condemn the rioters without being called "racist."

England has been semi-socialist for at least 60 years; the major riots didn't begin until 1981 in Brixton and Southall. Every last one has been triggered by Asian (i.e., Muslim) or Afro-Caribbeans (aka "youths"). I oppose socialism, but there is no point in accusing it of everything bad. We lose our credibility that way.

Thrasher| 8.11.11 @ 2:23PM

Please spare us this angry racist rant this is 2011 ..Please tell me what drives this racist pathology of yours?? Is it genetic? dna? cultural?

Seek| 8.11.11 @ 5:45PM

How about a nagging tendency to see reality for what it is?

Mister Grady| 8.13.11 @ 2:32AM

Riots are happening in London and one-sided race wars (blacks attacking whites) are happening in the U.S. because of spineless, unthinking PC people like yourself.

Occam's Tool| 8.11.11 @ 6:25PM

"We should remember that one man is much the same as another, and
that he is best who is trained in the severest school." Thucydides

Tim, it is the Content of the mind, not the Color of the Skin, which counts. I'd be proud to have Allen west as my POTUS.

Now, if you mentioned that the majority of successful Black politicians in this country are Dems, and Liberals have screwed Blacks over royally since before the Civil war, and Dem Black Politicians are the true "Uncle Toms," screwing over the people they claim to identify with, you might have something...

Mister Grady| 8.13.11 @ 2:38AM

It sure would be nice if at some point people could stop blaming the pathologies of black culture on white people, and instead blame black people themselves. The expiration date on White Guilt Trip-ism is past gone. Can we grow up and stop being naive. The world isn't what we thought it was. It's like it is. Even if we wish it weren't that way. Sorry to disappoint you.

crookedwren| 8.12.11 @ 9:35AM

Remember this socialism thing is a global thing.

Clarence Thomas. Condi Rice. Col. Allan West. Herman Cain. I'd vote for any one of these in a heartbeat.

It's not the color of the skin -- it's the ideology. And the idiocy of socialism.

My white brother can't rule himself well. He's an addict (prescription pills these days), an alcoholic, and a con man -- he wheedles my mother out of her property and her money (and says "I love you" sooooooo sweetly), collects disability, cons judges out of due punishment. How did that happen?

Well, perhaps something in him was broken to begin with, but certainly my parents shielding him from the consequences of his actions whenever possible didn't help a bit.

They CAVED. He'd get in the wrong crowd -- they'd try to befriend the wrong crowd. Thinking talking nice would improve the wrong crowd. And perhaps there is a small bit of nobility in the attempt, because there were the kindnesses that happened. BUT my brother would get into trouble somewhere down the line that was a bit too much, and my parents would move him to another town.

A judge would put him on probation.

He'd pass out in jail (something he would come close to doing in his infancy -- from tantrums) so Mommy (after trying hard not to post bail) went out and rescued him -- posting bail.

We've RUINED generations of our young. We have been overly-indulgent and overly-permissive. We have left them to the care of the Left -- who we believed had good intentions (and some did and do). The Left has taken Christianity and Judaism out our schools. That was done purposely by some; others simply bought the lies and went along and didn't think as deeply as they should have. We've decided not to force our children to go to Church because they didn't want to go -- and frankly we didn't for some time ourselves. We were working so hard and Sunday seemed the only down time available.

We've taken from them discipline. We've taken from them ambition (calling it "greed"). We've taken from them the ability to think for themselves.

We've taken from them consequences -- winning and losing.

We've passed them on from one grade to the next. We've let Mommy & Daddy (or Mommy & Mommy or Daddy & Daddy) use the threat of litigation to let Johnny get by without real effort, thereby destroying every bit of self-respect and respect for authority in one fell swoop.

We've given them educational gruel instead of meat. They wanted to be entertained in the classroom, and we agreed to it.

Now we're busy confusing them further by training them in the ways of GBLT -- beginning in kindergarten.

We're teaching them that Vietnam is a finer country than the USA. That health care can be free for all (and that capitalism is VERY, VERY BAD) so who will pay for that health care down the line?

We teach them "values" at school, but if they get a glimpse of the Ten Commandments at that same location, somebody's going to get sued and be threatened with serving jail time (see Pace, FL high school).

However, if a Middle School teacher takes 6th graders to a Mosque -- where someone tells them that Islam was the originator of women's rights -- an outright lie) and encourages the boys to take part in prayer with the men -- THAT'S OKAY.

If an elementary teacher in Southern Appalachia invites a WICCAN to her classroom to teach the little ones about witchcraft -- THAT'S OKAY. (True story.)

It's education. It's the judicial system -- that protects the criminal. It's a judicial system that has been corrupted now by socialists -- who believe in redistributing someone else's money -- and who do NOT believe in "equal justice under the law."

Eric Cartman| 8.11.11 @ 9:46AM

This is why God made Glocks. Dumb Liberals are too stupid to realize this, so they will be beaten and killed. HEY! I have an idea! Lets not tell them!

Frekki| 8.11.11 @ 10:06AM

So true. Britain, get your guns back and the mob will obey. The only reason the toughs on the street don't respect you is because you can't hurt them. That is the only thing that will work. Be armed or be a slave, your choice.

TrueBlue| 8.11.11 @ 11:40AM

And the noose, don't forget the noose.

Alan Brooks| 8.11.11 @ 11:49AM

Are you all saying Cain shouldn't run for POTUS because he black? or do you imply that if a black is conservative he is automatically to be trusted? or you do not know what you think about blacks?

Thrasher| 8.11.11 @ 2:23PM

Cain ia pitiful Black apologist..

Drunken Sailor| 8.11.11 @ 2:49PM

"Please spare us this angry racist rant this is 2011 "

Alan Brooks| 8.11.11 @ 5:27PM

Then for your sake you'd better hope Cain doesn't win the nomination. Remember, you are a Republican, not me.

Drunken Sailor| 8.12.11 @ 9:36AM

I like Cain, and Col. West. Unlike you I judge a man by the content of his character. Skin color doesn't mean a damn thing as there are vermin of every nationality.

Seek| 8.12.11 @ 11:29AM

I resent the use of the word "vermin." This is exactly the language of Nazism. How about "opponents?"

Quartermaster| 8.11.11 @ 6:46AM

Liberalism kills. It is simply nihilistic.

Seek| 8.11.11 @ 11:34AM

Actually, it blacks who kill. Liberals (re: white liberals) merely rationalize after the fact.

Patrick| 8.11.11 @ 6:50AM

Too little, too late. There is nothing left to work with.

Look on the bright side, you still yet have decades of living under the rule of King Charles the Tampon while the C of E searches for someone even more pathetic of a moral guide than Archbishop Rowan Williams.

The truly sad part is that there is no hope for recovery until rock bottom has been reached, and you still have a ways to go before that. Once the money is gone, then maybe we can talk.

