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    Chronicle of a riot foretold

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/23/police-civil-unrest-recession

    "Give us more resources and a licence to wade into people a bit more freely, urges top cop" - might be a more accurate headline.

    Weakest front-page story I've seen anywhere for a while.

    #2
    Chronicle of a riot foretold

    Indeed. Although at least they didn't make themselves the story.

    It contrasts with the huge demo in Dublin- as VS and AIATL mention, the local media tried to ignore the story rather than exaggerate hysteria.

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      #3
      Chronicle of a riot foretold

      Don't worry, everyone; it'll be a 'middle class riot', so it'll be just like We're Gonna Change The World by Matt Monro.

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        #4
        Chronicle of a riot foretold

        A middle-class riot? Fuck, the second-hand book shops'll be looted bare.

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          #5
          Chronicle of a riot foretold

          Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan police's public order branch, told the Guardian that middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year.
          Eh? I thought it was us chattering class, liberal pinko lefty soft on crime handwringer Human Rights types that were the backbone of many a demo of a certain type.

          a million workers in France joined demonstrations to demand greater protection for jobs and wages
          In other news, water is wet.

          Intelligence reports suggest that "known activists" are also returning to the streets, and police claim they will foment unrest.
          OTF will be quiet with you lot out fomenting, then.

          Hartshorn said he also expected large-scale demonstrations this year on environmental issues, with hardcore green activists "joining forces" with middle-class campaigners over issues such as airport expansion at Heathrow and Stansted.
          Those evil green bastards, how dare they viciously request we stop fucking the planet up by marching around, blowing horns and in extreme cases, chaining themselves to things?

          All you've got to do then is link in with the environmentalists, and look at the oil companies. They're seen to be turning over billions of pounds profit in issues that are seen to be against the environment.
          Jesus wept. Is this man thick or just the Daily Mail come to life?

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            #6
            Chronicle of a riot foretold

            If the middle class protested the current economic situation, who would they be protesting against? Business? The government? Each other? The US credit industry? I can't see how the current situation has one good target where everyone could go and wave placards.

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              #7
              Chronicle of a riot foretold

              Eggchaser wrote:
              Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan police's public order branch, told the Guardian that middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year.
              Eh? I thought it was us chattering class, liberal pinko lefty soft on crime handwringer Human Rights types that were the backbone of many a demo of a certain type.
              I think that rioting is going to be marketed as a new form of exercise.

              ...Like 'spinning', a couple of years back ...and that funny 'walking-in-three-quarter-length-tracksuit-bottoms-and-a-polo-shirt' that women of a certain age/class were doing before that.

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                #8
                Chronicle of a riot foretold

                Did they also wear those visors with their hair coming out the top, like a ball cap with the top lopped off?

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                  #9
                  Chronicle of a riot foretold

                  If the middle class protested the current economic situation, who would they be protesting against? Business? The government? Each other? The US credit industry? I can't see how the current situation has one good target where everyone could go and wave placards.
                  In advance of the 30s recession you wouldn't have thought 'The Jews' would've necessarily worked, but a) it did and b) it was a lot of middle class people getting very angry that brought fascism/the nazis to power.

                  I think in Britain the terms 'foreignmuslimasylum seeker'

                  are beginning to function as a catch all scapegoat for whining and front page scaremongering

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                    #10
                    Chronicle of a riot foretold

                    I think Brown and Darling have found a good scapegoat to have a go at, good old Switzerland, hoping it will buy them time to sort out the nefarious mess of the City and the various little tax-haven islands belonging to the Crown...

                    I'm not too worried about being attacked in the streets yet though...

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                      #11
                      Chronicle of a riot foretold

                      I think in Britain the terms 'foreignmuslimasylum seeker' are beginning to function as a catch all scapegoat for whining and front page scaremongering
                      it would be pretty hard to pin the blame for the economic crisis on the muslims - plainly a put-upon minority in the UK. hitler played on the perception, then widespread, that the jews were hugely influential in international politics and finance and used their power to keep germany down.

                      looking at how the UK crisis is likely to develop, i suspect you are overdue a massive corruption scandal. i don't have any inside information, but going by what we've seen in the US (madoff, stanford) and ireland (anglo, o'brien) these discoveries are to be expected when the economy suddenly collapses.

                      maybe the perpetrators of your scandal can provide a focus for everyone's sense of outrage.

                      that seems to be what has happened here, where the "golden circle" loans provide the perfect symbol for the smoke and daggers carve-up FF have presided over in this country: the huge sums of money, the secret favours, the faceless cabal - their identities even now being protected by political bullshit - the ultimate devastating cost to everyone else.

                      to a certain extent, the ICTU protest on the weekend suffered from the problem WOMB talks about - there are lots of people here with little sympathy for the public service trade unions, and the unions' economic case is incoherent at best. but when you hear about these fuckers at anglo everyone forgets all that and just wants to see some heads on sticks. so the speakers all attacked the "golden circle", as did gerry adams, who had a live speech on tv saturday evening. if nothing else these cunts have given us a handy rallying point.

                      (one union leader's speech made reference to "golden circles... with tin ears, brass necks, and feet of clay?" we were trying to think of other metal body parts - but couldn't come up with much beyond "copper-bottomed" and "silver-tongued".)

                      (and sorry for talking about ireland again, i'm sure even those of you who read my obsessive posting on this issue have a pain in your face at this stage.)

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                        #12
                        Chronicle of a riot foretold

                        See, I don't know that Britain is especially badly off. This is a global recession, and virtually every country in the world is being seriously affected.* Some, like Iceland, are hit disproportionately because for macroeconomic reasons outside their realistic control they are more exposed to it. Some, like Ireland and the US, are hit disproportionately because of a combination of corruption and inept-cum-venal governance. But I don't think either of those thigns is necessarily true in the UK. Economic management hasn't been stellar, but it hasn't been catastrophic either. The British economy is tanking, and its banks are in crisis, bedcause the global economy is tanking and the globabl banking system is in crisis. But Britain actually seems to be coping with the banks comparatively well, and public discourse on the topic seems uncommonly focussed and realistic.

                        Yes, it's bad. But not especially or systemically so, and I don't know how much better, realistically, we might have expected it to be...

                        *Lebanon, for some reason, seems to be the sole notable exception.

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                          #13
                          Chronicle of a riot foretold

                          Agree entirely with E10's alternative headline.

                          I also sort of agree with Toro. Britain doesn't quite seem as bad as it might be somehow.

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                            #14
                            Chronicle of a riot foretold

                            in britain it's all about the banks. if the banks have been telling GB porkie pies about their balance sheets, he is far deeper in shit than he thought. and going by what i have learned about banks in the last year or so, i would be astonished if they haven't been lying about the depth of the shit they are in.

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                              #15
                              Chronicle of a riot foretold

                              It's not going to be the Muslims who are the scapegoats, it is going to be the EU foreign workers. The Mail has been fomenting that particular unrest for ages.

                              Do the police give any meeting times and places for these riots? Being a student now, I could do some rioting but have to fit it in with the school holidays

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