It's understandable that a topic like this can make people emotional, but some of you need to scale it back. We need to all step away from blanket assumptions and hyperbole.
the most ridiculous statement in this whole thread, considering the number of people i know personally on these forums out of work desparatly looking for a job, yeah i am sure they want to be that way.
Me too mate. But we are in the EXTREME MINORITY. It is far far far from the most ridiculous statement in this whole thread. I've spent long periods unemployed, and have therefore spent my fair share in offices that hand out benefits. And the ratio between junkies and louts that have no intention of ever working vs people who would love to be working is about 20:1.
Ok, so England doesn't have any sort of societal problems that's the root of all the riots that break out. It's just a large group of people that wake up and go "today would be a great day to riot!".
Man, it's been almost a straight year of hearing officials from various countries complain about masses of thugs that protest & riot without reason - is it an airborne virus?
Ok, so England doesn't have any sort of societal problems that's the root of all the riots that break out. It's just a large group of people that wake up and go "today would be a great day to riot!".
the social problem is pretty clear, chav shitbags think they're entitled to everything and owe nothing
Me too mate. But we are in the EXTREME MINORITY. It is far far far from the most ridiculous statement in this whole thread. I've spent long periods unemployed, and have therefore spent my fair share in offices that hand out benefits. And the ratio between junkies and louts that have no intention of ever working vs people who would love to be working is about 20:1.
sorry to hear your out of work, but i would love to know where your numbers come from, 20:1 huh...
considering the unemployment rate skyrocketed after the financial crysis, does that mean there was a sudden urge for 4 times as many people to not work anymore because they just didnt want to? was there a gamma bomb that went off and only affected peoples will to work? with all these hard stats you have i am hoping you have some evidence to back it up.
most of my family is currently unemployed, a lot of my friends are too, if they are such a minority why are there so many of them?
so I take it England is pretty right wing - I'm hearing lots of stuff that would make Glen Beck cry (in happiness, that guy will cry at the drop of a hat)
sorry to hear your out of work, but i would love to know where your numbers come from, 20:1 huh...
considering the unemployment rate skyrocketed after the financial crysis, does that mean there was a sudden urge for 4 times as many people to not work anymore because they just didnt want to? was there a gamma bomb that went off and only affected peoples will to work? with all these hard stats you have i am hoping you have some evidence to back it up.
Fine, 80:4 if it helps you :P
Just because there are a lot of genuine jobseekers out there doesnt mean there arent a ton more tracksuit wearing leeches with 5-6 kids who are second generation welfare leechers. But we are getting horribly off-topic here anyways.
First off, the looting is completely opportunistic. I'm fairly certain that half of the "kids" involved are only after some free merchandise. I do not condone it at all.
There have been a lot of points made throughout the thread. Some of them are well thought out, and some on the "emotional" side.
In general, there are two camps:
- It's just the lazy scum of society, that're too lazy to bust their asses and make something of themselves
- They're completely oppressed, and they see no future, so they're lashing out.
I'm going to assume that none of us are truly that short-sighted.
We all know that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
I really don't want to get into my background, but I do understand the frustration of trying to make something of myself given financial, racial and religious disadvantages. It's often very tough to push forward for years at a time, when you feel defeated every time you roll out of bed.
Ok, so England doesn't have any sort of societal problems that's the root of all the riots that break out. It's just a large group of people that wake up and go "today would be a great day to riot!".
Man, it's been almost a straight year of hearing officials from various countries complain about masses of thugs that protest & riot without reason - is it an airborne virus?
Haha. Brilliant. Very well put.
Might have to steal....
Q: Why are you looting?
A: Because I can... I mean, why not get free stuff?
Q: Are you upset by the recent corruption, scandals and austerity?
A: Well yea... my life is kinda crappy and they aren't making it any better, might as well get something.
Q: Why do you need to burn buildings down?
A: Can't leave evidence behind, yea?
Q: Why are you smashing places in your own neighborhood?
A: Because I can't very well smash the queens tea set now can I? Besides they would round me up quick... No police here, you can do whatever the hell you want.
