Monday, August 15, 2011

London Burning

This blog should really go up on Bee Up Front and Serious but I doubt that anyone will read it there.  Maybe no one will read it here either but I need to get  this out of my system.

Last week was a terrible time in my homeland and although I wasn't there I followed the events on the news stations and in the British press.  I called friends to ensure they were safe but their reassurances did not calm my turmoil.   My stomach has now stopped churning and I'm a little less disturbed than I was a few days ago.  Funny how one may be away from what's going on but still be affected by it.

The entire episode has made me very, very angry. angry for many reasons but most of all, angry at the total breakdown of a society and the lawlessness which those with an ounce of integrity, should have seen coming.


I am sick to death of hearing about Human Rights. Sick to death of hearing the excuses being given for the torching, rioting and looting that went on in London, its environs and other cities last week.  There are no excuses. I don't care whether you are black, white,  pink, yellow, jobless, disenfranchised, from a one parent family, a drop out, a primary school teacher, mentally or physically challenged, a casualty of the last Labour Government or of the fifteen month old Conservative government. I am sick to death of hearing that it's a 'culture thing', of whites trying to be black, of music and television being a major influential in the lives of our young people.

Tell me, how can anyone condone the words of a 17year old girl, drinking her looted wine from a bottle, telling the BBC interviewer that they were doing this to get at the rich and to let the police know that they can do anything they want?


I have always said that discipline starts in the home. Children need boundaries and they need to be taught right from wrong.  Whilst there were some things that I would not have put my head on a block for  in favour of my children as they were growing up, I certainly would put my head on a block for both of them where the events of last week are concerned.  I know that they would never have entered into such mayhem.  How to I know? Because from very early o'clock they were taught right from wrong and that one has to be accountable for things unacceptable to society. You do the crime, you pay the time.  I am sick of hearing parents say that they are not responsible for the behaviour of their children as one woman said yesterday after her son was caught on camera and has been charged.  She now faces possible eviction from her government apartment because of a 1985 law which in a nutshell, stipulates that anyone with a history of criminality, or by association (i.e. family member) is not entitled to live in a state owned property.  I understand fully that she was not the one who looted, was caught and charged and possibly faces a prison sentence but I have a problem when she hits the national media saying that her human rights are being violated. 


Maybe now is the time to make an example of people.  Maybe now is the time for people to take back their country - from the thugs, the hooligans, from every Tom. Dick and Harry who decides to land on Britain's shores and use it as a bolt hole.  Maybe now is the time to become more discerning where social welfare is concerned and maybe now is the time to stop handing everything to people, on a plate.  Maybe now is the time to institute a system as near as dammit it to compulsory National Service, to hold parents accountable for the children's misbehaviour, to bring back Teachers Training Colleges, to put Heads instead of principals back into schools,  to put morning assemblies with prayers back into schools, to put Matrons back into hospitals, to put pride back into a country where every Briton no matter where they originated from, can live in peace and harmony knowing they are safe.


I am sharing here photos of the London Daily Mail which show the less hostile events of last week.



Photographs taken from the London Mail

Could you sleep easy knowing that your child, husband or any relative had taken part in this?  One mother who saw her daughter who had excelled at school, who held various athletic records, had modelled and was to be an Ambassador at the London Olympics 2012, on television committing the crime of looting, turned her in saying that she didn't love her any less, that it was a hard decision but it was the right one to make. 

I only hope that when David Cameron said the following today, he meant it.:

'Tear up the sentencing guidelines and jail EVERY looter'

  • Two thirds of 1,179 defendants remanded in custody

7 comments:

  1. I am not familiar with the past standards of you homeland, however, I agree that parenting and teaching right from wrong begins at home. I think not only this wonderful place, as well as everywhere else in the world, like here in the States, could take a lesson from this event and your profound words that you have chosen to share.

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  2. Mobs everywhere would react the same way given half the chance.They are all law abiding just minutes before they turned unruly. If there are crooks among them, they would not burn or loot individually but would break the law the way they know best at other times.

    But as a crowd, or a mob particularly, they get carried away with mob culture. They break and burn as a mob!
    What caused the riots went beyond a day,or a week before but longer, festering as unseen undercurrents waiting to erupt. PM Cameron has lots on his hand to resolve.

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  3. Dear Bee, in a nutshell, I agree with every single word you have written here. Britain's government is not an oppressive dictatorship. There is absolutely no excuse for any of this lawlessness.

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  4. Shoot, I just lost a great soliloquy . In a nutshell I agree with your blog. I'm of the opinion that we need to find our chutzpah and use it. You asked the question...would I sleep well knowing a family member were participating? No, nor would I feel snug in my bed knowing the mayhem was taking place 25 mi away. We live on tenterhooks as it is...economy, joblessness, illness, housing are all up for grabs. There is no damn good reason that I know of to behave as a criminal and then justify that behavior. Indeed, lets see what Cameron does...does he have chutzpah?

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  5. Agreed, Bee. The family is central to educating the child. A well educated child grows into an adult who is well adjusted and respectful of other people, the fundamental human values and the laws fo our society.
    What happened in London is anarchy pure and simple. Anarchy means disorder, lawlessness and non-recognition of authority. Society breaks down in situations like this and we are all the poorer for it.

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  6. Bee I read this with interest - as you know I live here in London and it was mind numbing. The trouble is you, I and everyone I know is judging with values these people do not have; they live outwith the social norms (that's not an excuse I hasten to add) and I for one have no idea how to include them back into society.

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  7. So true!
    Vigorously nodding my head in agreement!

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