Until then, reap heartily the fruits that the '68ers have sown.

Southern_Comment| 8.11.11 @ 8:17AM

What is 68? Is that year born?

As far as your post, what you are suggesting is that since they've not hit rock bottom they should just give up and wait for it? AND THEN once things are so bad start from there? Don't be on my side of things, I personally don't like lazy quitters with weak solutions - why I hate liberals so much.
I don't mean that as so harsh (i'm naturally a harsh person, so no offense intended), but there are tasks to be taken up to get a grip on these criminals and to stop societies from returning to days of utter barbarianism, among those tasks sitting at your computer whining about them and condemning them. After all that's part of what got us on the path to 'let us hit our lowest point and then we might feel like something has to be done'.

Southern_Comment| 8.11.11 @ 8:21AM

sorry line should have read. . .
sitting at your computer whining about them and condemning them does nobody any good and does not resolve our supposed destination of ending up with a neandrathal society (although I'm not sure they were more barbaric than we are today).

potkas7| 8.11.11 @ 9:29AM

"What is 68? Is that year born?"

Soixiante Huit is short-hand for the student riots in Paris in 1968 . It's also a reminder of the riots at the Democrat Party Convention in Chicago. If you want to pick a starting date for the nihilistic period in which we live, 1968 is a prime candidate.

Seek| 8.11.11 @ 11:35AM

You mean Watts (1965) and Detroit (1967) weren't that big of a deal?

Thrasher| 8.11.11 @ 2:24PM

Slavery and Jim Crow lasted longer actually

Kevin Dunn| 8.11.11 @ 10:17PM

Watts and Detroit are not located in England.

Seek| 8.12.11 @ 11:29AM

Neither is Paris.

potkas7| 8.12.11 @ 6:28AM

Watts and Detroit were paroxysms of rage. It was the Paris and Chicago riots, however, instituted the modern phenomena of excusing riots as political expression, a type of speech and holding up the rioters as "voices of the community." Since then the police have been afraid to give the barbaroi the much needed hickory rub with their nightsticks that used to keep them in line.

Seek| 8.12.11 @ 11:36AM

Oh? And you don't think that "community spokesmen" stepped forward to articulate black grievances after the Detroit and other urban riots?

All rioting, regardless of race or location, can be seen as "paroxysms of rage." The main difference between the Watts/Detroit and Paris/Chicago versions is that in the latter, the participants were mainly white -- and thus easier to whack with billy clubs. Of course, many (especially in Chicago) were guilty of nothing more than simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were egged on by the worst elements of the Left, seeking to create martyrs. But a lot of decent people who were there paid a fearsome price.

Skippy| 8.12.11 @ 4:26PM

Which they richly deserved to pay.
No sympathy from me for the Chicago Convention or the Kent State rioters.
Wanna play "who has the power" with armed and scared men?
Four dead in O-hi-o.

POST American| 8.11.11 @ 6:51AM

-----CLASSIC Tavistock/Stanford Research,
capstone directed, NEUTRALISATION and
DISINFO OP ---ALERT!---

"We ARE using MASSIVE third world
immigration to DESTROY British culture
once and for all, beyond repair ---FOREVER."
-TONY BLAIR
Fmr PM/Future EU President/Glow-BALL--ist
(Daily Mail interview)

---And here, with the ATF equipped Mexican
drug cartels, the Rockefeller/Ford Foundation's
MASSIVELY funded, goaded and directed
'Reconquista' and 'La Raza',
and the Fabian Murdoch front Newsorp's
funding of 'Machete' and REFUSAL to so much
as mention those rampantly exploiting the
ILLEGALS ----much less the awesomely
unfolding RED China sellout and TREASON
OP -or even John Wheeler's murder
-----to the HAARP-esque Fukishima
nuclear halocaust and DEPOP OP ----or the
Freemasonic 'Break and Destroy Their Hearts'
OP in Norway ---the 'continuity of agenda'
holds worldwide.

---------------HAD ENOUGH?

------------HUAC/BC meets NUREMBERG----------

-------------STILL giggling------------?

DIDN'T think so---------------------------------------

Bill| 8.11.11 @ 12:22PM

I'm glad you brought back the Tavistock thingie; I was concerned that you might have forgotten about it.

Dan Mathewson| 8.11.11 @ 6:47PM

"Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?"
Mr. Doubletalk

Nancy in NC| 8.11.11 @ 7:00AM

How's that tolerance working out for you? And Americans fail to see it will work just as well here. We tolerate bad behavior in one generation, and then accept it in the next.

As an older American I am appalled when unwed girls are having baby showers. In my youth these girls were shipped out of town to hide their indiscretion. Now it is celebrated.

When I was in high school a few moons ago, the girl slated to be valedictorian became pregnant. When her condition became apparent, she was sent home. She graduated, but did not participate in graduation ceremonies. There was shame attached to her condition. Now schools provide free child care in some cases.

Most of us could feel pages here with what has happened to our society. This is progress? Many have reverted to the barbarism of medieval times, and sadder, much of it is excused and tolerated by those too afraid or liberal to say enough is enough. We have lowered our expectations for our children and they are living down to those expectations.

There are still a number of people trying to live decent, upstanding lives. I'm sure they feel they are swimming against the tide.

Does anyone truly believe this will have a good result?

Maxwell| 8.11.11 @ 8:32AM

My better half teaches in the inner city in a charter school. What you describe is only the tip of the ice berg.

The stories of the girl who has a father 'interested in her', another comes in VERY black and blue on the arms because she 'tripped', either father and/or mother locked up so she is staying at an 'aunts' house, don't even mention gangs. There is of course mommy has a new boy friend so I'm going to have a new brother or sister soon. The reverse is also true with the father.

There is no shame.

SF_Exile| 8.11.11 @ 4:37PM

A similar situation happened at the my senior year in high school (1986). A rumor ripped through our school that a classmate was expecting. Now that I think back on it, it unfolded a lot like the scene in "Grease" where Rizzo thinks she's pregnant and is suddenly on the receiving end of dirty looks and whispers. The administration asked her to leave school due to the scandal. She could either tutor at home or return to school once the child was born and graduate. Her parents complained and she was allowed to remain until she was so far along that it was physically difficult for her to navigate.

At the time I recall I was more disappointed than anything. My mother had drummed it into my head that that sort of thing would be the end to every dream or opportunity I had. (Of course, in light of my not being allowed to date in high school I don't think I was in any danger...)

Actually, I thought that her being allowed to graduate with the rest of us was a reward for poor decision making.

Andrew B| 8.11.11 @ 7:12AM

All of the factors in a society that contribute to civilizing young men are absent in the modern welfare state. A job is a civilizing factor, in that it requires effort, focus and routine. Marriage is a civilizing factor, in that it forces men to make choices they might not otherwise wish to make. Religion is a civilizing factor, since belief in God establishes a hierarchy and imposes obligations on human beings.

