Tuesday 9 August 2011

London Riots

I stayed up until 4am watching TV this morning, unable to tear myself away from the unbelievable scenes unfolding in London.  Complete anarchy on the streets of our capital city, plus other smaller disturbances in Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol and Nottingham.  Blazing buildings, criminal opportunism, robbing the injured, destroying peoples' livelihoods, endangering life, terrorising communities, seemingly coordinated via social networking.  Total idiots. All negative, inexcusable and depressing.

Photo: lawcol888
Then, this morning I hear about how the London communities have also used social networking to organise riot clean ups.  Ordinary, decent people arriving with brushes, bags and their time to work together to clean their streets and start healing the wounds on their city. Firms are donating equipment for the clean up and people are even using their lunch breaks to help out. Positive, heartening and hopeful.  Two sides of a city in 24 hours.

Photo: Joel Goodman/LNP
Who knows what will happen tonight, fingers crossed the worst is over.  Right is a photo of some residents making tea for the police on a riot shield taken last night in a street in north London that was being protected by the police.  Both photos sum  up the best of Britain really and that's the side that will prevail.


2 comments:

  1. Unbelievable what's happing there. I truly hope this won't get out of hand. Here's an interesting article on the subject, mostly in English:
    http://www.achgut.com/dadgdx/index.php/dadgd/article/was_geschah_in_london/

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  2. The last article by Brendan O'Neill is excellent - hits the nail on the head

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