Sir Bandelot

touche'

You have been wrong practically every time you make a prediction, MDancer. I hope that's not the case this time. Riots spread for a fourth night Thousands more police officers flooded London streets Tuesday in a bid to end Britain's worst rioting in a generation as nervous shopkeepers closed early... ... The chaos has spread to other cities. A police station in the central England city of Nottingham was firebombed by a 40-strong mob... hundreds of youths battled police in the northwestern city of Manchester... ... In London, groups of young people set buildings, vehicles and garbage dumps alight, looted stores and pelted police officers... The Football Association called off England's friendly against Netherlands on Wednesday because of the widespread rioting and looting in the capital... West Ham, a football team, confirmed it had canceled a match planned for Tuesday as a precaution... ... Police have made a rare decision to deploy armored vehicles in some of the worst-hit districts... in the central city of Birmingham- a police station was set ablaze — violence the western city of Bristol and the northwestern city of Liverpool. Authorities acknowledge that major new bouts of violence have badly stretched their resources. Please do us a favour and stop making predictions...

Seriously, I do support such grass-roots methods of maintaining law and order. Such acts of violence need to be marginalized. Not just by the authorities, whom many hold in contempt but by ordinary citizens. In the 'olden days' when men were men, if a bunch of teenagers misbehaved someone would clap them one up the side of the head. Parents and responsible citizens speaking out, showing what's acceptible behaviour and what's not. That's what a community needs. Just like in the movie "El Dorado"

Very good. Then they should be able to solve their economic problems next time by sending them to Clapham Junction...

Everyone should be entitled to steal a flat screen TV. Some do it by smashing a window, others, by their executive priviledge

$2 Million for the queen when she came her last year. About the same for the newlyweds this year. Only in Canada you say? Pity...

Yep, think so. First, you need to have a job

Then no doubt that these rioters just got back from their vacations too, for 10,000 pounds/ week at an Italian villa. But maybe bringing their own personal tennis trainer with them was a little too expensive this time. Hence we have the uproar...

To cope with the violence, London’s Mayor Boris Johnson interrupted his family vacation in North America. Prime Minister David Cameron returned from his vacation in a (shared) ten thousand pounds a week villa in Italy where he was reportedly taking tennis lessons with a coach flown out from Britain. Home Secretary Theresa May cut short her vacation in Switzerland. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg returned from his vacation in France. Riots reveal London's two disparate worlds 'nuff said

We, the hooligans

Perhaps. It's fairly easy to look at this and conclude, they're criminals. I'm not going to argue that they're not, being as I'm sitting at a keyboard thousands of miles away. What I wonder is why this mass rioting over seemingly isolated incidents is becoming more common now? It seems that it is more common, although that could be a biased perception. I think hooliganism is on the rise. this may not be purely hooliganism, it might be more than that. But why is hooliganism becoming and accepted part of our culture? You mention a little of the old ultraviolence- that's clockwork orange. A very disturbing, violent film. I contend that exposing the public to increasingly violent media is part of the problem that leads us to the psychopathic society. We, the ones who believe every kind of expression should be allowed. We, the ones who believe it's ok for our country to break laws and conduct illegal wars. We, the ones who believe that rule of law is relative, hence the value of law is diminished in the minds of our youth. We, but not me.

Mr Cameron said he would make a Commons statement - expected at 1130 BST on Thursday - and there would be a debate so "we are all able to stand together in condemnation of these crimes and stand together in determination to rebuild these communities" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14454516 "we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender" - The New Nazis (are within...)

While we are speculating uselessly- I suspect that many don't even know why they're upset, but still are. Some are probably opportunists using this to engage in violence just for the thrill of it. Yes there are people like that. Engaging in useless wars is only part of the reason, but sets an example for youth to follow. It's the culture we've created.

Seems that whatever the reason, there is a discontentment that goes beyond the death of this one person at the hands of police.

Sorry, TimG! But the giant eraser idea, I thought it was kinda cute...

This idea sounds simple enough, maybe it could work! All that is needed is some goodwill and cooperation. And why not, everyone would benefit! The main problem is, to eliminate this huge debt. We're talking trillions here folks. But I'm sure we can do it if we all work together. First, we need to make a GIANT ERASER...

I look at the problems in Britain and remember they were once the great empire, having colonized many remote places and used the brown man as slaves. Then I think about the Roman empire, and the Jewish diaspora, how the Jews had to run away from their homeland when the Romans burned Jerusalem. The Jews escaped into the Roman empire. Karma is a bitch...

Thats... sociopathy

I see these hateful statements all the time in the comments section of news articles. They often get reported and deleted by the admins. I also see the same type of hatred expressed toward Muslims - the "new Jews".

Thanks for being more clear in what you really mean. I understand now. That is how we live here, we also use a clothesline. Let me say I disagree with the consumer driven model as it's now been exploited to the point that it no longer works. Yes, because for one thing people are naturally turning away from buying unnecessary things. So-called consumer confidence has fallen, and we can argue about why that is. But I think for a number of reasons, economic, environmental, and the information age I doubt it will ever be restored. So in order for the system to thrive once again IT has to change. Here's an anecdote, my wife had been using the same clothes pins for years. Over a very long time, many of them wore out and she needed to buy more. She bought some in a bag and they were made in China. They don't work. Although they're brand-new clothes pins, the spring is cheaply made and they keep "pinging" off the clothesline. And the wood is thinner and smaller. She told me about it and I thought, shameful that they should market junk like that to people who are willing to spend good money on it.

How is it inconsistent? The selloff of jobs to third world countries ate out the very centre of consumer driven capitalism. Without consumer spending it all comes to a halt.

Companies closin down, or moved to Mexico. Take a look in the mirror, meet the new Mexicans...

It's certainly not a fair comparison between us and the people living in those oppressive countries. We do however tend to roll over and take the abuse more here than in some western countries, where people are more politically active. Their problems may also be greater than ours. I'm thinking about London a few months ago, when tuition fees for university tripled. Of course, students tend to be a bit more shall we say, aggressive in expressing their discontent. But I'm sure there are other examples in central Europe, and around the Mediterranean where people have gotten rather pissed off at what their authorities were doing. We seem more complacent and I wonder why that is. Now you are arguing that it's because we're not as bad off. Perhaps... but I'm not convinced. If those things that happened in London in May also happened here in Canada, I'd be surprised to see a similar response from Joebob average. I don't believe people are as afraid of their government as they might be of their corporate employer. Eg., if you engage in a peaceful protest, the government cannot fire you or put you in jail. But your employer could let you go. They have their own by-laws and ability to decide things that are not always bound by law. Ok, but I still think the hockey game thing was caused by a group of anarchists who had planned to make a big deal out of it, before the puck was even dropped.

I never said those things will apply to all Americans. Most are living quite well. But the times are changing, as evidenced in the past few years. Times are harder now, and will get harder still. All of these comments came out of my initial observation that people are complaining about their economic problems in other countries, and we are on the same road to difficult times. Hopefully it's just another dip in the graph that will swing upward again. That's typical, although what we hear in this case are words like "unprecedented...", and the trillions figure keeps going up. I don't think it's doomsday, but times are going to continue getting harder, for a while. The particulars of what happens, how bad, who pays for it are yet to be seen. My pessimistic nature says that the middle and lower classes will pay the most. If you folks disagree? Oh well.

I did purposely oversimplify the situation. Obviously they're a military threat as well. I was only saying it that way to illustrate another type of warfare.