Take those things away, replacing them with The All-Encompassing State, and you get the results currently on display in Britain. And, I fear, coming soon to our own shores.

Jason| 8.11.11 @ 7:28AM

30 years ago I lived inLondon. At that time England opened the floodgates to a tsunami of Africans and West Indians. I explained to them that they would quickly have a huge portion of their population on permanent welfare and refusing, always under any conditions, to work. Then would come mindless violence against the very infrastructure and people that make shelter, tax revenues, and food obtainable for the rioters.

The naive Brits told me that only in America did bigotry against Africans exist. In England things would always be very rosy because England was "entirely without prejudice."

I wonder who was the most prophetic?

Seek| 8.11.11 @ 11:36AM

You and Enoch Powell. But few listened.

POST American| 8.11.11 @ 7:37AM

"The British people should be going
after a truly culpable organization in
all this ----they should be going after,
refusing to pay, their BBC fees across
the nation. The BBC, with Jeremy PAX-man
have refused to go after the banking scandal,
and have spend the last few years pitching
soft ball cover. THEY are culpable."
-MAX KAISER
(yesterday)

THINK our 'on board' major nets, and,
of course, the Fabian Globalist Murdoch
FAKE op FOX and their absolute cover up
of the RED China sellout and TREASON
issue.

-----------------BTW, are we keeping tabs on that
ominously quiet, no doubt now complete.
MASSIVE Pigeon Lake B.C. to Asia tunnel
project? ----or the progress of that 'first
of several' RED China 'sovereignty zones'
south of Boise?

"------Daddy, WHY'S the policeman suddenly
Chinese-----?"

YOU KNOW IT'S COMING

Doc| 8.11.11 @ 1:30PM

Well at least they know how to keep law and order... can't hurt can it...

Gary B| 8.11.11 @ 7:41AM

My post was deleted. I wonder which toxic words were the culprits. Could it have been the phrase, "martial law?"

gearjammer| 8.11.11 @ 8:20AM

I read that thugs broke into five star resturants and stole jewelry and other items from the women as the men just looked on dazed and confused.
these aristocratic men have always seemed to Americans a little stiff and namby pamby, hardly John Wayne in persona. Yet, history tells us they always fought well and bravely. The las two world wars are testimony to that. Now, look-girly men-totally feminized. Their grandfathers must be turning in their graves. And, if they did stand up and thrash the thrugs the very women they were defending would probably be enraged towards them. And, they might be arrested for engaging in self defense. You must sit be quiet and wait for " the bobbies" to make it all nice. Men of England start kicking ass and taking names-and put your silly women and girly men in their place.

TexasMom2012| 8.11.11 @ 12:44PM

Surely there were steak knives on the table? I would not need a man to defend me although hubby nor either son would not allow me the chance to do so...

Seriously, these women just allowed themselves to be robbed? Did the thieves have guns? Dang glad to be here in Texas where an honest citizen would have been armed and stopped this nonsense.

Time to hit the range again...

Drunken Sailor| 8.11.11 @ 12:57PM

My kind of lady. She knows that "Gun Control" means using both hands.

Pelligrino| 8.11.11 @ 1:12PM

gearjammer, you are truly on to what should be a focal point here: The passivity. You heard correctly. As I have exchanged some messages and correspondence with friends in England, I hear of this "overcaution" or even precaution against fighting back. Really?

The problem is that this is throughout. Thankfully in the age of hand held cell phones that take video/audio, the police and bystanders are going to look very shameful on what will soon be up all over YouTube.

In short, you are right: The effeminization of men and their behaviors/actions is a problem. Big problem.

JimH| 8.11.11 @ 8:35AM

Instead of accommodating other ways and ‘valuing diversity’ the British still had the stones to act as General Napier had when dealing with suttee; "This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.". Maybe all the wars have killed off to many of the brave and strong.

TrueBlue| 8.11.11 @ 12:02PM

Is it bad that I laughed at this because I agree?

The Big E| 8.11.11 @ 8:58AM

Mr. Taylor,

It is so sad to see what has happened to Great Britain over the last few decades, and you are right, what we are seeing today is the inevitable result of choices that have been made in the past. Unfortunately, I fear it is a situation which you will find difficult to fix. Great Britain now has a generation of young people who have been trained since birth to believe they are owed whatever they want simply because somebody else has it and they don't; have no skills with which to earn an honest living; have insufficient education to survive without the assistance of a nanny; have no understanding that there are consequences for their actions; and have no desire to be anything or achieve anything in life. Those are habits/beliefs which must be learned young, and which, I fear, cannot be unlearned late in life.

Great Britain has achieved a society in which no one is held accountable for anything; no one has to work to earn anything; and there is no social pressure on anyone to live in a what us barbarians have previously referred to as a civilized manner because every behavior - no matter how destructive, selfish, inane, ignorant, amoral, or perverse - is accepted as being no better or worse than any other behavior.

In short, they have achieved the left's vision of Utopia - a nation of people who are dead in every sense except the physical.

The Big E| 8.11.11 @ 9:01AM

I really need to learn to use the preview button. Obviously, that should have read, ". . . and there is no social pressure on anyone to live in a way we barbarians have previously referred to as a civilized manner . . "

Sorry.

The Big E| 8.11.11 @ 9:01AM

Sorry.

pineapple| 8.11.11 @ 9:21AM

We can no longer refer to Great Britain as great nor can we refer to the United States of America as united.

PolishKnight| 8.11.11 @ 9:46AM

Pineapple, that's funny! Did you come up with that? It's catchy!

Indeed, we're in the middle of a cultural civil war with elections split right down the middle with clueless "independents", usually working and middle class whites, jumping back and forth between sides.

In a war, cultural or physical, the goal is to gain power and to defeat one's opponents even if sometimes it's only possible to go nuk-u-lar and achieve one of those objectives. The left is quite clear: They're so committed to being superior to the stoopid right that they'll push the button from their bunker rather than surrender which makes their hysteria about the Obamaconomy crashing down quite hilarious. They're enraged, enraged mind you, that the evil right would dare to hold them hostage with the debt ceiling. Nevermind them opening the floodgates to illegals in order to make America into a third world country so that they can then proclaim that socialist western Europe has won.

As Mark Steyn pointed out recently, the founders of the EU consider the USA a threat more significant than they did the former USSR. When Americans are doing well that makes the local Frenchman living in their hut and eating mac and cheese after getting his free master's degree wonder if maybe the yanks are onto something after all. They want to take us down to leave a power vacuum for western Europe to fill. When they say they "love America" and don't want to leave it, they mean that they love America as a future colony of Canada.