With that said, what they've turned into isn't necessarily what they started out as. You also have to address the issue of why people feel like they need to go out and break the law to destroy stuff and steal. If they had well paying jobs that gave them purpose, if they where connected to the people in their community instead of detached they probably wouldn't be out rattling around?
glynn: i must be a total cynic. i saw that and figured sony were cashing in on the marketing op.
Yeah, I can definitely see that side of it too.
But, the poor guy gets a new PSP, rather than getting nothing. That alone warms my cold cockles. Plus, Sony needs some good karma after that whole login-details-in-a-text-file fuck up, and having their distribution centre burnt down
Q: Why are you looting?
A: Because I can... I mean, why not get free stuff?
Q: Are you upset by the recent corruption, scandals and austerity?
A: Well yea... my life is kinda crappy and they aren't making it any better, might as well get something.
Q: Why do you need to burn buildings down?
A: Can't leave evidence behind, yea?
Q: Why are you smashing places in your own neighborhood?
A: Because I can't very well smash the queens tea set now can I? Besides they would round me up quick... No police here, you can do whatever the hell you want.
er, no
Q : Why are you looting
A : like cos all my mates doin it and well its like a larf innit *gurgle* an i got these trainers out of of JJD and they're well cool
Q : Are you upset by the recent corruption, scandals and austerity?
A : fackin big words man, whats you wiv this arse-territry y'fackin ponce. An' its all that shit wot i read in the paper its like no good is it cos its all them con-ser-va-tives and that they tryin to do shit int they
Q : Why do you need to burn buildings down?
A : cos they go on fire and shit and its fackin well sick *gurgle*
Q : Why are you smashing places in your own neighborhood?
A : fackin dannah. Just smashing shit innit. Fuck do i care. *dribble*
Q : Why are you looting
A : like cos all my mates doin it and well its like a larf innit *gurgle* an i got these trainers out of of JJD and they're well cool
Q : Are you upset by the recent corruption, scandals and austerity?
A : fackin big words man, whats you wiv this arse-territry y'fackin ponce. An' its all that shit wot i read in the paper its like no good is it cos its all them con-ser-va-tives and that they tryin to do shit int they
Q : Why do you need to burn buildings down?
A : cos they go on fire and shit and its fackin well sick *gurgle*
Q : Why are you smashing places in your own neighborhood?
A : fackin dannah. Just smashing shit innit. Fuck do i care. *dribble*
Much more like most of them. I had to run to town and had the unfourtunate luck to walk into the shitstorm. Got out unscathed, but there just around in large gangs with hoodies and facemasks ;S
Q : Why are you looting
A : like cos all my mates doin it and well its like a larf innit *gurgle* an i got these trainers out of of JJD and they're well cool
Q : Are you upset by the recent corruption, scandals and austerity?
A : fackin big words man, whats you wiv this arse-territry y'fackin ponce. An' its all that shit wot i read in the paper its like no good is it cos its all them con-ser-va-tives and that they tryin to do shit int they
Q : Why do you need to burn buildings down?
A : cos they go on fire and shit and its fackin well sick *gurgle*
Q : Why are you smashing places in your own neighborhood?
A : fackin dannah. Just smashing shit innit. Fuck do i care. *dribble*
sounds totally australian... which kinda makes sense lol. only change the conservatives with liberals since in australia libral party is the... conservative party. l o l.
UK officials want blackberry network shut down and user information turned over, are we still condemning that or is it only bad when an Arab government wants that?
I bet Walter White would tell us that its a vital component in cooking crystal meth or something.
LOL breaking bad, I was just thinking the same thing, unless someone has problems needs It to shat or is going to attempt to feed it to birds so they can shit all over everything.
UK officials want blackberry network shut down and user information turned over, are we still condemning that or is it only bad when an Arab government wants that?
Well, Libya doesn't even register your ID or name since you can buy a chip under 2 bucks and call it a day, so unless Westernized agenda based companies come into the Middle-East, they have little to worry about when information/networks are taken down since it's easier to go rogue in those countries.
In the UK it's a bigger deal since you literally must have in some places your ID card to get chip, as a single number can trace you back in an instant.
