Editorial – 10.08.11

No more rhetoric, Prime Minister.

It is time to address the real problems…

As expected, the nation’s politicians lined up to rightly and wholeheartedly condemn the recent spate of violence in the capital and beyond. We’ve heard from Boris, who “felt ashamed at the actions of a small, but significant minority of our fellow Londoners”. We’ve heard from the Prime Minister himself, who has said the rioters will feel “the full force of the law” as he condemned the “sickening scenes of people looting, vandalising, thieving, robbing”. We’ve even heard from Michael Gove who lost his cool with Harriet Harman on Newsnight. Harman attempted to offer reasons for the problems, instead of the simplistic condemnation rituals, but was shouted down by the Education Secretary. This really has to end, we can’t go on having our leading politicians shouting down people who want to help resolve the issue.

The facts are superficially simple: a large group of youths used the killing of a suspected armed gangster as an excuse to loot and burn property, terrorise the streets and hurl objects at police.

Every right minded person is absolutely correct to feel horrified at the events, but we really must ask the question “WHY?”, otherwise this will happen again and again. The next generation of rioters are already in training and as we all know these things get worse with repetition. Who knows, perhaps the next time they will come armed with semi-automatic weapons, not brickbats. We are risking a scenario where gang warfare is on the verge of threatening our streets and homes, all because politicians cannot get over the blind alley of ritual condemnation and look over the parapet at the causes and real reasons for these actions.

The unthinking will urge us to believe that it is simply because these youths are “mindless thugs”, plain and simple. That somehow they are inherently evil and only deserve incarceration. That there is a grain of truth in these assertions only serves to strengthen their credibility, but they do not address the real issues, which are primarily social and economic. Until we do address these issue, then these events will repeat in an endless cycle of violence, with each new generation getting further entrenched in the mindset that sets them apart from normal society.

There is some hope, however. Ken Livingstone said: ““I am concerned that there is growing social dislocation in London and a threat that the police will be forced into escalating conflict with some London communities.” He went on to blame the economic stagnation caused by the government cuts, but this is something that has been going on for decades. The deprivation of these areas has not been significantly addressed by the Labour and Conservative governments of the eighties, nineties and naughties – and to blame the problems wholly on the cuts imposed by the current government is missing the point.

Obviously, the cuts, which specifically target the less well off areas while protecting the well off, will not help the situation and may well have tipped the balance, but the weight of deprivation stretches back to the late seventies and has not been tackled properly by either of the parties.

Labour may well argue that they had too few resources to take on everything after the near decade and half of Conservative neglect, but now we know that this is a missed priority. It should have been at the top of the list. This is an issue that is more important than repairs to roads and hospitals, because if we do not solve it, then our roads will be ablaze with burning cars and our hospitals overloaded with injured people.

In all this, we must also not forget the victims of the riots.

Which is why Now London was extremely pleased at Ed Miliband’s call for help for the victims.

The Labour leader has called for the Government to work with the insurance industry to help those businesses and individuals affected by the trouble.

“We need action now because the victims of this inexcusable violence cannot be left to cope alone,” he said.

“As well as ensuring public safety we need immediate help for those people who have lost homes and businesses.

“As we see in natural disasters like floods, we need focused support so that these victims of the violence get the support they need.

“That means the Government working with the insurance industry to put in place fast track procedures with immediate effect so that individuals and businesses making claims do not have to wait for the money they need to start putting things right.”

We must also not forget the work of the police in protecting people and property, in the face of savage cuts to their manpower and budgets. So, we are also pleased that Boris Johnson has called for the plans to reduce police numbers to be reconsidered. He said: “This is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers.”

Ed Miliband, alone amongst all the leaders has called for the government to address the deeper lying causes of the riots

But crucially, we wholeheartedly support the approach of the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, who alone amongst all the leaders has called for the government to address the deeper lying causes of the riots, without attempting to apportion blame for those causes to any one party. Mister Miliband is the one voice of sanity amongst the shrill voices of condemnation. He has taken it upon himself to rise above the storm and push for action where it is needed most. In the face of withering attacks by those who seek not to cure, but to hide the problems of our inner cities, those more concerned about the Olympics than the fate of young people, he has shown courage and resolve to tackle the biggest and most rapidly growing sore on our social fabric.

Miliband has called for order to be restored to the streets today after visiting the aftermath of a riot in Peckham, where he saw smashed windows and met people who had been affected by the violence and looting that broke out in Peckham on Monday night.

More than 100 people gathered around the politician and he was inundated with questions about recent events.

He said: He said: “There can be no excuses for the violence, the intimidation of people. That can never be excused, that can never be justified. That is why the immediate priority is to restore public order and public safety.”

Mr Miliband later added: “People have different views about the complex causes of what happened but there are no excuses for it.

“We need firm action from the police. There must be no no-go areas for the police and public order is the immediate priority.

“I think it is right that substantially more police officers are being put on the street because we all know that the situation on the streets needs to be got under control.”

He’s right. Step one is to restore order, but step two must be to explore solutions to the problems faced by young people in the inner cities. The other political leaders should take their lead from Mr Miliband and actually do something about this. Because if they do not, we will be talking about the new spate of riots next summer.