Even as we worship the Constitution, it's useful to keep in mind that it was doomed for failure from the start by most of the founding fathers who saw a civil war as likely. They could see it coming from the slavery situation between North and South. The civil war failed to gain full civil rights for blacks and has continued to this day to be a major tool in the left arsenal to perpetuate a cultural civil war. So in reality, the states has been in a state of cultural civil war since the 1850's or so meaning that it's been at conflict with itself for most of it's history.

JimH| 8.11.11 @ 1:33PM

Maybe So So Britain and the Loosely Affiliated States.

loulou| 8.11.11 @ 10:29AM

Sounds like a line from "Coffee Talk".

Dave Williams| 8.11.11 @ 2:33PM

....to say nothing of "The land of the free and the home of the brave." That train left the station a long time ago, I'm afraid....

simon templar| 8.11.11 @ 9:37AM

Mr. Taylor,

Your analysis is spot on for the most part.
The question remains, however, whether your nation has the capability to blast through the liberalism, the political correctness, and the deceptions that your society has accepted these last 50 years. I have been looking very closely at the pictures and videos that have come out of media coverage and can see that this story has largely not been told accurately. Yes, just who is rioting and why? Can we at least be honest about this? I think owning up to what has actually happened will be the first step in recovery.
Most Britians know in their hearts and in the back of their minds what exactly has produced this and its not conservative or liberal but the plain reality of a nation that has built an entire segment of their society on permanent entitlement. So, what is different then say 40 years ago?
1. an explosion of entitlements
2. uncontrolled, illegal, and incoherent immigration and policy
3. ridicule, derision, and rejection of religion particularly christianity
4. an educational system that has promoted class warfare, liberal dogma, political correctness, moral relativism, and rebellion.

Yes, it will come down to whether or not your government, leadership, and people have the will and the integrity to reestablish law and order and do whatever is necessary to attain it. Waiting to see what happens is not a strategy. Contemplating leaving your own country is surrender. This is a test alright. Listen to the statements of the two female rioters. They are also waiting to see what happens. Surprise them.

simon templar| 8.11.11 @ 9:44AM

Mr. Taylor,
Britian is still a great nation. The fact remains that the MAJORITY of its people are good, hardworking people who obey the law, want the best for their children, and love their country. It is time, however, that they stand up for it, fight for it, and lead.

rendite| 8.11.11 @ 1:20PM

ST, if they were that 'good,' they'd have been doing this already for the last 35 years -- and they wouldn't need your prompting.

We overuse the word good.

Good neighborhoods and good towns and good people do not descend so swiftly into this kind of decrepedness and deviancies.

They have not stood up against it for 35 plus years. They are not good.

simon templar| 8.11.11 @ 1:35PM

Rendite, they are good in the sense that they try to live good lives, obey laws, and are contributing to society. You do not see them out there stealing and rioting. Yes, they have not been wise nor very discerning and perhaps confused, fearful or apathetic. This did not happen swiftly but was a slow insidious rot, the frog in the hot water...
Keep that in mind. No one is not guilty of some of this apathy or being deceived. Even us. The question of their complicity and badness will be in what they do in the near future. It will be the test of their true character and will determine their fate.

Occam's Tool| 8.11.11 @ 6:35PM

My Dear Simon:

I wish I was as optimistic as you. The answer to your question, however is in the Negative. (I respect you immensely despite the disagreement---perhaps you will agree with me when I tell you why I disagree)

These people may be very nice. In NZ, I got to know a lot of Brits. hardworking, a lot of them, and pleasant folks. However, they do NOT breed to replacement. 1.58 is the birthrate per woman. they do not have faith enough in the future to repopulate themselves---they grow older and weaker in the face of the Islamic tide and their own societal breakdown. The government even discourages display of their own flag in some areas.

You have spirit and determination, but you are only one man. There are insufficient youngsters at your back. From whence will the fighters for a better Britain come?

Le Cracquere| 8.11.11 @ 10:04PM

But they won't. You miserable geldings would rather lose your country than raise a fuss. You'll "keep calm and carry on" ... into your freaking graves. Being "good, hardworking people" who haven't stood up to their governmental masters for generations and won't start now ... that and $3.50 will get you a cup of coffee*. You law-abiding Britons have spent your overmonitored, bureaucrat-ridden lives as subjects: what the hell will it take to make you finally act like citizens? We can't help you if you can't help yourselves. What will get YOU to take to the streets? Anything?

* Trans: "That and ₤2.16 will get you a cuppa."

Petronius| 8.11.11 @ 9:46AM

"The gods of the copybook headings
with terror and slaughter return."
Is there not one MP with the nads to stand at the dispatch box in the Commons and utter those words? Not when their sons are avowed anarchists themselves, and the Law Lords in sympathy with the yobs.
Once again: read Rank Ignorance; Spectator of London, 15 July, 2000.

Dai Alanye | 8.11.11 @ 9:57AM

There is a simple cure for this sort of behavior, both in Britain and the US--cut welfare.

We are, in effect, subsidizing anti-social behavior. We encourage layabouts by too-generous, too-lengthy unemployment benefits, and we encourage illegitimacy by offering unwed mothers separate apartments and generous payments. What happens when something is subsidized? You get more of it.

Cut all forms of welfare to the bone, because people who are hungry soon learn better behavior. Stop ALL payments to immigrants, because they are supposed to come here with a means of support. There'll be a transition period when misbehavior gets worse--but with proper preparation, including warnings to the "underclass," it shouldn't last too long.

Britain could, of course, do themselves an additional favor by outlawing public drunkenness, a problem we have far less of in the US.

WJ| 8.11.11 @ 10:06AM

It is quite simple. The UK has imported millions of people that don't share their national values of democracy and non-violent conflict resolution.

The USA is doing the same with our neighbors to the south. People that have not been immersed in our superior culture have no inclination to follow it's rules.

And, despite what some previous posters have stated, the overwhelming majority are black.

al| 8.11.11 @ 10:09AM

It's fascinating when a column blames "every Brit" now asking why, even as it attempts to split the difference between right and left in terms of analysis--and then offers solutions that prove the right was right all along.

simon templar| 8.11.11 @ 10:27AM

So, whats your point? Do you have a brain? Do you have an opinion or analysis? Does the truth always lie in the proverbial middle with all the fence sitters? Perhaps, the right has been proved right as they warned that this would happen (in detail) 50 years ago. Maybe it is time to listen.

Maddox| 8.11.11 @ 11:06AM

Perhaps the "right" was right all along, it is the policies of the left that destroyed jobs and prosperity that benefited all. The leftists tout socialism but they do not help the poor. The word is only used to allow them more power and control. Wake up and see them for the Marxists they are.

