Northern Eye Currently in Economic Exile!

These were the words of a Manchester mother, whose son had received a nine-month referral order for burglary and violent disorder.

As well as being “ashamed” of her son, she blamed the Government for cutting funding to local youth schemes.

Of course, the government didn’t directly cut these youth clubs and summer sports sessions themselves, but they made frontloaded cuts worth millions of pounds to Manchester City Council, forcing the authority to chop vital frontline services.

Northern non-Tory Councils like Manchester, Sheffield, Hull and Liverpool had to make some tough choices- cut social services to the elderly, or summer sports schemes for the young? What would you do when confronted with catch 22 cuts?

So there’s no more money for activities for young people. There aren’t much decent training schemes either. Even if there was, there is a lack of decent jobs to get into.

We have a rising number of young people, mainly male, who won’t work and can’t work. There are a number of reasons why, but one of them is down to the predominance of the service-led economy.

Since Thatcher destroyed our heavy industries, successive British Governments- from Major to Blair- continued to tread upon the broken glass of the path she laid. Britain went tunnel vision towards an entirely service-led economy.

Government’s geared-up our school curriculum to reach theses ends. Target driven towards the service sector economy. Academies with businessmen on the governing body.

Most of these kids have been frustrated since school. Vocationally-minded rather than academic and forced through a system which they simply don’t fit.

There’s not much difference between the modern classroom and the modern office. To some kids, like me, that was great! But to others, who wanted to get their hands dirty, get out, learn skills and make things- it wasn’t so good.

The academic-led school system is designed to churn out employees for Britain’s services. What about the employees for more vocational careers, such as manufacturing?

One of the reasons Britain was hit so hard by recession, compared other western states is due to our over-reliance upon the service-sector, which is also primarily London-led. We were left exposed. We didn’t have anything ‘real’ to sell.

During the boom years we could pay for schemes to keep disaffected young people off the streets; to keep them active, to keep them busy, to babysit them.

But now the money’s gone. The job schemes have therefore stopped, youth career advice has been cut and youth clubs are closing. What do we do now? Just leave the kids to it? Look where that’s got us already.

Part of the path to a better society means as well as investing in activities for young people, we must also invest in opportunities to teach kids more skills outside of just pen-pushing.

Not only will this give young people who aren’t academic more confidence and life chances, it will also provide our re-emerging manufacturing sector with the skill-set it so desperately needs to succeed.

A truly diverse economy leads to less exposure from future slumps and Britain can succeed in exporting high-class goods for the emerging middle-classes of China and India, as well as continuing to provide our valued financial services.

It goes without saying that this isn’t the entire solution to Britain’s woes, but surely a healthy and diverse economy could lead to a healthier diverse society.

Post-script:

Since I wrote this article, there was another timely reminder of our failure to realise our young people’s or our country’s true potential. Sir James Dyson yesterday warned the country will face a desperate shortage of engineers “unless something drastic is done”.

He warned that companies will begin to move their engineering facilities abroad if the current graduation trends continue and advocates more vocational opportunitis at schools. Dyson also urged Government to provide grants to engineering students.

I am not a social media expert and neither am I civil liberties campaigner. However, I use social networking and I do get a bad feeling about what our Prime Minister is proposing here.

In a knee-jerk reaction to this week’s riots, the PM is exploring whether he can restrict the use of sites such as Twitter or mediums such as BBM to quell civil unrest, should it arise again.

Short term sticky plaster solutions again, Mr Cameron.

Not only is this a blatant infringement of our right to free speech, but if Twitter had been shut down over night on Monday, as the PM suggested it should, then #riotcleanup, which Cameron called the “Best of British,” wouldn’t have been organised. Simples.

Cameron should embrace social networking; if anything it has the potential to be the cornerstone of his ‘Big Society’ promised land.

Street violence is again on the increase in Northern Ireland. Are the Tory-led Government suggesting Stormont they should be regularly restricting access in Ulster?

Also, on the subject of Northern Ireland- it is interesting to note that people are using the term ‘UK riots’ to describe what happened exclusively in cities on the English mainland.

