Saturday 27 June 2020

Weekend: Yoof on the Streets

An ongoing line of thought, over the months and years since the 2011 riots.  I won't bother, this time, to give references to earlier pieces.

A short while ago I mentioned in horror the chart showing how UK politics has become a generational divide above all else.  It's so stark, it's just dreadful.  The fact that right now the crossover point leaves a comfortable parliamentary majority for the oldies, doesn't really resolve things.  At all.

And where the 2019 XR spasm was deftly quashed by the 2019 universal (western) policy-shift to "zero net carbon 2050", a summer 2020 spasm arising from a mash-up of inchoate BLM discontent, pent-up rave-potential unable to get to Glastonbury, organised criminals itching to get back into post lock-down business etc etc etc ... well.  A summer of yoof with literally nothing else to do, flanked by general drunken yobbery, culminating in the Notting Hill Carnival ...  it can't be contained by the constabulary, that's for sure, nor the mostly-Labour city mayors, however respectable and well-intentioned they must be seen to be on such occasions.  And nobody wants to it run until some horrible "innocent deaths" occur, sending everyone home in sullen, shame-faced dismay (and nothing resolved) - even if that's the usual way of British peasants revolts and Pilgimages of Grace. 

There are those - like the doctrinaire-barmy, but fundamentally honest Aaron Bastani - who are quite optimistic this can work out (he expects a big political upheaval to accompany it).  But it's all a bit wishful, and certainly not a concrete programme for 2020.

As I've asked before: what is the specific XR-style trick that can be played this time around?  What are the demands?

There are several points of departure from this opening.
1. The radical left says:  easy!  It's the Green-New-Deal-incorporating-"A Just Transition" (plus-Extra-BAME-Jobs) - that parenthetical last, a recent simple add-on that only represents a couple more words in each clause of the legislation
2.  The business world says something broadly similar:  lots big government contracts for infrastructure stuff, please, with no planning restrictions if it's all the same to you (oh, and OK, as many sops to BLM as you feel you need)
3.  A series of Marcus Rashford moments, the significance of which I reckon is badly under-rated.  Think what happened there: in the midst of a complete political vacuum, a footballer suggested something sweeping and practicable that was agreed to within 48 hours!  AND - here's the important bit - it is (effectively) a means-tested benefit, and the word "BAME" appeared nowhere!  To the extent it calmed things down a bit in the week of white yoof running around tearing down statues like real anarchists, that's an astonishing achievement** - and more Rashford moments can easily be envisaged.
Or maybe it's just downhill all the way.  There are certainly voices for Hold Yer Nerve And Crack Some Skulls.  I repeat my prediction that the EU will make a spectacular *magnanimous offer* if everything's really going to ratshit here.

ND
_________
** In a couple of days Rashford achieved the following:
  • showed Boris up to be the inadequate dolt he is
  • left Starmer floundering (I was going to say tripped him up, but since Starmer conducts his business from the tenth row in the stands, that isn't really possible)
  • took the wind out of an awkward situation, (albeit perhaps only temporarily) - must have been annoying for the out-and-out BLM malcontents of all colours; and in so doing, gave a useful precedent / exemplar for future sop-giving
  • threw the doctrinaire Left into a deep quandry.  They too hate palliative sops.  They don't like freelance political initiatives from their side (like the Catholic Church really hated Joan of Arc).  They are very ambivalent over means-tested benefits.  BUT the really serious Marxists are keen to take race out of the equation and bring it all back to class - so free meals on demand for all hard-up families is right up their street

17 comments:

AndrewZ said...

Rashford's proposal was so readily accepted because it was simple, practical and likely to be quite popular. Those characteristics made it an easy thing for politicians to agree to, and the timing meant that it served immediate political needs as well. It is a great example of effective lobbying, but the most important part is that he was demanding something specific that could be done now, not a cloud of vague ideological stuff about remaking the whole of society.

BlokeInBrum said...