Maddox| 8.11.11 @ 11:06AM

David| 8.11.11 @ 10:22AM

Something we all seem to be missing is the loss of hope. I've seen it here in the staes and continue to see it. When young people have little or no hope of a decent job then what have we as a society done to them. All of the western countries are producing less and less of our own goods and importing them Asia, Central and South America. We have become the tiger chasing its tail. Well, the tiger finally caught its tail. The only one that benefits from these foreign goods are the importers. These items may be less expensive if they are made elsewhere, but not by much. Who really benefits? Eventually with no jobs there is no income and with no income will come no imported goods. At that point the sociesty will become stagnant and then stert to rapidly decay. Without a source of income anyone would be in a downward spiral. Not everyone is meant for college or a job in the stock market. Most people in fact need a job they can do with their hands, not their brain. Without the west buying all this cheap China crap where would Chine be? And where would we be? Surely not burning down our own cities.

simon templar| 8.11.11 @ 10:46AM

Please, a little perspective. I do not believe it has anything to do with hope. Tell that to the millions of illegals here that seem to find 'hope' here in the US. Tell that to previous generations that have experience far more hardship and challenges than most of these spoiled brats today will ever experience. Tell that to the millions of visa workers here taking IT jobs from Americans who do not seem to want them or are not willing to fight for them.
What we as a society have done to them?
Yeah, we taught them that cheating in schools is better than actually doing your own work. We taught them that moral relativism is better than morality and religion. We taught them that they are entitled to everything, that most adults know nothing, and they should do whatever feels good to them.
The day of the victim and victim psychology is done.

SF_Exile| 8.11.11 @ 5:42PM

You say yourself that "not everyone is meant for college or a job in the stock market". But doesn't every parent think just the opposite?
25 years ago when I graduated from high school, there was a decent segment of my class that immediately went to work - they became secretaries, bank tellers, farmers, loggers. In the case of college it was teaching or nursing. Even the military. In the ensuing years it seems as if people consider those jobs beneath them. Everyone wants their kid to go to college and 'be someone'. Well, the world needs ditchdiggers too, Danny. What's wrong with being a carpenter or a mechanic or a plumber? Heck, these days at least they're employed!
And as Simon mentions above, what about all those IT jobs that can't be filled with home grown talent? The dirty little secret is that those American kids are LAZY! They arrive fresh out of school at their entry level jobs with huge egos, no ability to think outside the box and then demand to be treated like someone with 15 years of industry experience. That's the problem. A friend of mine who is in high tech has essentially admitted that he won't hire someone under the age of 30. They have no work ethic.

Hyan Mighty| 8.11.11 @ 11:09AM

Spot on Mr Taylor, but a couple of points that I would like to add. It's way too late to undo the mistakes of the past. We have to deal with what we've got, here and now.
Reference some previous posts, of the treasured values whose demise we bemoan, Religion should not be one of them. Another helping of 'God' is the last thing we need. Most of the current suffering in the world stems from religious fundamentalism of one stripe or another and it's even more destructive than the everlasting 'class divisions' in our society. I for one certainly don't need to 'fear god' to be a decent caring human being.
Let's not forget basic humans instincts. Love it or hate it, young men of whatever colour or origin are programmed to love excitement, to crave it - it's welded into their DNA - from Eton schoolboys to Somali gang members. Just before we lock them up or think about educating them (we've been trying that for years), we need to give them something physical to do to burn off their energy. Not boot camps (although that certainly seems hugely justified) but some sort of constructive fun! Yes I did say fun - you know athletic games, challenges, adventure treks etc. They don't have to know that we're only making it fun to keep them involved in order to achieve our ultimate objective - a better future for us all!
This idea needs some creative thinking because (leaving aside the morality issue) what could be more fun than rioting with your buddies and going home with a few thousand pounds worth of TVs? Then, when you've exhausted their physical needs in a positive way, you can start dealing with their emotional needs and teaching them the basics of civilised behaviour.
It's counter-intuitive I know - we're aching to meet out revenge - but it's a way out of the conundrum.
We can't shut the stable door or undo the past. Yes - it's unfair that we're in this mess, but kicking and screaming "it's not fair" will ensure that we remain locked in the same mess forever.
Let's use our intelligence and learn from the martial arts - don't try to bash your opponent however angry you are with them - utilise and deflect their energy and success follows!
Finally, amend the tax and benefits system to reward women for NOT having children! Oh, and scrap the Human (criminals) Right Act.

Occam's Tool| 8.11.11 @ 10:32PM

Hyan:

We have a birth dearth in developed countries---we need kids.

Truncheon| 8.11.11 @ 11:14AM

"There's no reason why Britain has to be like this ... we must use every tool at our disposal -- financial, educational, and cultural"

The author remains a part of the problem. Civilized, polite societies *shoot* looters with high-powered rifles.

Until England regains the will to do what must be done ... "looters will be shot on sight" ... she will not recover.

fmm| 8.11.11 @ 11:14AM

Your statement "Violence isn't ingrained in our DNA " could not be further from the truth. The two basic characteristics of human beings are self-service (selfishness) and violent reaction to whatever interferes with that self service. These two truths are what you are witnessing in these riots and the general misbehavior you describe so well. It is ironic that the English society which was instrumental in developing the most enlightend and efficient civilizations in history has gone so far back to the dark ages. The knowledge to rekindle our once great civilizations is all around us, we just need to find the will to renew our committment to the truth.

cowgirl| 8.11.11 @ 11:42AM

We have kicked God out of schools, families, society and our lives. We are paying a heavy price for our pride. When God created man, he created rules for us to live by that create social order, peace and happiness. We are like the Jews in the old testament. God keeps telling us to listen to Him and we, like the Jews, vehemently believe that our humanism is much better than any thing God can give us even though he is the Creator and Maker of all things we have on this earth. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and only through Him and His redemption and grace can we be saved.

Here is a great example of how stupid we humans really are....

Dear God: Please send us someone to cure cancer, HIV and terminal diseases.

Dear Child: I have, but you have aborted all of them.

Pelligrino| 8.11.11 @ 1:38PM

Cowgirl, correct. Missing in all this -- deep -- analysis is that the people of London, England, Scotland, Wales....have all jettisoned God and the Bible. They do not go to church. They allowed, for some crazy reasons, themselves to think that the Church of England stands for the church or what it should be -- despite all the ueber liberalism that abounds.

Just witness Britain on a Sunday morning. Yes, it is certainly the quietest and safest time on the streets. But, like all of Europe, it is only the few patches of those aged over 60 with the 1) self discipline, 2) goodness, 3) sense of responsibility, and 4) wisdom (that can only come from God) who are on the streets headed to a house of Christian worship.

Therein lies Britains problems.

Reject God and, well, what do you expect?

If somehow a study could be done of ALL the thugs, scum, looters, and miscreants of the last six days, the results would be overwhelming: They are the offspring of broken homes; kids with criminal records AND parent(s) with same. They are into alcohol and drugs. Few if any would be churchgoers.

