Lord Tebbit's take on recent events

[Dedworth]

"People steal and are not punished for it; they do not work, yet receive money. If they have more children than they can manage, they simply receive more money from the state. Those that do want to work at school are held back whilst resources are directed towards those who don't. The incentives in our society are perverse. And because young people are denied a decent education, those who should have been leaders at school, as head boys or sports captains, are leaders of gangs."

[Arthur Little]

... in a nutshell!

[Englishman2010]

Very true

[KeithD]

I thought he died in 1846!!!

[grahamw48]

Attachment 5467

[Terpe]

Multiculturalism is again under scrutiny.
Social Attitudes again under scrutiny.
Law and order again under scrutiny.
Liberalism again under scrutiny.
The pendulum swings.

Left, right and centre there is now a fevered clamour for more policing, not less. Even in those communities that demanded less before.
For less liberalism not more.
For harsher punishments and sentences.
For more understanding on social and economic disadvantage.
The pendulum swings.

Each time the pendulum swings back and forth our country actually does becomes a slightly better place for most.

I'm not suggesting there are never any negatives, but does anyone really want to go back to some of the debilitating government policies of the 1950's, or 1980's ?

Don't misunderstand me, I'm just as disturbed and angry as everyone about what happened.
It's just that the risk is that these recent nights of localised criminality and violence have the potential to force knee-jerk reactions to change a whole raft of new and possibly extreme enforceable boundaries that push us all back into dark times.

One size does not fit all and there is no single fix-all solution.

We should be careful what we wish for in the heat of the moment.

[grahamw48]

I was doing very well in the 1980s, and engaged to a 'black' girl who as a person was light years away from these 'chip on the shoulder' looting scumbags. May she rest in peace.

[Manila_Paul]

"People steal and are not punished for it; they do not work, yet receive money. If they have more children than they can manage, they simply receive more money from the state. Those that do want to work at school are held back whilst resources are directed towards those who don't. The incentives in our society are perverse. And because young people are denied a decent education, those who should have been leaders at school, as head boys or sports captains, are leaders of gangs."

He has a point but he doesn't seem to realise or accept that the governments he was a part of encouraged those "perverse incentives". Unless I've missed him saying they got it wrong? And this is why his party haven't won an election for nearly 20 years and will probably not win one for another 20, unless they wake up.