In 2007 the mass media were happily going along with the general proposition that Britain was a relatively content and prosperous Social Democracy. Three years later political interests of largely shall we say the right of centre have in general established that Britain is something more like a a debt laden Conservative Capitalist Country in which flawed welfarist precepts have to be erased and public expenditure cut back to facilitate entrepreneurial profit making. So a short answer was that out of date political and economic rhetoric which may have been appropriate in the 1970's is the general source of exasperation and disbelief particularly in the inner cities.

One only has to look at the ghastly dumbing down and cheap emotive rhetoric employed to dismiss the introduction of an Alternative Vote system by the haves in our society, something which could have restored or manufactured a good deal of public faith in British Democracy, to comprehend that the Urban population feels in many ways that it is simply the subject of a political deception rather than any sort of honest debate. In examining the general question of deserving, it is an obvious remark that if there was to be some kind of rationale or understanding that might have more constructively motivated the urban populations with their relatively new non ethnic communities, it would have been useful if the Royal Family had been seen to have accepted somewhat less of a financially attractive package then that which they had been proffered by the Coalition Government.

Since the riots were sparked off by the gung ho shooting of a West Indian Crack Dealer I have to point out that some years ago now I clearly sought to point out that anyone who thought that failure to address the public demand for the dismantling of drug prohibition in western societies would not lead to civil unrest of some significant variety was distinctly lacking any sort of realistic social or political vision. Many US States and Cities have moved decisively in this direction while the appalling body count builds up in a confused and lawless South America, and significantly thanks to Gordon Brown's shabby political manouevring over the issue, the UK has been left just as I said it would, like a jilted Bridesmaid at the Altar, and what is very much of the remark that certain right wing elements of the UK's body politic are taking the implausible continuance of drug prohibition in general much too seriously. I think it far too obviously high time (no jest intended believe me) that movers and shakers started thinking about composing some apology for various victims of a Policy that has little moral or economic justification, and no obvious long term future: I believe the LibDems are soon to provide some policy statement to this effect.

From the Daily Telegraph Tuesday September 13th 2011

In general given the international situation I think the British Police dealt with the situation quite well, set a reasonably good example for Police Forces across the World, and are deserving of some praise for failing to accept the right wing rhetoric that advocated heavy handed tactics: it was Politicians who failed here rather than the Police Force who will do the Job they are paid for.

The Government was really quite fortunate in that rain intervened during the second week of August, several cities could easily have become smouldering ruins could they not? If giving people good Cocaine makes them happy I think that the old socio-economic realities that there has to be one rule for the rich and one for the poor has to be called into question. After all it really costs no more than Cabbage to produce and there are obviously much better avenues of enterprise for urban youths than financing Gang Warfare on the basis of a Prohibition that clearly has little democratic mandate for its continued existence in anything like its present form.

Waddaya say George ..............

Having said that Prohibition is unlikely to survive for long in anything like its present form we ought to examine what might be likely to happen in the way of alternatives as, among other things failure to make sensible and workable propositions about the future of criminal law im this respect will only encourage additional negligence of the issue and prolong the agony of longstanding social divisions and various concomitant ills such as the fortunes that are being acquired by criminal networks supplying a huge market for controlled substances.

What happened in California recently was that Governor Schwarzenneger stymied a move to legalise Marijuana (grass) by decriminalising it; most of those who voted against legalisation actually tended to tacitly support the idea in principle but were concerned about health and safety issues feeling that these needed to be considered in somewhat more depth rather than actually being opposed.

Notes The Blair/Brown Government may have looked ridiculous to many at home, especially those who do well out of their, 'respectable democracy' but it did present an understandable post war World View of Britain to the rest of the World. What many need to remember is that more violent forms of crowd politicking is the only Democracy that many know or have known and that the truth is never so important as what the people believe the truth to be.