Note how the author of this piece does not even touch on Christian faith; he does not even consider the Bible, God, or faithful churchgoing, Christian service into his calculations.

That is the problem.

cowgirl| 8.11.11 @ 2:42PM

God created the social order of a family for a reason. Dad, Mom and children. The dynamics of this social order was created by God for a reason - peace and happiness on earth. We no longer respect or support the social order of a family - therefore as you stated above - we have complete, utter, no-turning back chaos. Just look at Britian and cities in the United States like Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Nothing but hopelessness.... worse than a Greek Tragedy.

Seek| 8.12.11 @ 11:40AM

Actually, human beings created the family as a sensible, and legally enforceable, way to raise children.

Believe it -- there are plenty of crappy, dysfunctional Christian families out there. I've met a few, too.

cowgirl| 8.13.11 @ 11:25AM

Really - human beings created the family. Gosh I have got to hear this one - I am sure it has do to with evolution.. please enthrall me with your acumen.

Crappy and dysfunctional Christians are human. I speaking of God's principals - not theirs. If they are crappy and dysfunctional Christians then they are human and not following God's ways. Blame that on them -not God - he gives us free will and we are free to choose how to use that free will.

I do agree with you though about crappy and dysfunctional Christians - first ones that come to mind are Nancy (I am a Catholic) Pelosi and The Drunk - Ted (I am a Catholic) Kennedy. So you are right about that....

Occam's Tool| 8.11.11 @ 6:36PM

Indeed, Cowgirl, indeed.

Jack London| 8.11.11 @ 12:16PM

'A combination of enforcement and social transformation will lead to more decency and less selfishness and aggression. We'll begin to create the kind of society that other Western countries have. A society that cares. '

I take it he's not including us. It's no surprise as Britain has been copying American policy for many years and now look at it. Brutal capitalism lays waste to huge swathes of cities and we wonder why people get upset.

simon templar| 8.11.11 @ 1:25PM

Truly amazing. Britian is a parliamentary socialist democracy and its policies and direction the last 50 years have been a steady march in the Left-ward direction. Yet, you blame capitalism and America like a good little communist propagandist that you are.
Jack your self off to Cuba, you will be alot happier in that paradise.

Jack London| 8.11.11 @ 1:50PM

Your knowledge is faulty - you must have forgotten the Reagan-Thatcher axis, and the Bush-Blair axis, both warmongering, deregulating, rich-rewarding times. And the Brits current government is slashing social programs I believe.

And as 'Simon Templar' - a British thief with a penchant for tackling corruption - you ought to know better.

Drunken Sailor| 8.11.11 @ 4:20PM

"And the Brits current government is slashing social programs I believe."

Why yes they are, currently. Why because they have found it unsustainable. That is the reason for the looters, they are pissed because their goverment checks and handouts are coming to a end. Big Nanny goverment is stopping the irresponsible gravy train and they might actually have to get off their ass and work. Don't believe it? Go to the inner cities, find you a inner city basketball court or popular street corner in the goverment subsidized housing and announce that in order to get their goverment money they will have to report to a work center 4 hours a day and be drug tested. Watch the fireworks and see if it reminds you of London.

Occam's Tool| 8.11.11 @ 6:37PM

Mr. London--with what do you think? These riots are purely the result of entitlement.

W| 8.11.11 @ 8:50PM

You are correct, Jack.
Britain needs a commission to discover the root causes of the uprisings and develop programs to eradicate these root causes. I suggest quotas for the minorities to get in colleges, set asides for government contracts, quotas for hiring, Section 8 housing, welfare, food stamps, free legal services, creation of Equal Employment Agencies in every city, county, state, and region to investigate discrimination claims, sensitivity training to people who criticize the uprisings, and hate crime legislation.
After we do this, Britain will solve its problems like the USA did.

skip| 8.11.11 @ 10:03PM

skip | 8.9.11 @ 6:14PM:

"Surely, readers staying tuned will no doubt not be surprised in the least to witness Equus Asinus Enthalpy London soon reach a heretofore unknown level of lying idiocy."

* * *

Equus Asinus Enthalpy London | 8.11.11 @ 12:16PM:

"Brutal capitalism lays waste to huge swathes of cities and we wonder why people get upset."

* * *

TexasMom2012| 8.11.11 @ 1:02PM

I read somewhere that the Brits unemployment system is nuts. The article said that a young man who is laid off at age 20 can still be collecting unemployment at age 60 under their system. If this is true then it is nuts. The Brits (and the USA) need to start contracting the welfare system until it is only a workfare system. No sound citizen should ever be on the dole for life.

Hell, my oldest is autistic. He is in college full time AND works 16-30 hours a week in a grocery store. The state here (texas) helped him find his job and even offered to pay for his gas to his job (we said no thanks). Surely some of these London deadbeats can do the same? Makes me sick to think the land of my ancestors has come to this.

Con Chef (NB) | 8.11.11 @ 1:06PM

It seems as if, in addition to no longer ruling the waves, Britons are now also slaves. Slaves to the government that's been their sustenance for DECADES. Slaves to those low rent morons who're now destroying one of the most AWESOME cities I've ever been to. And WHY are they slaves to these holligans? BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO GUNS!!! How many more of these riots would happen if these "yobs" (that's what the Brit papers are calling the rioters) had to contend with the possibility that Nigel, who runs the local mini mart, might pull out a double barrelled shotgun? Short answer? Not many more.

"The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside... Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them..."...Thomas Paine

dufas_duck| 8.11.11 @ 1:34PM

Actually, I think it is the other way around....
Working people are the slaves. The working people are slaves of those that don't work for a living.

Just as when the old plantation owners would punish their slaves for not working hard enough to support their life style, the new plantation owners, the 'idle welfare class' , are punishing their slaves, the working people, for not supporting 'the idle welfare class' in their life style.

Working people are the NEW slaves to the welfare class.

Thatcher was correct in saying that socialism works great [for some people] until other people's [working people's] money runs out...

Brady Reed| 8.11.11 @ 1:10PM

Mr Taylor,
In an otherwise fine article, your prescription for promoting "tolerance" is precisely what has led to these mess. We need less tolerance, Sir, not more.

dufas_duck| 8.11.11 @ 1:17PM

Now you know why the US has more of it's citizens in jail than any other country...

Skippy| 8.12.11 @ 6:39PM

I can think of a few more that could use it.

Culzean| 8.11.11 @ 1:58PM

I fully agree with the base article and its sentiments. This sort of clarity of expression is sorely missing in the British media and it is extremely depressing that rioting has been the catalyst to allow such comment to be aired.

Whilst we spend more than 50% of all of the country's earned wealth on welfare, nothing will change. Britain became "Great" on the back of serious toil. The benefit was a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.

