The unrest spread to several London boroughs over five nights of rioting [Al Jazeera] London, United Kingdom - Daniel, an 18-year-old from Newham, in London’s east end, has one regret.“I wish there was more time. More time to have shown them what I really could do.” I asked him: “And what exactly did you do?” [...]
Riots panel concluded that the riots were fuelled by a wide range of factors including a lack of opportunities for young people. Photograph: Ray Tang /Rex Features Verdict on UK riots: people need a ‘stake in society‘, says report Panel concludes that riots were fuelled by a lack of opportunities for young people, poor parenting [...]
Mark Duggan, who was killed by Met police officers last August. Photograph: Rex Features The Metropolitan police has apologised to the family of Mark Duggan, whose shooting triggered last summer’s riots, for failing to inform them of his death. The apology was revealed after the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) upheld a complaint by the family that neither the Met [...]
Domestic duties: The use of unemployed people as cleaners supplied by a government contractor has been uncovered by the Guardian through a freedom of information request. Photograph: Rex Features/Frederic Sierakowski Jobseekers forced to clean private homes and offices for nothing Concern over unpaid workers taking overtime from staff as some placements last more than a [...]
Investigators have found no forensic evidence that Mark Duggan was armed when shot by police in Tottenham on 4 August. Photograph: Rex Features Revealed: Mark Duggan was not armed when shot by police Investigators find no forensic evidence he was carrying gun when killed reddit this Vikram Dodd The Guardian, Saturday 19 November 2011 Article history [...]
1) Hundreds of people attended the Occupy LSX rally in front of St Paul’s Cathedral on November 5, 2011 [Mariagrazia Petito Di Leo/Al Jazeera] In pictures: Occupy London protest swells Demonstration swells as “99 per cent” pro-democracy protesters rally against corporate greed in British capital. Mariagrazia Petito De Leo Last Modified: 08 [...]
In English ‘Til I Die filmmaker Awad Joumaa examines the rise of the English Defence League. Here he explains why the growth of the far right in Europe can no longer be ignored. For several years I have been intrigued by the rise of the far right across Europe. In England, I have watched the emergence [...]
Severe but opaque: a very British verdict on Liam Fox Report into former defence secretary’s links to Adam Werritty is damning, but gently sidesteps awkward questions reddit this Liam Fox has already admitted most of the errors that the report confirms, but it fleshes out some details. Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA Wire No misuse of public [...]
Iraq war inquiry report faces long delay as doubts on evidence persist Maxine Peake in Loyalty by Sarah Helm at Hampstead Theatre. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Observer Did an evening at the theatre prompt Sir John Chilcot to reconsider findings of his inquiry into the run-up to war? reddit this Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk, Saturday [...]
Labouring under an illusion By William Bowles Posted on October 10, 2011 by dandelionsalad by William Bowles Featured Writer Dandelion Salad williambowles.info September 30, 2011 Note: This is in the way of a continuation of my last essay ‘In the belly of the beast‘. Nothing could illustrate the paradox better than ‘the party of labour’, financially supported largely [...]
Liam Fox claims thrown into doubt by Dubai hotel records Adam Werritty (left) and Liam Fox at a meeting in Dubai in 2007. Adam Werritty said he was from defence secretary’s office when he booked into Shangri-La reddit this Robert Booth in Dubai, Jason Burke and Patrick Wintour The Guardian, Wednesday 12 October 2011 Article [...]
Britain’s One-eyed Justice 7 October 2011 The day British Foreign Secretary William Hague received former Israeli Prime Minister Tzipi Livni in his office at the Foreign Office and welcomed her cordially is a black day in the history of British justice and a terrible insult to the blood of more than 1,400 Palestinians from the [...]
UK children stuck in ’materialistic trap’ Unicef warns that children are being bought off with ‘branded goods’ because parents can’t spend much time with them. Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP Unicef blames the fact that Britons are working longer hours and as a result parents are buying off children with ‘branded goods’ The perceived need to ‘buy [...]
Former MI5 chief urges terrorist talks Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5, attacked anti-terrorist laws passed under Labour. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/Getty Images Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller says dialogue with terror groups, including al-Qaida, requires courage but ‘is necessary’ reddit this Richard Norton-Taylor The Guardian, Tuesday 13 September 2011 Article history The former head [...]
Rebels surround a building in Tripoli, Libya. Documents alleging UK links to renditions to Libya have been unearthed by rebels as they take control of the country. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) A Libyan rebel leader who was rendered to Tripoli with the assistance ofMI6 said on Monday that he had told British intelligence officers he was [...]
David Cameron will give televised court verdicts the go ahead as part of a push for transparency in public services. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Judges’ sentencing of offenders is to be televised under plans to be unveiled by the prime minister shortly, the Guardian has learned. David Cameron is expected to make his [...]