UK officials want blackberry network shut down and user information turned over, are we still condemning that or is it only bad when an Arab government wants that?
There's slightly different reasons for doing so, but maybe you consider actual protest and stealing shit to be the same.
UK officials want blackberry network shut down and user information turned over, are we still condemning that or is it only bad when an Arab government wants that?
The government are well within their rights to ask for any information pertaining to a possible offense. It's no different to asking for the emails from News corp. or anything like that.
It's the same with account passwords, written or printed documents, phone bills etc.
Either way, they would first have get a warrant from the courts for each person that they want to investigate, before they can look at anything.
"One of the people dealt with by the court overnight included a woman with 96 previous convictions for theft who pleaded guilty to stealing alcohol, cigarettes and mobile phone accessories."
The government in Escape from New York/LA had it so right. We should just dump repeat criminals, murderers and sex offenders on to one of the uninhabited Islands off the coast of Scotland. Preferably the one they do all the biological testing on. Put a big wall around it and dump food in now and again.
EDIT: oh...and let them have one Cadillac with chandeliers on it to fight over.
The government in Escape from New York/LA had it so right. We should just dump repeat criminals, murderers and sex offenders on to one of the uninhabited Islands off the coast of Scotland. Preferably the one they do all the biological testing on. Put a big wall around it and dump food in now and again.
EDIT: oh...and let them have one Cadillac with chandeliers on it to fight over.
Q : Why are you looting
A : like cos all my mates doin it and well its like a larf innit *gurgle* an i got these trainers out of of JJD and they're well cool
Q : Are you upset by the recent corruption, scandals and austerity?
A : fackin big words man, whats you wiv this arse-territry y'fackin ponce. An' its all that shit wot i read in the paper its like no good is it cos its all them con-ser-va-tives and that they tryin to do shit int they
Q : Why do you need to burn buildings down?
A : cos they go on fire and shit and its fackin well sick *gurgle*
Q : Why are you smashing places in your own neighborhood?
A : fackin dannah. Just smashing shit innit. Fuck do i care. *dribble*
Prefect translation. I was tempted to stuff marbles in my mouth and roll my face around on the keyboard, but in the end I went with my natural inner voice, good to see it how it would actually be said ha!
But I can't help but notice that the majority of these looters were young people. British law, for years now, has taken power away from parents to discipline children (Read - Discipline, NOT abuse). Teachers, too.
Discipline that I had growing up. Even though I'm one of the ones in this thread that has a rather under-privileged background, having a slap on the arse once in a while gave me enough of a sense of right and wrong to not run the streets, mindlessly smashing shit up and setting fire to things.
A large number of children are growing up to be self-entitled brats, with no sense of responsibility and a lot of expectations of what the world owes them. There's also no sense of community, any more.
From my view (from the safety of my middle-English town, no less), it seems like there has been growing racial tension between minority groups and the police, an increase of unrest with regards to the new government and it's tax hike and service/benefits cuts, and a whole lot of greedy, opportunistic criminality that has little to do with the first two parts.
It's the latter that everyone has seen. It's the former that everyone needs to see, and be aware of.
The bottom line, for me, is that you don't turn to thuggery and burglary to effect political change - You turn to robbing, looting and destroying people's property because you're a criminal.
Our countries going to shit Its incredibly frustrating that we are paying to get the country out of debt when its the banks and government themselves that should be bearing the brunt. Fuel prices raised by 50% over the past 4-5 years (due to rise another 8p/litre next year), housing prices skyrocket, Train fares also rocketing and now with severe overcrowding, insurance increases, Council tax and bills rising constantly, lack of job opportunities and the ones that are around are mostly minimum wage, tripling of tuition fees, and this 20% cut in police services is ridiculous (in my mind we need to leave the emergency services alone and start sacking some of our politicians instead).
We are a country that is livid at our government as they try to squeeze us for every penny we have so I can understand the frustration, but rioting and burning innocent peoples homes and livelihoods is absolutely disgusting. I wouldnt blame the school system over producing idiots, unfortunately its now cool to not give a shit about anyone but yourself and cause shit all the time, it means nowadays we have so many chavs/hoodies running around and they are opportunistic feral thugs. They like that they are intimidating and play gangster all day, put on london accents even though they are country bumpkins!!!!!
