Deceit over UK spending cuts will lead to riots

[slow_dazzle]

OK, this might be rhetoric on the part of the Conservative party leader. But there is an element of truth in the observation about the extent of the cuts.

Bailing out the banks has emptied the coffers and the country is flat broke. The UK is falling apart.

LINK

[S E Pearson]

Riots?  Good God man this is Britain, we don't do riots.  We shall all sit here and calmly watch our government utterly destroy our society like good fellows.

Seriously the British don't have a cultural riot meme, they don't know how to do it.  Aside from a few Communist/Anarchist types who actually broke a window at the G20 protests!

[kentishpound]

SE Pearson does one not remember the Brixton, Miners and Poll Tax Riots?

My dear boy the English like a good rumble like anybody else!

[Chesyre]

Riots?  Good God man this is Britain, we don't do riots.  We shall all sit here and calmly watch our government utterly destroy our society like good fellows.

Seriously the British don't have a cultural riot meme, they don't know how to do it.  Aside from a few Communist/Anarchist types who actually broke a window at the G20 protests!

never been to a soccer game  have you ?

[Cycling in Hollywood]

Riots?  Good God man this is Britain, we don't do riots.  We shall all sit here and calmly watch our government utterly destroy our society like good fellows.

Seriously the British don't have a cultural riot meme, they don't know how to do it.  Aside from a few Communist/Anarchist types who actually broke a window at the G20 protests!

never been to a soccer game  have you ?

Seriously, I thought the British INVENTED riots...

[slow_dazzle]

I don't know what would happen today but the Glasgow rent strikes in the early 20th century saw some serious civil disobedience. The government was worried that Scottish troops might turn their guns; Scottish regiments were locked down and English troops were drafted in.

From the Radical Glasgow Wiki article linked below:

The strike and the events of January 31 1919 “Bloody Friday” raised the Government’s concerns about industrial militancy and revolutionary political activity in Glasgow. Considerable fears within government of a workers' revolution in Glasgow led to the deployment of troops and tanks in the city. A full battalion of Scottish soldiers stationed at Maryhill barracks in Glasgow at the time were locked down and confined to barracks and an estimated 10,000 English troops and tanks were sent to Glasgow in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Friday. Soldiers with fixed bayonets marched with tanks through the streets of the City. There were soldiers patrolling the streets and machine guns on the roofs in George Square. No Scottish troops were deployed, with the government fearing fellow Scots, soldiers or otherwise, would go over to the workers if a revolutionary situation developed in the area.

GLASGOW’S BLOODY FRIDAY 1919.

[S E Pearson]

Riots?  Good God man this is Britain, we don't do riots.  We shall all sit here and calmly watch our government utterly destroy our society like good fellows.

Seriously the British don't have a cultural riot meme, they don't know how to do it.  Aside from a few Communist/Anarchist types who actually broke a window at the G20 protests!

never been to a soccer game  have you ?

Indeed I have, sadly I must report that aside from some mild ritualistic taunting of the opposing teams fans their was no spontaneous violence what-so-ever.

Riots are highly structured events following certain implicit rules and conventions.  Two gangs of morons fighting for the sheer hell of it under the vague pretense of some pseudo tribal allegiance isn't a riot.

[S E Pearson]

SE Pearson does one not remember the Brixton, Miners and Poll Tax Riots?

My dear boy the English like a good rumble like anybody else!

Brixton, and numerous others, were conducted by ethnic minorities operating under their own conventions.

The miners strike wasn't a series of riots but people resisting assult by the states employees.

The poll tax riot was largely a peaceful demo inflitrated by the usual suspects who did their thing for the benfit of the cameras.

For a truly genuine example of a mass partipation multi-class riots you've got to go back to the Gordon Riots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Riots

[S E Pearson]

Riots?  Good God man this is Britain, we don't do riots.  We shall all sit here and calmly watch our government utterly destroy our society like good fellows.

Seriously the British don't have a cultural riot meme, they don't know how to do it.  Aside from a few Communist/Anarchist types who actually broke a window at the G20 protests!

never been to a soccer game  have you ?

Seriously, I thought the British INVENTED riots...

More codified the rules, like most games.  And like most games we aren't very good at them.

[S E Pearson]

I don't know what would happen today but the Glasgow rent strikes in the early 20th century saw some serious civil disobedience. The government was worried that Scottish troops might turn their guns; Scottish regiments were locked down and English troops were drafted in.

From the Radical Glasgow Wiki article linked below:

The strike and the events of January 31 1919 “Bloody Friday” raised the Government’s concerns about industrial militancy and revolutionary political activity in Glasgow. Considerable fears within government of a workers' revolution in Glasgow led to the deployment of troops and tanks in the city. A full battalion of Scottish soldiers stationed at Maryhill barracks in Glasgow at the time were locked down and confined to barracks and an estimated 10,000 English troops and tanks were sent to Glasgow in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Friday. Soldiers with fixed bayonets marched with tanks through the streets of the City. There were soldiers patrolling the streets and machine guns on the roofs in George Square. No Scottish troops were deployed, with the government fearing fellow Scots, soldiers or otherwise, would go over to the workers if a revolutionary situation developed in the area.

GLASGOW’S BLOODY FRIDAY 1919.

There were also some interesting community level responses to attempted evictions and bailiff raids during the Great Depression.

[haniel]

"We will not make the mistake of pre-announcing ideologically-driven public spending cuts.”

 - Gordon Brown, quoted from Article

So they are planning ideologically-driven cuts but they don't want to announce them.  Someone is going to get shafted and the UK government knows that if they say who, it's a big enough voting block to swing the tide in a general election. 

[Macs UK]

England has a great history of uprisings, Peasant's Revolt, Levellers, Chartists, quite afew civil wars and all the rest. The irony is that since the peasants got the vote, all they've done to protest is to not bother using it...