Like many of these proposals, the benefits are immediate and tangible. Which politicians love, as it takes the heat off them.

All that's required is that we pay the Dane-Geld.

Unfortunately, someone, somewhere has to pay the bill.

We see it at every turn, the slow erosion of everything that makes our society wealthy and functional.

All I see is the slow Zimbabwification of the country every time we pander to these ideas.

Endemic corruption at every level of our society, with a useless, Oxbridge political class kicking the can down the road, hopeing that the crocodile will eat them last...

DJK said...

Out and about, cycling for my daily lockdown exercise, what I notice is that it is almost entirely young people in the streets. The over-45s seem to have decided to stay isolated and keep themselves away from a virus that could potentially kill them. (You can argue about whether this is rational, but that is what people seem to have decided). The result is that the streets have been abandoned to the young, who seem determined to party and socialise (and in a few cases, riot) like there's no tomorrow.

E-K said...

The whole thing IS about class. The white Left (can now be called Communists) have hijacked BLM to finalise a political revolution.

It started in the '60s but was empowered greatly during the Blair years. The institutions (with the possible exception of the military) are all run by Leftists placed stealthily and patiently over 5 decades in a Gramscian take over.

Big business knows what side its bread is buttered and is censoring any thought outside of Gramscian parameters. So that's Trump etc stuffed.

Blacks won't be better off and most know it. The vast majority who could have taken part in the BLM protests kept away and had nothing to do with it. This is everything that Malcolm X warned about - the liberal white Left using blacks to empower and enrich themselves... and so the BBC bangs on about equality whilst the white nepotism continues for the best jobs.

And it's all based on such obvious lies ! The BAME on white kill rate being far FAR higher than the reverse - the refusal of the BBC to make the connection between the high BAME CV19 infection rate and the almost identical disparity (a factor of x7) of police fines issued to BAMEs for lockdown breaches.

The BBC prefers to say "BAMEs more affected by CV19 = racism !" and "Police issuing more fines to BAMEs = racism !"

We cannot win against State embedded liars.

When you DO win the elections and the referenda they make the country ungovernable and start a race war.

Utterly wicked people.

E-K said...

The Rashford proposal was unfair.

When our boys were young we earned the most but seemed to be the poorest in our street. I wondered why and then heard about the in work top-ups that other dads were getting - so that explained why the bloke sorting out the local news agents newspapers in the morning and running the till for sixteen hours a week had a bigger house than me and was running a Mercedes camper when we were in a cheap tent.

We weren't eligible for school meals but couldn't afford them either. So off the boys went with sandwiches and Kit Kats made at £1 a pop.

So now we've got to pay for Fag Ash Lil's habit - £15 a week for each kid is going to buy a lot of fags during the summer holidays... perhaps the government knows full well it's going to get it's money back in tax. Clever !

But it's not like it did the Government any good anyway. As soon as the U turn was made (the latest of many by Flip-Flop Boris) up pops smarmy Lineker to say "Well. The Government shouldn't have HAD to be told to do this." So that was that gesture turned into a crime.

Then old smarmy goes on to wax lyrical about what a outstanding young man Marcus Rashford was at his age.

How patronising.

The fact is that there are A&E doctors at that age and Royal Marines Captains in charge of fighting men in wars zones.

Rashford (I suspect) was yet another Human Shield propped up by the Left.

Matt said...

There's no evidence of a coherent strategy from either "side" at present.

Sure the Maxists (XR, BLM, Labour etc) want to tear down Capitalism but it's not clear how that will work. The rioting will just lead to further electoral losses and (hopefully) more "back-to-basics" policies.

And if Cummings has a cunning plan, it has the longest gestation period of any plan ever. The removal of the Chief Constable of the Met or Avon & Somerset police would have sent a pretty clear message about kicking ass and not taking the knee.

andrew said...


Young people see an issue and then post about it. A minority (Greta T) go on to campaign about it. Some with a platform (Daniel L) leverage it to make a change in policy.