Parenting has come under question but its more about getting in with the wrong crowd. Ive seen people who are great parents having a bad apple just because of the company the kids keep and you cant choose their friends, just ends up in rebellion. Then its a downward spiral to theft, drugs and assault. I would love for them to do a similar thing to Philadelphias 9pm curfew for under 18s but will probably end up in civil unrest knowing Britain.
The tuition fee hike is a big big big problem, £27k debt for a 3 year uni course, not including maintenance and other costs. They say not everyone will pay that but alot of places will be charging this rate when our old tuition fees were a third of this. You also have to pay interest on this every year which soon mounts up, most people will end up paying for the rest of their lives if there wasnt a cap at 60 years, as your total debt could reach £60k+ after your uni tuition/loans/maintenance are added to your college costs. 1.5% interest would mean £900 added every year and you are paying it back at 9% of your earnings when you reach £15k a year salary which makes it $1350 a year. so £450 you are actually paying off your loan every year after interest, thats around 100 years say after the amount of the interest drops as you keep paying your student loans to pay that all off. Theres a cut off when you are 60 years old when they write off your student loans. So if you can get a £15k job straight out of uni and your wage stays around the same then you will payback £52k ish, when once all the interest is added your loan will end up maybe around £70-80k. No wonder
Fuel prices are 60% duty tax and you would of thought that the government would lower their take considerably as their profits have raised 50% over the past 4-5 years. Ive seen fuel prices rise from 90p to 140p a litre over my 5 years of driving. They have lowered their duty tax over time but unfortunately it means the oil companies and retailers are raising their prices so they can make a profit. The value of crude oil has gone down recently but we see no change in price, and when fuel prices rise we get screwed. We had a 1p per litre drop which was bought in by the government, that lasted a day and the pumps/oil companies started charging more to coincide with it. What it means is people just cant afford it and start walking everywhere and most people are forced to pay the prices so they can live, means they must make cuts throughout other parts of their budget so they can afford it and also make cuts on their fuel bill at the same time. Also car insurance has rised alot and road tax aswell making it another difficult thing to keep up with.
House prices are very very high and getting a mortgage these days is extremely difficult. Most people are living back with their parents until their late 20s when their parents would have had already been married, had children, started their mortgage at that age. Im saving for a deposit right now and I think Im gonna be 26/27 when I can afford it on a 5% mortgage deposit to a £200k house. This pretty much puts a spanner in the works for marriage/children.
Jobs are extremely hard to find and we are getting overpopulated very quickly. My lady was job hunting recently and went for a hotel receptionist job, they had more than 100 applicants in 1 day. Its getting very silly........she got the job haha, I would like to see us tighten up our immigration laws as we are getting overpopulated and we should be careful as we could end up in a depression instead of a recession.
So these thugs are angry at all this and went completely the wrong way about protesting it. Im sure 95% just wanted free stuff and are clutching at straws to justify themselves. Most probably have no idea about whats going on, probably still live at home and dont pay rent or anything, parents buy them their fancy clothes and feeding them. If it is true that they are so frustrated that they must burn their own cities down then I worry what happens when you lock them up/fine them for it and add a criminal record to them and kick them out of their council housing. Thats not gonna help them get jobs or pay their way, might end up in more riots as the police lose presence due to this 20% cut in police service. The riots saw ex officers being bought back into service so god knows how we will cope if it happens again. You know its bad when 'pets at home' in Eastbourne (dont get much more country) lockup early and bring in all their outdoor displays in fear of riots.
sorry for the long post but alot of people feel the same in England and we just have to work hard to support ourselves and hopefully ride it out, from my standpint I dont see it getting better for us as the government has got away with it for so long that its become the norm to pay above and beyond what was once reasonable.
anyway, screw this crap, im-a-gonna-go-sculpt-somet!!!!!!
@Crazyfool: Best post in this thread!
But what you are describing is a phenomenon not entirely exclusive to the UK imho. unfortunately, I'm getting the impression that most of the EU countries are heading this way (right wing neoliberalism).
