By Suzanne Mills
August 19, 2011 – newsday.co.tt
By blaming the English riots not on poverty, unravelling race relations, government’s austerity measures, the global crisis, but on the perverse and criminal behaviour of some English people, British Prime Minister David Cameron is arguing that in the case of the rioters, bad behaviour triggered bad behaviour and that in general, conduct is not a symptom but a cause.
People,” he insists,” were showing indifference to right and wrong, people with a twisted moral code, and people with a complete absence of self-restraint.”
Yet contrarily, Cameron submits that an excess of human rights and a weak UK police force were responsible for the burning and looting, so it’s hard to tell whether he thinks Britons inherently immoral or insufficiently policed or both. Labelling behaviour as a cause though, gives him licence to curtail civilian rights, arm Bobbies, import an American zero-tolerance super cop, take issue with Twitter and evict the poor from council homes.
But even as the Prime Minister waxes warm about arming police and handing them more power, he has been strangely silent on the complaints of black and Asian activists over the constant harassment of their youth by beat cops, the original point of departure for the riots. The rioters and looters have permitted Cameron to play the role of the morally outraged victim, to avoid confronting the claims of the true sufferers and to turn an anti-police protest into a reason for encouraging greater police abuse of minorities.
To Cameron, there is no gray area here, only black and white. It’s as if he feels that the search for causes beyond an innate British immorality will give looters a free get out of jail pass. No one is asking the British PM to absolve looters or murderers and everyone expects offenders to do the time if they’ve committed a crime. Millions have been lost in property and blood has been shed because of their rampage. However, Cameron’s merciless pursuit of looters in hoodies contrasts with his easy readiness to forgive transgressors in white collars. For these wrongdoers his tolerance is much higher than zero. His morality has a split personality and one is more liberal than the other.
Despite being warned that massive corruption had taken place during the tenure of former editor of the now defunct News of the World, Andy Coulson, dishonest behaviour of which Coulson could not have been unaware, Cameron opted to hire him as his chief press officer. In his defence, Cameron said he dismissed the information he had been given and accepted Coulson’s assurances that he knew nothing of phone hacking of murder victims during his editorship between 2003 and 2007.
In his opinion, Coulson deserved a second chance and his estimation was all that mattered. Showing complete indifference to right and wrong and demonstrating no self-restraint whatsoever, Cameron brushed aside the informed opinions of others to give a man with a dubious track record an opportunity to reform he is now straining at the bit to deny rioters. Cameron did what he thought was best for his ambitions and needs at the time and the devil take the hindmost. The philosophical line in the sand separating the British PM and the rioters is indistinguishable.
Cameron has also rushed to the defence of British bankers who scheming with their US and foreign counterparts have speculated the world into a debilitating, dehumanising crisis and who by their greed and criminality, their indifference to right and wrong and lack of ethics have made millions in a handful of years while the taxpayer has picked the tab. Capitalism and its free markets should benefit the consumer but while consumers lose their homes, their jobs and savings and bear the full burden of debt-reducing austerity measures, British bank bosses are in line for obscene bonuses this year and where bonuses are allegedly down, salaries are up. But Cameron is calling for the bankers not to be bashed. For them he has a bleeding heart.
There is a link, which the British PM cannot see or refuses to see between the Britain of double standards and the Britain of rioting. The first is his Britain and the second is not. His Britain wears suits and ties and they don’t steal TV sets by smashing windows; they plunder hundreds of millions by breaking the bank. If British society is fractured or ruptured as Cameron says, it has been shattered from the top down-by dishonest journalists, policemen, bankers and politicians. Though the leader of Britain won´t admit that unethical deeds committed on the summit can find their echo in the conduct of the base, ironically, by being intractable, he is unwittingly being forthright: the cause of the riots was truly bad behaviour. His among others. www.suzannemills.net
http://www.newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,145831.html
Jail the Tories, not young people
…as Cameron goes on the rampage
The Tories want to get their own back for last week’s riots. They are ripping up the rules of the legal system and filling the jails. They are parading around the country spouting bigotry and trying to shift the blame for what’s wrong onto ordinary people.
Darcus Howe spoke to Socialist Worker about the causes of the uprisings and the demonisation that followed them
“The parliamentary debate on the riots was unadulterated crap. I started watching it and I went to sleep. I’ve now been confirmed in what I’ve been saying for a long time: they do not know these black people at all. They ought to know them now, it’s compulsory. And they know them less by the day.