Libyan papers show UK worked with Gaddafi in rendition operation Documents found in Tripoli suggest that MI6 enjoyed a close relationship with Gaddafi’s intelligence services. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian A secret CIA document shows that British and Libyans worked together to arrange the removal of a terror suspect to Tripoli reddit this Ian Cobain, and Martin [...]
Twitter study casts doubts on ministers’ post-riots plan A study has shown that Twitter was used mainly to react to riots and looting during the recent unrest across the UK. Photograph: Jonathan Hordle / Rex Features Analysis of tweets during recent unrest appears to undermine the case for banning people from social networks Interactive: [...]
Prison service to investigate inmates painting Jacqui Smith house Spokesman cites ‘mistake’ over two day-release prisoners meant to ‘help the whole community’ at former home secretary‘s house Andrew Sparrow, senior political correspondent guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 August 2011 11.55 BST Article history Former home secretary Jacqui Smith’s Redditch house was painted by two prisoners [...]
A riot police officer stands guard in Tottenham during the first night of the unrest. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters The British public strongly supports tougher sentencing for those involved in rioting, a Guardian/ICM poll has found, with about 70% of respondents saying they thought people convicted of riot-related offences should get a tougher than normal sentence. [...]
Just Look at a Map and the Numbers England: Why Riots Now? What to Do By Adam Coutts and David Stuckler London Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech and the recent riots signify more than just a wake-up call for policy and a moral breakdown across Britain. They expose the vacuous nature of the Big Society and the [...]
A masked man in Hackney during the early August riots. The report by Tim Morgan, of Tullett Prebon, says our country’s consumerist ethos has ‘extremely damaging consequences. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images The recent riots in London and other big cities were the product of an “out-of-control consumerist ethos” which will have profound impacts for the [...]
Photo by EPA England‘s streets are calm again. But there’s still plenty of interesting debate going on as to the causes of the riots that swept across London, Birmingham, Manchester and several other towns, and have now resulted in well over 2,000 arrests. Here are three thought provoking articles. The first is by Lara Pawson [...]
Cases such as those of 18-year-old Chelsea Ives, an Olympics ambassador whose mother (above) left court in tears after her daughter was remanded in custody, have dominated media coverage. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA Only a small proportion of people appearing in court charged with offences committed during the riots are listed as being in work [...]
Riots: fears over violence as prison population swells to record level Police officers stand in front of a prison van. Prison chiefs appear to be concerned about the volatility of the jail population after the incarceration of hundreds of rioters. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/AFP/Getty Images Email from ‘gold commander’ warns governors to take steps to ensure [...]
Youths throwing bricks at police on 7 August during unrest in Enfield, North London. Photograph: Karel Prinsloo/AP England rioters: young, poor and unemployed Guardian data project reveals link between economic hardship and those taking part in last week’s riots Matthew Taylor, Simon Rogers and Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 August 2011 21.28 BST Article history [...]
Prince Charles meets residents affected by the riots in Tottenham. Photograph: The Sun/AFP/Getty Images Trouble never comes singly, even in Tottenham. Just when residents were starting to feel safe to come out after the riots, who should pop up but Boris Johnson, dishevelled embodiment of the lords of misrule. If the mayor of London and his minder, the communities [...]
Rioters convicted of first-time offences deserve leniency, says Simon Hughes, deputy leader of the Lib Dems. Photograph: Sarah Lee Two of the most significant figures in the British legal establishment have made urgent warnings about tough sentencing for riot-related offences as the split in the coalition over the response to last week’s violence dramatically widened. Lord [...]
Rather than peeling back the complex layers of the riots like an onion skin, the UK government has instead chosen to respond as though the riots were a spontaneous exercise in criminality [EPA] The riots that have engulfed London and other major cities in England over the past week have finally receded, but in the wake of the horrific [...]
Lord Carlile, the former government anti-terror adviser and Lib Dem MP has criticised ministers for trying to influence the courts on riots sentences rather than concentrating on policy. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian The government‘s former terror adviser has intervened in the row over the sentencing of people who took part in last week’s [...]
Youths loot a Carhartt store in Hackney during the recent riots in London. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images I keep hearing comparisons between the London riots and riots in other European cities – window-smashing in Athens or car bonfires in Paris. And there are parallels, to be sure: a spark set by police violence, a [...]
Jordan Blackshaw, left, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan were each jailed for four years for inciting disorder via social networking sites. Photograph: Cheshire Police/PA Criticism is growing of the sentences imposed on some convicted rioters after two men were jailed for four years for posting messages on Facebook inciting people to create disorder in their home towns. [...]
