Tottenham High Road two days after the riots. Photo: Alan Stanton / flickr CC
The riots: Respect and responsibility
Three months on, David Beale offers a personal view of why the riots happened and considers what we might learn from them
Many people have tried to explain why the riots occurred. All agree that the shooting and peaceful protest in Tottenham were simply the spark. What followed had nothing to do with that. A range of views have blamed government cuts, poor parenting, lack of respect and gang culture. All are right to some extent, even David Cameron’s ‘criminality, pure and simple’, although I am struggling to find anything ‘pure’ or ‘simple’ about criminality! But if we are to learn from the riots we need to focus not on the immediate causes, still less single out just one, but look at the ethos of the society that grew them. We can apply a sticking plaster and allow society to continue on the same course, or we can use the events to help us discern the deeper reasons and seek to change them. For me – and this is a purely personal view – there are five main areas to consider.
