Rioting in Tottenham

[Terrywoodenpic]

I lived in the UK for 2 years. I'm telling you, I found the class mentality to be surprisingly entrenched. It's very different from Canada. However you got there, your "class" is a major part of your identity in the UK. Not so much here.

Class is not about money.
Beckham has oodles of money but not a drop of class. Celeb and class are different worlds. He will always be working class made good.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

The magistrates courts have been sitting for 24 hours a day for three days.
1500 + people have been charged so far. many have been sent to county court as the magistrates can not give a sufficient sentence. What has been interesting is the number of those charged that have good jobs. are semi professional or professionals.

 

[YmirGF]

What has been interesting is the number of those charged that have good jobs. are semi professional or professionals.

A bit of an eye-opener.

 

[kai]

A bit of an eye-opener.

Not for me , i expected as much , all this talk of deprived sections of community protesting was always bollocks as far as i was concerned. It was rioting and looting by gangs of criminals and sometimes people just cant resist the temptation.

Tts the communities themselves that had to eventually stand up and be counted because the police failed to act in a decisive manner. And i believe will all the cutbacks they couldn't bring sufficient forces to the streets . On about the third night they made a big fuss of having 16000 officers in London, a city of over 8 million!

BBC News - London riots: 'Not enough Met officers on duty'

 

[kai]

Not for me , i expected as much , all this talk of deprived sections of community protesting was always bollocks as far as i was concerned. It was rioting and looting by gangs of criminals and sometimes people just cant resist the temptation.

Tts the communities themselves that had to eventually stand up and be counted because the police failed to act in a decisive manner. And i believe will all the cutbacks they couldn't bring sufficient forces to the streets . On about the third night they made a big fuss of having 16000 officers in London, a city of over 8 million!

BBC News - London riots: 'Not enough Met officers on duty'

The competing arguments used to explain the riots

BBC News - The competing arguments used to explain the riots

 

[Koldaramor]

Maybe they need religion in their lives to fill the gap which consumerism causes?

Nothing is irrelevant. Even though the human religion. Also did not believe. Does not change a thing. Because the human is an animal. Belongs to a group of primates. And the evolution continues. So people will never have confidence.

 

[Alceste]

Class is not about money.
Beckham has oodles of money but not a drop of class. Celeb and class are different worlds. He will always be working class made good.

True enough - in England, class is about class. Money is secondary. Everybody is either scrambling to be included in the next "class" up or whipping up solidarity with the "class" they were born into. If there is a third way, I did not see it in the 2 years I lived there.

At home, my oil geologist cousin who has bags and bags of cash was doing keg stands with my impoverished, socialist, college student cousin at the last family reunion. There was no class-related awkwardness. In England, I experienced class-related awkwardness continually.

 

[Kathryn]

This shop owner in New Orleans right after Katrina handled things pretty well, I thought:

 

[Revoltingest]

This shop owner in New Orleans right after Katrina handled things pretty well, I thought:

Scary...I hear that ugly women in NOLA are sweaty too.

 

[kai]

True enough - in England, class is about class. Money is secondary. Everybody is either scrambling to be included in the next "class" up or whipping up solidarity with the "class" they were born into. If there is a third way, I did not see it in the 2 years I lived there.

At home, my oil geologist cousin who has bags and bags of cash was doing keg stands with my impoverished, socialist, college student cousin at the last family reunion. There was no class-related awkwardness. In England, I experienced class-related awkwardness continually.

Funny i lived here all my life and never encounted anything i would describe as Class related awkwardness. What is class? am i working class? middle class? haven't a clue! anyone know how to work out the difference? I guess upper class is Royalty and Dukes and such like, after that its very very burred. I have met a few "upper class" in my time but in all honesty a prat is a prat.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Funny i lived here all my life and never encounted anything i would describe as Class related awkwardness. What is class? am i working class? middle class? haven't a clue! anyone know how to work out the difference? I guess upper class is Royalty and Dukes and such like, after that its very very burred. I have met a few "upper class" in my time but in all honesty a prat is a prat.