They do not seem to want to pollute the purity of their current cause by joining a political party.

XR plays well here as the goal is 'do not kill all the baby polar bears' - and who can demur. The problem comes when (as you say) you start answering the question ...how do you get to 0 carbon.
And that is why their demands start and stop with 0 carbon by '50.
They mandate the ends. The means and the messy consequences lie with the govt.

BlokeInBrum said...

The question is always who pays for it?

Young people love to virtue signal, gives them the warm and fuzzies, especially the girls.

Which is great for them, they don't have to pay for it yet.

Those who do shoulder the burden of paying for everything are becoming fewer in number and under greater financial pressure.

Just like E-K above, the area I live consists mostly of two types of people. The strivers and workers, mostly young(ish) families trying to get on and better themselves, and the immigrants, the single mothers with 5 kids, the dole scroungers, the ones working in the state sector.

Well guess which ones are driving the BMW Saloon Sport that they conveniently got under the motability scheme? Or the ones that are permanently tanned because they take 3 foreign holidays a year?

Well not all immigrants are dishonest and not all single mums are lazy. But there are enough parasites dragging the rest down and I'm sure I'm not the only one whos noticed that working for a living is a mugs game.

Neither am I impressed with the various multi-millionaire celebutards asking other people to dip their hands in their pockets to pay for their personal crusade, or with the idiots that pander to them with our money.

I swear that the older I get, the more I'm turning into a cross between Homer Simpson and Victor Meldrew!


Elby the Beserk said...

"left Starmer floundering (I was going to say tripped him up, but since Starmer conducts his business from the tenth row in the stands, that isn't really possible)"

VG, Nick. Whereas Corbyn was like a hideous carbuncle on the face of British politics, that needed lancing ASAP, Starmer is it seems an innocent bystander (watching the time go by, as Dan Hicks sang).

Elby the Beserk said...

And as for the "cracking of skulls", Nick, I think many of us would like any sign that suggests that the police have work to do still, rather than bending the knee to rioters and dressing up pretty and wiggling their bums for what now seems to be endless endless Pride celebrations.

Mind you, we don't worry down here. We never see a copper from one year to another.

E-K said...

"Cracking of skulls" is a big No No.

I regaled readers with my tales of the Traf Sq Poll Tax riots where I ended up giving ideas to the public inquiry into it.

I complained that senior ranks were willing to put officers at risk rather than upset Antifa types (not in existence then.)

BLM are not the start of this revolution, I'm afraid. They are the finale.

The Gramscian infiltration of all our institutions complete - the farmers have released their attack dogs upon the unwitting farm stock.

BLM are institutional attack dogs.

We were meant to vote Blairism at every turn. We didn't.

"No Blairism, no Peace !"

That's what the banner should say.

PS, Malcom X warned blacks time and again that privileged white Leftists would exploit them to their own ends.

PPS, The advertisers and internet men are going all Woke - they know the future.

PPPS, The future is coffee coloured and I've never had a problem with that. I'd just rather hoped that we'd have been free and coffee coloured rather than as oppressed and corrupt as any other backward republic.

E-K said...

PPPPS, The Met police have clearly been told to show presence but keep out of it as much as possible - and take casualties rather than inflict them... hence no skull cracking unless it's FAR right (aka anyone conservative, small 'C')

I did mention the alarming use of riot cops wearing their flat caps and summer shirts in full battle. An abuse of staff that is.

Thud said...

All nicely said Kev! (my kids on the latte shade of colour chart and quite frothy too) as for skulls, I'd happily, creaky joints and all join in, its a dirty job etc etc.

E-K said...

Creaky joints... I hear ya buddy. I hear ya !

E-K said...

"You wanna punch up ? OK. Hold on a minute - let me do my stretches first."

E-K said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nick Drew said...

yes: and although there's plenty of exaggeration in the Sun (NSS!) the SM censorship trend is potentially v dangerous

(I like to think this is a pretty temperate blog - but how long do we survive?)