There is still a pervasive state of shock affecting us in Britain following the riots and looting in London and other cities some two weeks ago. Attempts are still being made, especially by the politicians, to understand why it all took place.
There is widespread agreement that much of what happened — severe damage to property, theft — was unquestionably criminal activity, and widespread agreement that, like all criminal activity, it was inexcusable. Inevitably, the extreme, and deplorable, things that happened have provoked a number of knee-jerk reactions, for example, calls for the removal of homes from some of those found guilty, and their families. While such reactions are wholly understandable, however, they will not necessarily help efforts to ensure that these kinds of outbreak do not occur again.
It is clearly important to try to put the rioting and looting in some kind of realistic context. As I attempt to do that, a number of points occur to me, which are not at all clear-cut. To take one example, many of those who committed the criminal acts were young, and from poor backgrounds and poor areas. That was not true, however, of all the rioters. They included older people, and they included people in good jobs. Furthermore, by no means all those living in the neighbourhoods where rioting took place were involved, and many spontaneously came together to repair damage, and clear up the areas where it was done.
Cause for concern
That said, there are some features of current British society which ought to give us cause for concern. One of these features is that we are in some respects a more divided society than at any time since the Second World War. Notably, there are far greater disparities in wealth, and in reward for work, than there have ever been, certainly in my life time. At a time when employment opportunities have been falling, such disparities become ever more glaring.
Another feature, which has been much in the news in the past two years, is the scandals which have rocked the country. False claims for expenses by members of Parliament had the effect of damaging our faith in the integrity of MPs, and of Parliament. More recently, the (still continuing) controversy over phone hacking by journalists employed by News International — and the discovery of the close and cosy relationships that existed between politicians and senior News International people — led to great public cynicism. Cynicism developed also about the police, following the events which led to the resignations of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and one of the most senior assistant commissioners.
A third feature which I believe needs to be considered is the “must have” ethos which dominates the way in which many people live. It is a “must have” and “must have now” attitude which many people of my generation (and yes, in this respect I can fairly be accused of being an old fogy) find depressing. “Must have now” has for many people replaced “would like, when I can afford it”. Interestingly, an excellent article about the riots by Adam Forrest in The Big Issue (a magazine which is sold by homeless people as a means of earning some income), contains the comment: “these are teenagers with little to believe in other than the getting of new stuff”.
Moral compass
All these features, in their different ways, are reflections of a lack of moral compass in much of our society. Greed, insensitivity to the lives and needs of other people, indifference to “how the other half lives” constitute in my view very serious flaws in that society. It is worth noting, incidentally, that the number of practising Christians has fallen greatly in the past half century.
Of course the characteristics, the flaws, which I have noted are not universal. The reaction of the people who worked together to repair damage after the riots is proof of that. They are, however, sufficiently widespread to be a real cause for concern. They need to be addressed by all who are worried about the reasons for the recent riots — and that does not mean simply the politicians.
To return to the point that I made at the beginning of this Letter, the criminal actions which so greatly shocked us were inexcusable. The flawed features of our society to which I have drawn attention most certainly do not form an excuse. They do, I believe, go some way to help us understand what happened, and help us think of ways of preventing a recurrence.
Bill Kirkman is an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College Cambridge, UK. Email him at: bill.kirkman@gmail.com
