...err... except it's not. From the very link you provided, for example "Except for those in the top and bottom tenths of the income distribution, households with below-average incomes have, on average, enjoyed bigger proportional increases over the last decade than households with above-average incomes." Now, if you want to exclusively talk about the poorest 10% of the population, that;s not true, but it doesn't in any way negate what I said. On the whole, people are not poorer, and the less well off have actually seen a better improvement than those earning a bit above average.
The bottom 10% is likely to be mostly comprised on people on the dole though, so while its not the point that was trying to be made, its certainly some interesting stats.
These riots are just a brilliant ruse to avoid being embarrassed by the Dutch in Wembley tomorrow night.
Seems like overt police brutality started it all.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXVfdsHmp-g&feature=youtu.be&skipcontrinter=1
US needs to invade or bomb England to save these poor "freedom fighters" from oppression. British Revolution FTW!!!
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIkUED0QUOA&feature=player_embedded"]Pillock on Sky News swears and gives reasons as to why he's looting‏ - YouTube[/ame] lol idiot gives reasons why he is looting.
Sure, but in this case that's irrelevant, since what I'm seeing and what the MPD is arresting is a bunch of 15 year old boys and girls who are trying on the jeans before crawling back out the shop window, or deciding whether to break the window of Boots or the Body Shop based on which one has that perfume they like.
*What* isn't nice? I watched the video and I couldn't see a damned thing -- just shadowy forms and someone's voice screaming "it's a ********ing girl you **********."
Well if thats what the police did of course, I didn't see much either. The current riots happening now have nothing to do with the guy getting shot dead other than using the first riot that happened in Tottenham as an excuse to riot and loot in other parts of country. London seems quite quiet tonight compared to the last couple of nights, it's only in the other cities that fights, riots and looting tend to be happening.
Not only that, but there's absolutely no context for that video. From reading the associated web page it seems she threw a rock (or rocks) at the police. Not that that excuses excessive force (if there was indeed excessive force), but carte blanche assuming that this was merely "overt police brutality" seems very naive.
I'm reminded of how James Brown basically saved Boston from riots just after MLK's assassination. So where are The Godfather of Soul's equivalents for peace in all this? Who will stand up as someone who's one of these ignorant, uneducated, possibly toothless and retarded bunch of twats? Can no one locate Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Rio Ferdinand?
In my experience this simply is not true. These sound like every riot I ever saw, most of which set out to be "protests" -- but got distracted by the other possibilities... Or talk to anyone who was on the streets for the Rodney King riots-- they started out as protests against the cops and the judicial system-- but the Korean groceries were just sitting there...
Funny, I thought I read about it yesterday. The story in the next column was about 3 Limp Wristed Lions.
I'll tell yer what I find interesting... This is one of those questions when some people, (without mentioning any names), seem to want to bang on about, 'Being poor not being an excuse for criminality'. Well, fair enough... I agree with that. I'm not saying it's wrong. As a matter of fact I was listening to Kelvin MacKenzie, (who I'm sure you'll recognise as one of Britain's leading arseholes), saying just that. The thing is, isn't it strange how, when it comes to financial matters for the rich, the right wing ALWAYS want to talk about how people on the left need to 'live in the real world... there's no free lunch... people NEED to be given incentives... people aren't going to volunteer to be their brothers keeper...', etc. etc. Basically, people should be realistic and look at what people are REALLY like rather than how they should be. But when it comes to the poor we have to ABANDON that idea completely. It doesn't MATTER if poverty, deprivation and inequality lead inexorably to violence and lawlessness. It shouldn't... and THAT'S what matters. Well, make yer fvkcing minds up fellas... are we concerned with what SHOULD happen or are we saying that it's the REAL WORLD that's important?!?!?! You noticed that too, eh? We've got politicians fiddling their expenses... the press bugging dead children... the police taking backhanders from the press... the bankers and the rest of the financial elite taking HUGE bonuses for bollocksing up the economy... the TV giving us 75 channels of Big Brother coz it's cheap and they can make money from it... and the politicians, (again!), either being too much of a bunch of weenies to do anything about it OR actively encouraging it and taking bribes themselves in the form of 'directorships', etc. etc. So who do we look to for moral leadership and guidance? 15 year old school children. Yeah, that makes sense. They did. Well, more accurately, sufficient numbers of them went along with it and didn't give a shit whether it all worked out OK in the end coz they'd got their 'fvkc you' money in the meantime. She was talking to Darcus Howe who, whilst he sometimes talks sense, sometimes does what he did here... talks crap with enough feeling that people might actually BELIEVE him. In the current situation where people have been attacked, (there's one fella in hospital who's not looking too good at the minute), we don't need idiots like him speculating about what happened with this Duggan character and saying about how the police 'blew his head off', when we know at least SOME of that isn't actually true. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/mark-duggan-profile-tottenham-shooting http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/mark-duggan-handgun-lethal-weapon?intcmp=239
Well, we haven't seen that type of madness in West Brom since they notably avoided the drop that one season.
Yet another great crime to be laid at James Brown's door. On the bright side, something good did come of the rioting.