The concept of an "honest wage" and a "reasonable living" is behind us. Bankers have seen to that. Everyone now wants to be a "celebrity" and have the riches that we pour onto soccer "stars", most of whom have fewer than two brain cells and would never be sustainable wealth creators in a million years. They abrogate societal responsibility, consider themselves above the law and actively debase even the most common morals. And they are the role models for our children.

Many people are struggling financially in Britain right now. They have the same issue as the country - living beyond their means. And what's the reaction? Do we have an upswing of people doing whatever it takes to make ends meet? No. We have an upswing in spending on the lottery. That says everything about the mentality of Britain today.

But truth will out. The economic welfare model is bust. Rather than running away - to where? - we have to tough this out. Hard-working people will survive. The work-shy won't. Poverty is about to sweep Britain. It was rife in Victorian days and will be again. Then it was lack of education, now it is plain laziness. But as people got focused, they moved on and moved up. That has to happen again. But it has to come from individuals, not on a golden path laid down by Government borrowing.

Nature has a funny way of sortiung this stuff out, so life-expectancy in our country will fall and disease will rise. The NHS can't cope now, let alone when the wave of poverty hits. Eventually, someone in power will have the balls to support the wealth creators and cast-off the shirkers.

And if they don't like it in the Britain that will develop next, tough. Go elsewhere. And good riddance.

Pelligrino| 8.11.11 @ 3:27PM

Yes, I know that this is a side note, but I think it very telling. Above Culzeans writes of the full misplaced idolization of pop stars and football (soccer) players in Britain.

So true.

When it became outright scandalous what Chelsea defender, married man, father John Terry did to a teammate and with that teammate's wife, it was appalling to 1) see the overall commentaries that stated always "Who cares what he does in his private life...." 2) know that he would not be dropped from England's national team.

After all, a World Cup in South Africa was imminent.

Terry's "misdeeds," many of them while having the honor? of being England's captain.

That used to mean something, wearing the armband.

One, the levels of discussion in newspapers, in the net, etc. were beyond base. Two, when there was just the collective shoulder shrugs of "What are you going to do?" well, you know that the simplest tenets of the moral order are no more.

Is it the same now with Manchester United's Welshman Ryan Giggs?

People think that this is trivial, peripheral. No, it is not. Bigtime, excessive, grotesque professional sports are indeed grotesque. However, the people inolved and their behaviors, thoughts, and words offer a good barometer for a people/nation.

There are reasons that Eric Liddel is considered Scotland's greatest athlete -- ever.

Thrasher| 8.11.11 @ 2:19PM

The decadence and decay of civilization in the UK began epochs ago and of late decades ago..The UK has been for quite a while a 2nd rate nation with inept and incompetent leaders and a vulgar elite and ruling clas..The denial and demonization by this author reflects this reality...This commentary is an afront to logic and it saddens me to observe this level of scholarship in print

hilld| 8.11.11 @ 2:34PM

Oh dear, oh dear. I'm afraid Mr Taylor lost me with "sharing of wealth in all its forms." Some people just can't shake off the old socialist crapola. As though any failure to "spread the wealth around" (as Obama would describe the same poison) played any part in causing the feral violence Britain has been witnessing. Gizza break!

Bill| 8.11.11 @ 3:24PM

Spreading the wealth around did indeed play a significant in the British riots.

Giving money to the parasites of British society created an expectation among the thugs that they are entitled to things. When they get the urge to let us know that they want more, they riot.

If they just got shot for rioting, as they once used to, we would probably have fewer fires and devastated towns.

k962| 8.11.11 @ 3:53PM

Western Society has a whole has been on a decline for some time. It's narcissism, its hate, its lack of respect for life and property. Anything goes, if it hurts somebody else, who cares? These are morals and values of today and children learn their values from their parents and so it goes!

martin j smith| 8.11.11 @ 4:24PM

I saw a "debate" between a conservative and labor party reps in a news clip the other day. I think the essence of the problem I gained from watching the two was this: While the Labor Party claimed she saw no"excuse" for the rioting at the same time also said the austerity policies were to blame.
The conservative party member asserted that his Labor colleague was talking with forked tongue.

That is while condemning the rioting also giving a "justification" of the behavior.

My view is that the criticism of Labor is exactly right on--the entitlement promises and the consequent expectations of just getting without giving is the problem. That means that there is no way that Labor and the Conservative side can work together. This is the problem that we have with Obama and the Socialist leadership .

intex| 8.11.11 @ 4:47PM

I do not think this is a very good article. It makes no practical suggestions as to how to deal with the problems we face.

Paragraphs like the one quoted below sound very nice, but they do not really mean anything.

"Secondly, we must use every tool at our disposal -- financial, educational, and cultural -- to transform our society, promoting respect, tolerance, honesty, generosity of spirit and sharing of wealth in all its forms.

Ok, so what does that mean in practice? What pratical policies could the goverment implement to make this happen?

"We must see family breakdown as our collective failure. Again, a massive change."

Again, this is not a practical solution. There is no point writing an article like this, if you are not prepared to suggest serious solutions that could actually be implemented in the real world.

I will give you some practical solutions that could be implemented :-

1. Bring back National Service. All children would need to complete at least 1 years National Service. It is important that all children do this, so that a divide is not created in society between the children that did national service and those that did not. Everyone does national service, so everyone is in the same boat regardless of class, gender, race or religion.

2. Children that mess around at school, get taken out of normal school and get sent to a boarding school run by the military. This means that delinquent children do not ruin school for the kids that want to learn. The children that go to military school have a new family, their fellow recruits. Their real family is obviously not fit to look after them properly. The army will be very strict with discipline and will instil a moral code in these kids and give them a set of values that would not have been given to them at home by their parents. These kids will learn the core subjects, eniglish, maths, science etc and will also spend a lot of their day doing harsh physical exercise.

3. Much tougher sentences for crimes. Some of the looters have received 2 month jail sentences for crimes. This is not enough. 5 years minimum.

4. Bring back the death penalty for serious crimes, i.e. rape, murder, robbery, kidnapping.

These are practical, enforceable solutions that could make a real difference to our society.

Seek| 8.11.11 @ 5:50PM

Mandatory youth national service? Isn't that the essence of Big Government -- the State molding character, rendering citizens servile?

Occam's Tool| 8.11.11 @ 6:39PM

Intex---the solution for Britain is NOT national service for all---it is to restrict the voting franchise to those who have completed arduous, potentially life threatening national service, successfully.

You cannot make a sow's ear into a silk purse. But you can limit power to silk purse holders.

Pelligrino| 8.12.11 @ 1:53AM

Intex,
I like your approach; way too much space is wasted on platitudes like the one you quoted from the article. Meaningless hot air.

What is practical? What can be implemented to affect needed change.

All four ideas have sure merit. I think that the two posters above have no idea what you mean by national service. I have seen this implemented elsewhere in the world, and it can work. And, I would add, that a lad can enter the military formally for several years. Obviously the first year counts toward his one year requirement.