Anyway, whether it be UK, English, Northern Irish, Egyptian, Iranian or Syrian civil unrest- whether political or plain criminal- ‘Hands off!’ Mr Cameron: leave our Twitter alone.

Firstly, the rioters and looters must be brought to justice. There have been a myriad of ways announced to ‘shop’ them through the use of various websites- but so far I haven’t heard anyone talk about targeting teachers for information.

I know teachers who would jump at the chance to help the Police with their inquiries! Furthermore, teachers tend not to share the fear of community intimidation and repercussions.

Why not round-up local pictures of suspects and send them to local schools to distribute them to their staff via email? Another way could be posting pictures up on teacher’s union websites.

Another interesting way of seeking justice has been raised by Greenwich Council, who say they will evict anyone found to have been involved. However, I’m not sure how this will serve society in the long run. ‘Evicting a looter’ may make the community feel better for a bit, but what happens to the evicted? Do they move on to another estate, to another part of London? Do they go homeless? Will being evicted help reform them into being a better person? I think not.

Various other ways of dealing with the looters have ranged from shooting them to stringing them up; but realistically, what is the best form of punishment? Boris says they will feel the full force of the law and be made to “regret what they did”. All well and good, but how will this fix our broken communities?

People seem keen on justice, but do not like getting ground down in the detail of how to ensure problems don’t happen again. Riots (like economic crises) will happen again and again if we repeatedly fail to have an effective long-term solution. We need to fix what is broken, not stick a plaster over it and carry on regardless.

I would advocate a more rational response to these riots, from our heads not our hearts. Justice should be sustainable. What I mean here is that the taxpayer will get their money’s worth, the community gets justice and the perpetrator actually learns their lesson. Restorative justice in this sense is the way forward. Looters could be asked for example, to help repair the communities they have damaged. Therefore, communities get rebuilt, local people feel justice has been done and those who looted may feel more part of the community, or will at least pick up new skills in the reparations, to move on and pay their way in society.

Furthermore, in a community service uniform and an electronic tag – the formerly masked and hooded teenagers that did this may seem less intimidating.

Of course, not everyone can be treated like this. As we have begun to see, some of those involved are hardened criminals. But for some it was there first offence and if you catch a kid while they’re young you can try and nip things like this in the bud.

Communities will need significant investment from the Government to repair the numerous damages, from the High Streets to community relations. Help should be given to boost affected small businesses and schemes to increase footfall on local high streets should be promoted. Also, youth funding cuts, which closed down youth clubs, advice centres, training, apprenticeships and activity schemes should be restored.

But it’s not all about Government funding. Communities need to work hard to invest and rebuild themselves too. They need to take some joint ownership of the response to the riots. For example, communities could establish ‘conciliation committees’ to have a mature debate about what happened this week and why. Part of restorative justice means the criminal should face the victim and talk through what happened.

Finally, any support given to the cities who have suffered rioting should not be a token hand out from government. So far, the only thing our government has given communities are cuts. Any investment must be effective.

Communities need nurturing by local councils, the police and other local services. If we want safer communities with more young people off the streets and in work, this will require both physical and financial investment. Should the Government really going to continue to cut Police officers at a rate of thousands across the country after what has happened this week?

However, I hasten to add that I do not blame the cuts for the riots. My hometown of Sheffield is a prime case study of a city which has faced massive cuts in local services and public investment, but not a single riot has taken place. Why is this?

Well, I’m sure the academics have their own answers, but I have my purely anecdotal reasons why Sheffield seems to have survived the rioting so far. Firstly, the South Yorkshire Police may employ ‘Gene Hunt’ style tactics at times, but they keep local people safe. For a city with over half a million people to be labelled as one of the UK’s safest, is in a big part down to these guys.

Furthermore, Sheffield often describes itself as the “biggest village in England” and I would strongly agree. In relation to the village psyche, I think Sheffield is naturally stubborn and non-compliant with the rest of the country. Sheffield didn’t riot in the 80s or 2001. In fact, what frustrated me when I lived there was how Sheffield seemed to think it ‘knew best,’ suspicious of new trends and ideas, especially from that there London; they probably didn’t join in with the riots on that principle alone.

