I find myself as resident of Brum at a somewhat unfortunate time but I thought it worthwhile to put together my limited experience of the events of the past 24 hours.
A greatly increased police presence and a rather impressive clean up by council workers and members of the public alike means that central Birmingham seems to be largely back to normal this afternoon. Below are some photos I took about an hour or so ago.
It seems that where just hours ago the worst of Britain was witnessed, the best of Britain, Great Britain, the country that won two world wars had prevailed as all parts of the community came together to condemn the violence and join a near spontaneous clean up. An examination of why this happened could wait.
Last night was somewhat eerie. The first inclination I had that something was a miss was via friends on various social networking sites asking about my well being. In the middle of all this my flat mate invited me to come to the kitchen and see the drama first hand. The view from my apartment at Aston University didn’t give much away. I could see gangs of about five to ten youths marauding suspiciously along the Queensway and police personal patrol the area both by foot and squad car. I could also hear more sirens than usual- but I saw no actual violence. Despite this, I resolved that it was gonna be a night in!
To it’s credit, the body politic’s response has been one of swift consensus – that consensus being that public order is the immediate concern and water cannon should be used if necessary to achieve this. David Cameron (eventually) came back from holiday to recall Parliament and to order a few thousand extra police officers into the capital.
Appalling reports of looting and general vandalism poured in via mainstream and social media. On twitter, the left blamed Maggie Thatcher, the right saw it as a vindication of Enoch Powell and everyone seemed it as a lamentable reflection on modern Britain.
Being an old school social democrat, with a small “s” and a big “d”, I am inclined to give Mags her fair share of the blame. Her government, and governments after that put in train a series of policies that exacerbated the class divide in the UK. Coalition policy has merely cemented this. The most tangible of these policies is to be found in higher education. One of the principle means of class mobility remains a decent undergraduate degree. The infamous policy of allowing Universities to charge up to nine grand a year in fees has burned a bridge to this mobility for a large section of young school leavers who cannot be blamed for despairing at their prospects. This certainly does not excuse the violence we have seen but it does serve to partially explain it.
Enoch references simply are not relevant. The rioters here in Brum are of all ethnic backgrounds. Making reference to Powell at a time like this is just cheap and shameful point scoring by the anti immigrant lobby.
Personally, I do not predict any serious violence in Birmingham this evening. At the very least, I don’t think it will be anything like last night, but we shall see.