Please add arson to the fourth point.

The military school is a solid solution for the reprobate ruffians now in school who, already at the early age of 13, are contemptable and unsuitable for normal upbringings. Yes, the adult(s) in that child's life has/have failed. Off to (distant!) military school! And please include Bible lessons in the curriculum. (Jesus always changes lives.)

This makes an ideal zone for the military to pluck the very best youth/pupils as candidates for the armed forces.

**And please consider laws permitting citizens to own personal firearms. Never again should a shopkeeper be helpless to fend off just 3 or 4 miscreants.

Thank you. Stick with the practical. Hot air, empty words, and lofty notions don't save a people or nation.

Richard Baker| 8.11.11 @ 5:42PM

Time to turn out the Parachute Regiment and 22 SAS, for starters.

A.C.Guard| 8.11.11 @ 7:22PM

These riots are the result of the nanny state, a belief by blacks that they can take and do whatever they want and a British government afraid to stop them due to political correctness. My heart goes out to the hundreds of business owners who were burned out and those who will be unemployed because of this happening. The weak politicians deserve all the scorn that will be coming their way.

Kingofthenet| 8.11.11 @ 8:33PM

Zero Tolerance and 'Stop and Frisk' has remade NYC, I remember going to 42nd St in the 80's, the ONLY thing there was Porno, Head, and Weapons Shops,(Ok it was kinda 'edgy' than) The idea isn't that you are going to put someone in Rikers for 6 months for smoking a little weed, it's to say NO YOU DON'T DO THIS IN PUBLIC, same for open Container and Public Urination. Sure it pretty much is just a nice fine and they kick you, but you learn what is and isn't acceptable behavior, something that appears lost in Britain today.

charles794| 8.12.11 @ 1:30AM

In good old days the children were kept in line by voice: voice of the mother, relative, neighbour, teacher, shopkeeper, etc. In some instances, where the Voice was not enough, a smack would follow. Morality and ethics were in the hands of the population.
Morality and ethic has been taken away from the hands of parents, neighbours, teachers, even the policeman. The morality and ethic has become business: thou shalt NOT admonish the child - it may be offended; thou shalt NOT hit the child - you will end up in a court; thou shall NOT call a black rioter a black rioter - it's racist (he is allowed to sa "white riote", though; thou shall NOT even mention that Jamaica is miserable because of the colour of it's population; the highly talented Arab world in disarray because of its ossified religions.... The sooner we take OUR morality, OUR ethic, OUR customs, OUR ways, from the hands of Departments and doooogoodies, the better for our future!

charles794| 8.12.11 @ 2:46AM

And another thing is the "culture" we are forced to tolerate, and which we all know is corrupting our children. The only motto of this "culture" is "it is good because it sells". WRONG! Anything promoting murder, rape, robbery, civil disobedience, etc., must be stamped out & the attempt to promote such "culture" MUST be suppressed by law. This "culture" has been foisted on us by civil libertarians, shonky businesses, by criminal "artists". Admittedly, the present young generation has already escaped & will have to be curbed by the police, by the army, by the courts, by jails, and forced labour; we MUST start on the present newlyborn, and survive the next 25 years as best as we can...
And where are the parents in all this? Once there are children in the family one of the parents MUST remain at home; the state should adequately compensate the family for the loss of potential dual income.

Seek| 8.12.11 @ 11:42AM

Name me these TV shows that glorify or promote murder, rape, etc. It must be a short list.

Skippy| 8.12.11 @ 7:24PM

All of the Law and Order and CSI clones glorify murder, rape and violent crime.
Makeup artists work overtime to create the most horrifying images, and the camera lingers while the details of the mutilations are described cutely.
The actors have no emotions other than giddyness at their own freakishness or faux sympathy towards the victims' family.
And each week they must top the last excursion into unspeakable depravity, creating images one can never sponge from the mind's eye.
The level of perverse voyeurism in a modern cop show blinds the viewer to all moral boundaries.
The diseased minds that write that crap should be monitored for psychosis.
When their shows are cancelled, I would not be surprised to find them acting this sickness out.
Where does Hollywood find the perverts they hire as scriptwriters?
Those freaks are truly scary.
What kind of worms live in their brains?

POST American| 8.12.11 @ 3:24AM

---------------------BOTTOM LINE---------------------

The England mess is OBVIOUSLY calculated,
like our own instigated ops, to bring in the closing
of the still somewhat open police state grid.

BTW ---we've noticed the Wiki on Tavistock,
the John Coleman tapes, and the Wiki on 19th
century, grand daddy of all Arminian-Freemason
operators, Charles Finney ----have been savagely
edited or censored altogether.

-------------SEEMS comebody knows TRUTH is
DANGEROUS ---esp. when it IS TRUE.

W. A. Tomlinson| 8.12.11 @ 3:51AM

"... to transform our society, promoting ... tolerance, ... sharing of wealth in all its forms."

Who wrote this bit of tripe and what Marxist rock did they crawl out from beneath?

Pelligrino| 8.12.11 @ 10:32AM

Lots of pictures from the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....l?image=12

Some excellent photos. Well worth browsing. And not just the 50 here. (scroll right/left upper right side) There are more photo groupings listed below, as you will see.

Look at the 89 year old man in his damaged, ransacked barber shop in Tottenham. What would he be saying right now?

The 68 year old man? He is now dead. He did not survive. R.I.P.

POST American| 8.13.11 @ 3:10AM

-----BTW, speaking of these latest
Masonic provocateured and managed
K---OZ ops in England, on top of the
'Break Their Hearts' op in Norway-----

OBSERVE, for some reason Freemasonic
controlled and doomed England seems, oddly, to lag behind the US in its use of the EYE---SIS figure
for control and advancement of the 'agenda'
(THINK Oprah, Janet Napolitano, Hillary
etc. etc. etc.).

----------------There's something to that.

Really.

ISIS --they worship and use their prime
EYE---DOLL ----EYE--SIS. More YOUs-full
right now than EYE-CONS.

On BOTH sides of the FAKE political spectrum
the EYE---SIS is now KEY.

"Understand, the woman alone, on her
own, is a natural destroyer; she can't
even help it."
D H Lawrence
Essays

The gigglers know this.

-----------They YOU---ZZZZ it on YOU.

'Come out from among them.
Do NOT partake of their sin."

-----------------------------------------------AMEN

ironhorzmn| 8.16.11 @ 10:06PM

GIVE UK CITIZENS BACK THEIR RIGHT TO ARMED SELF-DEFENSE.

These little bastards don't fear anything because government has stripped its people and most of its police of firearms.

Give Britons back their guns and their rights. Treat them as adult men and women.

After a few unfortunate encounters between citizens and 'yobs' I'm sure the little punks will learn a new word; 'consequences'.

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