Friday, 12 August 2011

Riot repercussions


The Miss Selfridge store on Market Street was set alight during the riot on Tuesday evening. This is how it looks in the cold light of day.  The perpetrator has been caught and arrested.  See the frankly astonishing ITV news video at:  http://www.itv.com/news/riots-fire-suspect31291/

With some notable exceptions such as this, it has been a return to business as much as possible all across the city, although many stores, restaurants and offices are still are closing early, just in case of more riots. However many small independent businesses are badly affected and their short and long term futures could hang in the balance.

To reiterate for some international readers, as I have heard of misunderstandings on the international media reporting, these riots are nothing to do with the UK government cuts (unlike the mainly peaceful student and public sector demonstrations). The police shot dead an armed man in north London a week ago which led to a a peaceful demonstration, which was then hi-jacked and became a riot there. Copycat riots have spread through the country (just in England but not the rest of the UK- Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are thankfully unaffected so far). Most rioters and looters are not expressing a political agenda, but just a desire to cause damage and steal consumer items.

This BBC interactive map is useful: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14436499

9 comments:

  1. It must have been quite scary.

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  2. Thank you Chrissy for your post. Again, I am sorry for all this. It is just senseless.

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  3. I do wish the media wouldn't keep showing the same shots of the rioters attacking the shops - lets see more of the clean-up.

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  4. Hopefully until Christmas this will have become a memory.

    A good and peaceful weekend for you all.

    daily athens

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  5. I think it will be a long time before this will be forgotten hey Chrissy, things can get out of control so easily and it's always a worry that it might flare up!!

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  6. I hadn't seen that video. How on earth do people think they're going to get away with such acts? It feels like several thousand people just lost their senses for a while there last week.

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  7. You say it wasn't about politics, and you are right. And, anything can be hi-jacked by idlers and petty criminals - as these riots were.
    But there is something more to it all.
    My own guess is that the huge frustration at the amazing hypocrisy of bankers, MPs, police officers, newspaper publishers and so on (who can spout clearly weasly words to hide their own self-seeking) contributed to a feeling of utter rage among people at large, especially the ones at the bottom of the pile.
    Poor people will now get jail for four years (four YEARS!!) for a facebook message - and the bankers waltz off virtually scot free. I'm horrified by the contrast.
    Your post a few days ago on the Peterlee incident was strangely timely.

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