Multiculturalism has failed in many countries, especially over here; resulting in communities and ghettos forming inside cities, effectively distancing themselves from the rest of the city. Which in itself feeds onto the spiral of "nobody cares about us, so fuck you"-attitude, with crime and violence as a result of that.
And unless someone truly progressive steps up and tackles the deep social issues of society (mainly the massive gap between rich and poor), I doubt any of this will change.
Replies
Also:
Me too mate. But we are in the EXTREME MINORITY. It is far far far from the most ridiculous statement in this whole thread. I've spent long periods unemployed, and have therefore spent my fair share in offices that hand out benefits. And the ratio between junkies and louts that have no intention of ever working vs people who would love to be working is about 20:1.
Man, it's been almost a straight year of hearing officials from various countries complain about masses of thugs that protest & riot without reason - is it an airborne virus?
the social problem is pretty clear, chav shitbags think they're entitled to everything and owe nothing
sorry to hear your out of work, but i would love to know where your numbers come from, 20:1 huh...
considering the unemployment rate skyrocketed after the financial crysis, does that mean there was a sudden urge for 4 times as many people to not work anymore because they just didnt want to? was there a gamma bomb that went off and only affected peoples will to work? with all these hard stats you have i am hoping you have some evidence to back it up.
most of my family is currently unemployed, a lot of my friends are too, if they are such a minority why are there so many of them?
which begs the question if any burberry-stores have been trashed so far?
Fine, 80:4 if it helps you :P
Just because there are a lot of genuine jobseekers out there doesnt mean there arent a ton more tracksuit wearing leeches with 5-6 kids who are second generation welfare leechers. But we are getting horribly off-topic here anyways.
There have been a lot of points made throughout the thread. Some of them are well thought out, and some on the "emotional" side.
In general, there are two camps:
- It's just the lazy scum of society, that're too lazy to bust their asses and make something of themselves
- They're completely oppressed, and they see no future, so they're lashing out.
I'm going to assume that none of us are truly that short-sighted.
We all know that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
I really don't want to get into my background, but I do understand the frustration of trying to make something of myself given financial, racial and religious disadvantages. It's often very tough to push forward for years at a time, when you feel defeated every time you roll out of bed.
Haha. Brilliant. Very well put.
Might have to steal....
Nah I'm looting it.
bit a good news for the kid who got mugged...guess they took his psp
A: Because I can... I mean, why not get free stuff?
Q: Are you upset by the recent corruption, scandals and austerity?
A: Well yea... my life is kinda crappy and they aren't making it any better, might as well get something.
Q: Why do you need to burn buildings down?
A: Can't leave evidence behind, yea?
Q: Why are you smashing places in your own neighborhood?
A: Because I can't very well smash the queens tea set now can I? Besides they would round me up quick... No police here, you can do whatever the hell you want.
With that said, what they've turned into isn't necessarily what they started out as. You also have to address the issue of why people feel like they need to go out and break the law to destroy stuff and steal. If they had well paying jobs that gave them purpose, if they where connected to the people in their community instead of detached they probably wouldn't be out rattling around?
Bravo, Sony. Very cool.
one drug store had its entire stock of imodium stolen (its a laxitive)
[ame]
glynn: i must be a total cynic. i saw that and figured sony were cashing in on the marketing op.
But, the poor guy gets a new PSP, rather than getting nothing. That alone warms my cold cockles. Plus, Sony needs some good karma after that whole login-details-in-a-text-file fuck up, and having their distribution centre burnt down
Hahaha. I bet they're shitting it.
I bet Walter White would tell us that its a vital component in cooking crystal meth or something.
er, no
Q : Why are you looting
A : like cos all my mates doin it and well its like a larf innit *gurgle* an i got these trainers out of of JJD and they're well cool
Q : Are you upset by the recent corruption, scandals and austerity?
A : fackin big words man, whats you wiv this arse-territry y'fackin ponce. An' its all that shit wot i read in the paper its like no good is it cos its all them con-ser-va-tives and that they tryin to do shit int they
Q : Why do you need to burn buildings down?
