After watching footage of the Tottenham riot I wondered about the inevitability of rioting under a Tory government. Since riots are a result of mass action it seems an obvious task to compare this with the macro level politics of government. It's easier to do this type of comparison in the UK as both parties have had long spans in power meaning that dissatisfaction with one government is less likely to spill over into the term of another. I used this list of riots which is problematic as it fails to mention what it defines as a riot. Due to this, I omitted one result (which occurred in a festival causing no public damage) and all riots occurring in Northern Ireland due to differences in politics. Therefore, please use these results as a rough guide only.
From 1970 there have been around 30 riots in mainland Britain. Labour have been in power for 10 of these during their 18 years of power. The Tories, in their 23 years (including coalitions), have been responsible for 20. If you divide the years by the number of riots you get a rough percentage of how likely a riot is going to occur per year under each party, under Labour you are 55% likely to see a riot a year whereas under the Tories it is 89%.
If you own a shop or small business in a city then it would be a bad idea to vote Tory. If your hobby is fighting the police and fire-bombing city centres however, then the Tories are 34% more likely to make that happen.
6 comments:
More to the point, the Lib Dems have been in power for little over a year and there have been two riots. So they're actually the most violent party out there.
I agree. Quality of life always falls under tory rule. These latest riots seem to be mostly younger people causing general crime and the earlier riots caused by tory attacks on youngsters in education. I have been saying the youth of this country are suffering cut backs in all areas as well as having grants taken away they see education costs rising. They see youth unemplyment rising and no hope of ever owning a house due to banks not releasing money. They see futures filled with debt due to extreme rising in university costs. They cannot afford to buy a car due to high insurance costs and cannot see themselves bettering their parents. In short large proportions of the young in this country do not feel there is any future to be had and certainly do not feel part of society. I think rather than blaming the riots on mindless thuggery as the tory home secretarty is doing we should look at why the youth are suddenly so lawless. I think it is obvious and I think we are in for further unrest if the tory government continue to attack the young old unemployed and poor.
I predict a riot...
This is meaningless my friend. The coalition only came in to power last year and are now being blamed for spending cuts when it was Labour that got us in the mess in the first place. The economy takes a lot longer to adjust than you have assumed, and if Labour were still in power we would be in exactly the same situation. Ed milliband is good at criticizing the coalition's decisions but struggles to come up with alternative ideas of his own. No doubt eventually the coalition will turn the country's situation around for the better, Labour will get voted back in and then short-sighted people will assume that Labour have come up with a miracle cure.
Chris - It's obvious to most people that the riots are for the most part not political and are opportunist acts of random violence and thievery. What do rising tuition fees have to do with stealing 55 inch tvs and burning down people's homes? If these people were as intelligent and politically motivated as you believe then they would know that devastating the economy as they are will only postpone their chances of eventually getting a job.
Bill I find your post unanalytical.
Firstly while is true that the economic peaks and troughs do span generations, governments responses to them are more instant. Announcing economic policies such as cuts can cause a riot even before the economic measures have been put in place let alone taken effect. Therefore, these riots can be attributed to the Tories now.
What do rising tuitions fees have in common with looting a 55” TV? Quite a lot. There is a whole generation who have grown up with rising aspirations (owning a 55” TV) which now have no legal ability to get a job to realise them. Youth unemployment is at an all time high. Add the increasing wealth divide in to the mix and they are seeing wealth readily available but unobtainable and you get good rioting/looting conditions. Rioting cannot be anything but politically motivated since politics is at the core of our society.
I am not making excuses for the disgusting scenes played out in the last week I am seeking to find more an explanation above “it’s just thugs looting”. If that is true where have these thugs been for the last 15 years?
Bill just repeats a Tory mantra.
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