Very true Class is no longer an issue.
Though some people are very concerned about their status and who can join their circle.
Fortunately there is always bigger fish in the pond to play the same game.
The rest of us make friends with whom we will.

 

[YmirGF]

In England, I experienced class-related awkwardness continually.

Probably because your particular perspective requires a class structure to exist, even if one does not exist in reality.

Funny i lived here all my life and never encounted anything i would describe as Class related awkwardness.

Very true Class is no longer an issue.
Though some people are very concerned about their status and who can join their circle.

I'm inclined to believe the statements of two life long Brits over the sentiments, however passionate, of an interloper who was just passing through.

 

[Alceste]

Kai and Terry, I think perhaps you don't see it because you have always been immersed in it. It's like I'm a visiting freshwater fish going "ooh, it's awfully salty out here in the sea" and you don't know what I'm talking about. I asked my English partner whether he would agree that the class mentality is very entrenched in the UK compared to here and he agreed unreservedly. For comparison, you can't easily form a general idea about what kind of life a person leads or how much money they make on the basis of an address, where they're from, what they wear, how they talk or what school they went to in Canada. In the UK, you very often can. The place is full of toffs and yobs - we have none. We don't have any Sloan Rangers either.

 

[Alceste]

Probably because your particular perspective requires a class structure to exist, even if one does not exist in reality.




I'm inclined to believe the statements of two life long Brits over the sentiments, however passionate, of an interloper who was just passing through.

Lol, of course people who have only ever lived in England are better qualified to compare the concept of class in England and Canada than someone who has lived in both countries.

 

[kai]

Kai and Terry, I think perhaps you don't see it because you have always been immersed in it. It's like I'm a visiting freshwater fish going "ooh, it's awfully salty out here in the sea" and you don't know what I'm talking about. I asked my English partner whether he would agree that the class mentality is very entrenched in the UK compared to here and he agreed unreservedly. For comparison, you can't easily form a general idea about what kind of life a person leads or how much money they make on the basis of an address, where they're from, what they wear, how they talk or what school they went to in Canada. In the UK, you very often can. The place is full of toffs and yobs - we have none. We don't have any Sloan Rangers either.

As a matter of interest what class does your partner consider himself to be?



and let me just say its not easy to form a general idea about what kind of life a person leads or how much money they make on the basis of an address, where they're from, what they wear, how they talk or what school they went In the UK either the guy in the big house with the Ferrari whose kids go to private school is just as likely to be a drug dealer as a "toff"

Maybe we Brits think of the class system of the Victorian times , i don't know what your thinking about to be honest. and you really have no "yobs" ? at all ? or do you just call them street gangs?

 

[Panda]

Have you seen the petition going before the government to stop benefits to rioters? As well as evicting them from their council houses.
BBC News - Ministers back councils over evicting rioters
BBC News - Riots: Benefits e-petition hits crucial 100,000 mark

 

[Panda]

I am with Kai and Terry on the class thing. It is only important to a very small minority of people I think.

I am quite confused at where Alceste is getting the idea that class is important? Also I am not even that sure what you mean by class Alceste. How do you define class? Is it money, family what?

 

[kai]

Lol, of course people who have only ever lived in England are better qualified to compare the concept of class in England and Canada than someone who has lived in both countries.

|I would be genuinely interested in what your concept of class is in the UK exactly.

 

[kai]

I am with Kai and Terry on the class thing. It is only important to a very small minority of people I think.

I am quite confused at where Alceste is getting the idea that class is important? Also I am not even that sure what you mean by class Alceste. How do you define class? Is it money, family what?

Yeah i think she means something like that old program "upstairs down stairs " where the toffs lived upstairs and the butler and servants etc lived down stairs. Those places are all flats now.

 

[kai]

Have you seen the petition going before the government to stop benefits to rioters? As well as evicting them from their council houses.
BBC News - Ministers back councils over evicting rioters
BBC News - Riots: Benefits e-petition hits crucial 100,000 mark

are they labeling the rioters as being on benefits and living in council houses then?