A : cos they go on fire and shit and its fackin well sick *gurgle*
Q : Why are you smashing places in your own neighborhood?
A : fackin dannah. Just smashing shit innit. Fuck do i care. *dribble*
Much more like most of them. I had to run to town and had the unfourtunate luck to walk into the shitstorm. Got out unscathed, but there just around in large gangs with hoodies and facemasks ;S
Here's one for the lulz, c'mon.
And of course, theres the cats
source
http://photoshoplooter.tumblr.com/
sounds totally australian... which kinda makes sense lol. only change the conservatives with liberals since in australia libral party is the... conservative party. l o l.
Brilliant!
Wow, what a hooligan, I mean the inhumanity! The violence of flesh over plastic, the able over the defenseless! What has the world come to!
holy crap, 4:10.. that was where i used to live a few years ago.. got gutted by fire
LOL breaking bad, I was just thinking the same thing, unless someone has problems needs It to shat or is going to attempt to feed it to birds so they can shit all over everything.
Well, Libya doesn't even register your ID or name since you can buy a chip under 2 bucks and call it a day, so unless Westernized agenda based companies come into the Middle-East, they have little to worry about when information/networks are taken down since it's easier to go rogue in those countries.
In the UK it's a bigger deal since you literally must have in some places your ID card to get chip, as a single number can trace you back in an instant.
There's slightly different reasons for doing so, but maybe you consider actual protest and stealing shit to be the same.
Slippery slope, my man.
It's the same with account passwords, written or printed documents, phone bills etc.
Either way, they would first have get a warrant from the courts for each person that they want to investigate, before they can look at anything.
we can chuck grit all over said slope by pointing out that protesters don't go home when it starts raining
"One of the people dealt with by the court overnight included a woman with 96 previous convictions for theft who pleaded guilty to stealing alcohol, cigarettes and mobile phone accessories."
96 times. Yeah, there's a useful citizen.
aahhh.. The cream of society.
The government in Escape from New York/LA had it so right. We should just dump repeat criminals, murderers and sex offenders on to one of the uninhabited Islands off the coast of Scotland. Preferably the one they do all the biological testing on. Put a big wall around it and dump food in now and again.
EDIT: oh...and let them have one Cadillac with chandeliers on it to fight over.
Yes, but no. That's probably a large part of it.
But I can't help but notice that the majority of these looters were young people. British law, for years now, has taken power away from parents to discipline children (Read - Discipline, NOT abuse). Teachers, too.
Discipline that I had growing up. Even though I'm one of the ones in this thread that has a rather under-privileged background, having a slap on the arse once in a while gave me enough of a sense of right and wrong to not run the streets, mindlessly smashing shit up and setting fire to things.
A large number of children are growing up to be self-entitled brats, with no sense of responsibility and a lot of expectations of what the world owes them. There's also no sense of community, any more.
From my view (from the safety of my middle-English town, no less), it seems like there has been growing racial tension between minority groups and the police, an increase of unrest with regards to the new government and it's tax hike and service/benefits cuts, and a whole lot of greedy, opportunistic criminality that has little to do with the first two parts.
It's the latter that everyone has seen. It's the former that everyone needs to see, and be aware of.
The bottom line, for me, is that you don't turn to thuggery and burglary to effect political change - You turn to robbing, looting and destroying people's property because you're a criminal.
http://www.epicfail.com/2011/08/11/rioter-fail/
We are a country that is livid at our government as they try to squeeze us for every penny we have so I can understand the frustration, but rioting and burning innocent peoples homes and livelihoods is absolutely disgusting. I wouldnt blame the school system over producing idiots, unfortunately its now cool to not give a shit about anyone but yourself and cause shit all the time, it means nowadays we have so many chavs/hoodies running around and they are opportunistic feral thugs. They like that they are intimidating and play gangster all day, put on london accents even though they are country bumpkins!!!!!
Parenting has come under question but its more about getting in with the wrong crowd. Ive seen people who are great parents having a bad apple just because of the company the kids keep and you cant choose their friends, just ends up in rebellion. Then its a downward spiral to theft, drugs and assault. I would love for them to do a similar thing to Philadelphias 9pm curfew for under 18s but will probably end up in civil unrest knowing Britain.
