The recent spate of riots in UK is clear demonstration of deep seated social and economic dislocations. Unemployment is rampant and the cutback in social spending has clearly hit those whose only purpose in life is to live off the welfare state. UK is no stranger to riots. In fact there is a whole school of English historians led by E J Hobsbawm who argue that riots are the end result of the breakdown of the "moral economy", I wonder what "moral economy" is represented by the football skinheads or the motley crew that attacked businesses and shops. For too long the Englisn political class has tolerated violence prone youth and given the anti law and order rhetoric of the political class, I do not think the causes for the riots are either understood or addressed. Greece too withessed some violence in the recent past, but the situation there was entirely due to the euro crisis. In the UK the riots were well planned and coordinated.
After the Iranian street protests the Government of that country took half hearted steps to restrict twitter and facebook. The Western "civilised world" ranted in unison that the "mullahs" are curbing freedom. In the UK too, David Cameron has taken steps to restrict the use of social media because it appears that the crowds were being directed by the new social networking platforms. I always find it difficult to understand the double standards practiced by the European governments. When Iran does restrict social networking sites then it is projected as a demonic intrusion in the space of personal freedom. Now UK is doing exactly the same.
The rioters were mostly white Ango-Saxon youth from the suburbs of the large cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester. The misguided policy of "multi culturalism" has led to the alienation of large numbers of people, particularly the youth from the mainstream. The salience that is place on political correctness means that they cannot even articulate their grievances as any such utterance may be misconstrued as being "anti paki", "anti muslim", "anti immigrant", "anti black" and so on. So even the language of protest is not accesible to the disaffected youth. It is time for UK to realise that the broad masses of its population is out of sync with the European Union position on crime, immigration, and human rights.
The riots are prooof that the social fabric of UK society has started shredding and it is time for politicians to stop playing to the European gallery and start listening to their own people.