However, the rioting aint over yet, so I don’t want to speak too soon. After all, who would have thought Gloucester would appear on the growing list of English civil unrest?

There’s an excuse for everything, so what’s the excuse for these riots?

Is it a mixture of EMA being cut and tuition fees pricing young people out of university? Is it the funding cuts to council youth services and community groups that paid for youth clubs forcing them to close? Do cuts to Connexions youth advice play a part? Cuts to the Police?

Obviously what happened wasn’t political. It was criminal.

If it was political, then why were youths destroying their own communities? Those targeting JD Sports, T-Mobile and Jessops across London weren’t concerned with corporate tax evasion or carbon emissions. They wanted to nick a fresh pair of trainers; an iphone; a digital camera.

Like consumer-driven criminal piranhas they rampaged across our already fragile high streets.

The mobs weren’t even angry- they were just having a good time. They were laughing, smiling and waving to the cameras. How young some of them looked was shocking.

The Police seemed very thinly spread out across London. Some people were complaining that they weren’t prepared. I think it’s highly unreasonable for the Met to have expected what happened last night.

I’ve had some sympathy for the Police ever since the Government announced a string of cuts to staff, pensions and Police powers. So far they’ve handled this Tory assault upon them with humility and responsibility. They’ve policed various protests when they’re not even allowed to effectively demonstrate themselves.

Many Police Officers have foreseen these riots and the rise in crime. But to be honest it’s not rocket science really is it?

Theresa May has treated the force with utter contempt and her response to the riots last night was pathetic.

The Police have to work with what they’ve got and had to watch while shops were being looted, smashed and set on fire, because they were vastly outnumbered. They even worked with local Turkish shopkeepers in one part of London to disperse the rioters.

So young people are unhappy with the way they are being treated. Fair enough. But how does kicking in the shop window of a charity shop in Clapham solve anything? One youth in Birmingham last night said they were doing this because the Police were racist. Some say they’re pissed off or bored. The rioters are confused.

Sometimes I’m sure there are racist incidents, but in cities with ethnically diverse communities, like London and Birmingham, there have been some great community policing. Furthermore, to claim that Police are stopping and searching people in Hackney because they are black is ridiculous. It’s probably because most people in Hackney are black.

These days it’s more likely that people are stopped because they dress suspicious, rather than their race. We all know the look- hoody, trackies, scarf/masks, trainers, shifty. Whether black, white or Asian; if they seem suspicious then it is right that questions are asked.

So if the riots aren’t driven by a feeling of racism then what are they driven by? Class.

Race plays a part to an extent, but on the whole a middle-class Asian kid from Cheshire is more likely to succeed academically and professionally, than a working-class white kid from Salford. Furthermore, I personally think that those involved in last night’s rioting were not working-class at all, but part of Britain’s underclass.

The growing underclass: forged in the furnace of Thatcherism. Families raised on sink estates in a cycle of benefit dependency and unemployment; with little skills, poor qualifications and low aspirations.

Maybe this underclass is simply responding tit-for-tat to the slash and burn policies of the Tory-led Government?

Personally, I don’t think they even understand what the Government is doing to them. They are angry about not being able to get on in life. But they are confused and vulnerable. Frustrated due to being unable to articulate their dismay. So how do they deal with it?  By smashing shit up and trying to rob a nice new pair of trainers.

I think consumerist culture plays a massive part too. They want it, they can’t get it legally, so here’s their chance.

I’m not condoning their behaviour. I’m just trying to see things through their eyes. I think we need to try and see through this cloud of rage with what is happening and look at the root causes. Of course it’s criminal and wrong, there’s no excuse, but there are always reasons.

Don’t expect this Government to acknowledge and address the fundamental reasons behind these riots. Last night, Cameron’s guru and ‘Big Society’ architect Philip Blond, like me, accepted this was an issue of class, but then went on to label the working class as immoral. How deeply ignorant, offensive and plain untrue? Some ‘Big Society’ we’re living in now, eh Phil?

And while we’re having a go at the Tories, has anyone seen our Mayor Boris?