The tuition fee hike is a big big big problem, £27k debt for a 3 year uni course, not including maintenance and other costs. They say not everyone will pay that but alot of places will be charging this rate when our old tuition fees were a third of this. You also have to pay interest on this every year which soon mounts up, most people will end up paying for the rest of their lives if there wasnt a cap at 60 years, as your total debt could reach £60k+ after your uni tuition/loans/maintenance are added to your college costs. 1.5% interest would mean £900 added every year and you are paying it back at 9% of your earnings when you reach £15k a year salary which makes it $1350 a year. so £450 you are actually paying off your loan every year after interest, thats around 100 years say after the amount of the interest drops as you keep paying your student loans to pay that all off. Theres a cut off when you are 60 years old when they write off your student loans. So if you can get a £15k job straight out of uni and your wage stays around the same then you will payback £52k ish, when once all the interest is added your loan will end up maybe around £70-80k. No wonder
Fuel prices are 60% duty tax and you would of thought that the government would lower their take considerably as their profits have raised 50% over the past 4-5 years. Ive seen fuel prices rise from 90p to 140p a litre over my 5 years of driving. They have lowered their duty tax over time but unfortunately it means the oil companies and retailers are raising their prices so they can make a profit. The value of crude oil has gone down recently but we see no change in price, and when fuel prices rise we get screwed. We had a 1p per litre drop which was bought in by the government, that lasted a day and the pumps/oil companies started charging more to coincide with it. What it means is people just cant afford it and start walking everywhere and most people are forced to pay the prices so they can live, means they must make cuts throughout other parts of their budget so they can afford it and also make cuts on their fuel bill at the same time. Also car insurance has rised alot and road tax aswell making it another difficult thing to keep up with.
House prices are very very high and getting a mortgage these days is extremely difficult. Most people are living back with their parents until their late 20s when their parents would have had already been married, had children, started their mortgage at that age. Im saving for a deposit right now and I think Im gonna be 26/27 when I can afford it on a 5% mortgage deposit to a £200k house. This pretty much puts a spanner in the works for marriage/children.
Jobs are extremely hard to find and we are getting overpopulated very quickly. My lady was job hunting recently and went for a hotel receptionist job, they had more than 100 applicants in 1 day. Its getting very silly........she got the job haha, I would like to see us tighten up our immigration laws as we are getting overpopulated and we should be careful as we could end up in a depression instead of a recession.
So these thugs are angry at all this and went completely the wrong way about protesting it. Im sure 95% just wanted free stuff and are clutching at straws to justify themselves. Most probably have no idea about whats going on, probably still live at home and dont pay rent or anything, parents buy them their fancy clothes and feeding them. If it is true that they are so frustrated that they must burn their own cities down then I worry what happens when you lock them up/fine them for it and add a criminal record to them and kick them out of their council housing. Thats not gonna help them get jobs or pay their way, might end up in more riots as the police lose presence due to this 20% cut in police service. The riots saw ex officers being bought back into service so god knows how we will cope if it happens again. You know its bad when 'pets at home' in Eastbourne (dont get much more country) lockup early and bring in all their outdoor displays in fear of riots.
sorry for the long post but alot of people feel the same in England and we just have to work hard to support ourselves and hopefully ride it out, from my standpint I dont see it getting better for us as the government has got away with it for so long that its become the norm to pay above and beyond what was once reasonable.
anyway, screw this crap, im-a-gonna-go-sculpt-somet!!!!!!
But what you are describing is a phenomenon not entirely exclusive to the UK imho. unfortunately, I'm getting the impression that most of the EU countries are heading this way (right wing neoliberalism).
Multiculturalism has failed in many countries, especially over here; resulting in communities and ghettos forming inside cities, effectively distancing themselves from the rest of the city. Which in itself feeds onto the spiral of "nobody cares about us, so fuck you"-attitude, with crime and violence as a result of that.
And unless someone truly progressive steps up and tackles the deep social issues of society (mainly the massive gap between rich and poor), I doubt any of this will change.