Nick Clegg has sought to slow down a fast and furious run of Tory policy suggestions, including plans to evict the families of rioters from council houses. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA Liberal Democrat politicians indicated on Tuesday that they have deep concerns over David Cameron‘s uncompromising post-riots law and order agenda, with the party’s home affairs spokeswoman [...]
David Cameron told the recalled House of Commons that anyone involved in the riots should expect to go to prison. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA In a capitalist system property is everything. Any interference with the relationship between the alleged owner and his or her property takes precedence when the political servants of the elite use the rule [...]
The UK riots and the criminality of Jack Straw By Robin Beste, Stop the War Coalition, WarIsACrime.org http://warisacrime.org/content/uk-riots-and-criminality-jack-straw Brothers in war crimes: Jack Straw, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Cartoon by Leon Kuhn Jack Straw, former foreign secretary in Tony Blair’s government, was quick to his feet, following David Cameron’s speech on the UK riots [...]
Despite what you may read in the Australian media there is really no blood lust at large in the UK. To the contrary there seems to be a reasoned approach in some quarters to address the issues before the shooting starts. It probably has a lot to do with the absolutely miserable Australian media outlets [...]
Bill Bratton, the former New York police chief, has expressed interest in becoming the commissioner of the Metropolitan police. Photograph: J. Emilio Flores/Getty Images The former US police chief Bill Bratton has said he is a “progressive” who can lead British policing out of “crisis”, reduce crime despite budget cuts, and bring about “transformational” change [...]
David Lammy, the Tottenham MP, in the wake of the riots Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian David Lammy is exhausted. He says he hasn’t slept for a week now. The member of parliament for Tottenham is still trying to make sense of the riots that started on his doorstep. “Complex” and “context” are words [...]
Riots and the Underclass By ALEXANDER COCKBURN What’s a riot without looting? We want it, they’ve got it! You’d think from the press that looting was alien to British tradition, imported by immigrants more recent than the Normans. Not so. Gavin Mortimer, author of The Blitz, had an amusing piece in the First Post about the conduct [...]
Chuck Enriques believes that UK youth like himself , irrespective of their background, can attain success. I never thought the next big international story I would cover would be on the streets where I live. Al Jazeera in London has not shied away from covering the underbelly of UK society, but this was different. Suddenly [...]
People who were abroad over the last 10 days will return to a different country from the one they left. England has been changed, perhaps permanently, by what has happened. The confidence we had in the basic success of our society was shattered, together with the idea that we could always muddle through, getting more [...]
Many defendants accused of being involved in last week’s riots are being refused bail by magistrates. Photograph: Ming Yeung/Getty Images A teenager who stole clothes and accessories worth more than £1,000 from a designer store in central London was remanded in custody after pleading guilty to charges of theft and violent disorder in one of [...]
Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats are increasingly at odds with their coalition partners over the response to the riots. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters Coalition efforts to present a united front over the riots have come under strain as senior Liberal Democrats call for an end to “kneejerk” reactions by politicians and warn that stripping those involved [...]
Simon Hughes: ‘The private sector, like the public sector, should not be allowed to get away with obscene pay ratios’. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian For several hours from late afternoon last Monday people defying law and authority dominated much of my south London constituency. I made public appeals for people to get off [...]
British Riots: Elites “Shocked” The Poor Are Rising Up Against Brutal Austerity Measures LIKE THIS ARTICLE ? Join our mailing list: Sign up to stay up to date on the latest World headlines via email. Angry young people with nothing to do and little to lose are turning on their own communities, and they cannot [...]
Police with mourners at the scene of a hit and run incident in Birmingham in which three men died. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Senior police officers were in open revolt over the government’s police reform agenda on Friday, reacting furiously to criticism of the way they handled the riots, and turning their fire on the home [...]
Mark Duggan died of a single gunshot wound to the chest. Photograph: Jeff Moore The police watchdog investigating the death of Mark Duggan, whose shooting by police sparked the first bout of rioting in London on Saturday, has said it may have “inadvertently” misled journalists into believing the Tottenham man had fired at police. Responding to [...]
UK Intifada 10 August 2011 For days now Britain has been overtaken by violent riots and looting. It started in the capital city, London, and spread to other large cities such as Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham. Thousands of young people, most of them from the poverty-stricken class, took to the streets to express their anger [...]
Young people take control of the streets in the riotous aftermath of Thursday’s police killing, which created a tipping point in communities, where a lack of jobs and social services has given angry youth nowhere to vent frustrations [EPA] On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered outside the Tottenham police station, peacefully calling for “justice” for Mark [...]
The Toxteth monument to Mohamed Bouazizi disappeared the day after Mark Duggan was shot [Courtesy of the artist] In the heart of Toxteth, Liverpool, a mysterious statue appeared in the early hours of July 30. It was a monument to Mohamed Bouazizi, the young Tunisian man who, after being humiliated by police, had set himself alight [...]
