If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
No foresight could have predicted such a consequential and momentous year. At the time of writing this, it is review galore for journalists and the public alike with a myriad of comparisons being made between 2011 and other significant years in history.
This year, we've feared the doom and felt the gloom. We watched as people battled for democracy abroad, whilst battles took place within our democracy at home.
Following the publication this month of The Guardian and LSE's research Reading the Riots, there has been a robust response from the government, led by the Home Secretary, Theresa May, insisting that disturbances were primarily a consequence of lawless behaviour.
Almost four months after rioters transformed Broken Britain from metaphor to reality the hand-wringing, soul-searching and blame-dishing is still going on.
Images of burning buildings and shops stripped of their merchandise provided news broadcasters with a stream of disturbing images over the summer. The footage of the Reeves furniture store on fire in Croydon being razed to the ground will remain a defining image of the August riots.
Clapton Portraits is a week-long photographic project celebrating local people from Clapton E5 from 27 November - 3 December. It's a not for profit community enterprise and part of a major documentary project of the Chatsworth Road area which I have been working on since 2007.
There has never been a time when a racial utopia has existed and I doubt such a thing could ever exist, but we are losing sight of what makes the UK a racially tolerant and welcoming society. It is time for us to bring the discussion of race relations back to the forefront.
I can't help but think it's not the kids that are "sick," but the world they are growing into. Our world, where fast money and reality tv stardom has usurped hard work and steady earnings, where sports or music seem like the only options for kids who never thought they were clever, where laziness is bred and spreads like disease, where aspiration stops at money and forgets about dreams.
Despite what Ed Miliband thinks, August's riots were not the poor equivalent of what Cameron and Boris Johnson got up to at the Bullingdon Club. Cameron has struggled to live up to the Old Tory image.
It's easy to sneer at hipsters as tedious and pretentious, but their influx has meant that areas of Hackney previously written off as shit holes are now famous for being energetic and creative. East London has the Olympics next year, and Hackney can show the whole god-damn world how far it's come.
In a targeted approach, the onus would be on the school to identify under-performing children and work closely together with them, their parents and companies, to find suitable practical training. Let's ensure every child benefits and those at the bottom of the rung aren't overlooked.
We need to know why young people feel so disconnected from our society - and to stop this problem worsening. People were quick to judge rioters for feeling "entitled" to the trainers they stole from JJB Sport, but perhaps re-investment in education and community services is something that would really benefit our young in the long term.
Look Back In Anger is a timely reminder that although we may feel overwhelmed by a surge of constant information and that a natural apathy seems to dominate the Noughties generation, now is a righteous time to feel angry and that Jimmy Porters' attacks still feel as fresh and relevant today as they did in 1956.
The riots, and the subsequent focus on problem families, have caused people to ask whether parents are taking sufficient responsibility for their children. Louise Casey has just been appointed to join up government policy on troubled and troublesome families.
The anti cuts protests and London riots, which have shaken the country to its core during the past months are increasingly exposing the shortcomings a...
With one Old Lag quoted in the press no-less as having said that "We're living in the age of the digital criminal and people are taking advantage of social media to access information about would-be victims", the only question that remains to be asked is Why-on-Earth do people still engage in this digital diarrhoea ?!