To be in authority over anyone or anything, there must be superior knowledge of the entity that is being ruled over. A lack of knowledge concerning the entity ruled over opens dark doors that leads to missundersatnding and abuse. There is need for minority groups to educate others about them. This should be a formal process. Only when on is certified by such process can one be said to have Authority to Lead. Authority in its truest sense is given by the led and not seized by the strong and mighty.
Plain and simple as Clinton said “it’s the economy stupid”. Europe is going back into the dark ages economically. Why buy something in Britan with their over-valued pound when you can buy many things in China at the same price??? Frustrated Britans are finding all kinds of excuse to steal. “Thou shalt not steal” is the moral imperitive that Cameron is appealing to, unfortunately Britan is no longer the bastion of Christian values….
“Britain ,the bastion of Christian values,” when the Church of England ,was created around life of an overweight , sex freak megalomaniacal,head chopping , madman ,called Henry de V111, and these life time barbarians ,via their Christian Imperial fiefdoms , and savagery , particularly in Africa, never once accepted their role in helping to destroy all of humanity?
Mamoo, you got to cut this foolishness out now, as it is getting a bit overbearing, even for you. I know you ,and your leaders, led by closet Englishman Basdeo, and now Queen K, love your Britannia ,it’s dysfunctional, financially cuddled Monarchs,and most importantly,dat bandit ladened ,anachronistic Privy Council,but this is taking it too far.
Here is something to bite into my friend,if you possess the mental capacity to figure it out,and it’s, “de chicken has come home to roost.” Feel me? It is not only England that suffers this problem , but Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, dem conniving French, and we will now throw in the Hitler created, blond head, insular Scandinavians.
All have followed papa America, and gone into Third World countries , under all forms of stupid ,pro NATO/ Security Council disguises.
In addition, they invited folks of color – including your South Asian cousins- to come to Europe , over time , so as do all the low end jobs , their own lazy European citizens, wanted no part of , then want these said folks, to -do like you would, and -totally assimilate , while depriving them of basic needs/rights , such as jobs ,and dignified respectability, and when as played out ever so frequently in the news, the latter , and succeeding impatient decedents decide’s to use every stupid excuse to retaliate -a la display politico- social blowbacks- in efforts, to burn their continent to the ground , they in turn act surprise.
Just leave dem crazy people ,and their continent alone mamboo, be it motherland Asia, dem globally despised Africa, and of course dem South American Guyanese.
Ain’t your T&T , aka Rainbow Country, have enough dire problems for us all to worry about, as the square peg in round hole machinations, are on full force, Canadian Police Commissioner/ London Scotland Yard blokes / State of Emergency, and all?
Ah tell you mamboo, Queen K , saw smoke from her verandah in dat safe Siparia enclave , and naively thought it was a rain dance ehhh? No , my friend , it’s crazy , neo tribal politics , Trini Style.
Again ,or more appropriately , repeat after me will you? De chicken…..roost.” By de way ,tell me mamboo, just how much can I sell , or better yet ,rent, dis T&T citizenship for? If the price is right , I might even hand it over to one of your Guyanese pals , seeking a better life. Ok tell dem 500 acres of prime Demerara lands-preferably on the border with Venezuela, or Brazil- now dat sugar , and rice is no longer grown in that wasteland anymore, once that neo tribal socialist ,took over.
Just ain’t worth being part of this mad experiment mamboo. What say ye? Let me guess. It’s ‘you alls karma ,’ to suffer, yes?
The link which the writer fails to see is that high levels of both freedom and security have never existed in the history of human society without the populace’s voluntary submission to a moral code (of some kind) that shows respect for other people’s lives and property. In other words, you can never police immoral people enough to ensure security without everyone giving up a lot of freedom. On the other hand, the higher the morality of a country, the less need there is for authoritarian enforcement of laws of all kinds, whether commercial or personal, and everyone enjoys more freedom.
What a factually incorrect, politically biased article. You clearly have no insight into life in the UK. This could easily have been a report by a spokesperson of the ‘loony left’. Typical ‘bash the tories’ tirade. These bankers you refer to did all their dirty work under the watch of the Labour party and were not ‘bashed’ by them. In fact, they were encouraged by the Labour government in power at the time.
Suzanne Mills, or who ever you are, please stick to reporting on events in T&T. Corruption is rife in the present government in T&T, why not write a report on that?