Listening to the news reports from Salford and Manchester where I live made my blood boil tonight.
One woman's response was 'what do you expect when there's nothing for the kids to do' and that the rioting was justified because 'a guy was shot for nothing'.
This basically sums up what is wrong with British society. Mindless justification of her childrens' behaviour highlights the fact these 'parents' are fully supporting their thuggery.
I also believe that on the whole the Police are trying to protect society and would only have shot someone as a LAST resort. Therefore I very much doubt this person who was shot had 'done nothing'.
As for children having nothing to do, how on earth does that justify violence and theft? It does NOT in any shape or form.
I couldn't wait to work when I was younger, lying about my age when I was 12 to get a paper round (you had to be 13) then getting my first job at 16 after having the interview on my 16th birthday.
Now is the excuse of 'there's no jobs'. THERE ARE JOBS EVERYWHERE!!!
Search online or get a free jobs newspaper and there are pages and pages of jobs. Yes they may be minimum wage but what do people expect as a first job? 100k salary?
People are CHOOSING not to work, there ARE jobs. The reason for this is a fundamental failure of the Government in the UK which has created, fostered and propagated a culture of work shy people who can choose not to work.
This is a minority of people, however this has been propagated by the ease in which to fudge the system to get benefits.
Successive Governments made done some half hearted attempts to prevent this, but it has been easy for people who choose not to work to stay on benefits. For example, they have to be seen to be looking for work to get job seekers allowance. This could easily be flouted by them turning up for an interview and deliberately performing badly or being late for example meaning they don't get the job.
I'm sure most of the world will be incredulous at the fact these people have their houses paid for, their council tax paid and actually get cash payments ON TOP of all this whilst the majority of the hard working society pay £50 A WEEK (this is the average portion of the total tax taken out of a full time workers pay reserved for benefits).
Therefore, people who work full time pay around £200 a month out of their total tax which goes directly on benefits. How does this make me feel? INCENSED!
I absolutely believe in a society where we support those who cannot work through disability or illness. I DO NOT support one where we pay the way for people who choose not to work.
This violence and thieving is now endemic in our society and may now never be weeded out unless we get tough NOW.
The police need to be allowed to use force to dispel these gangs included water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas. A show of reasonable force should be a deterrent for those choosing to create disorder, havoc and riot on our streets.
For the first time in my life last night, I felt frightened in my own city. I stood on my balcony in Manchester city centre with a Police helicopter hovering above me and smoke billowing up around the building as the petrol station opposite was looted by a gang of 20 masked youths. All I could think of was a)is it our building on fire? and b) what on earth is going to happen if they set the petrol station alight?
This has to be stopped NOW. We should never have to live in fear in our own homes from rioters again.
