Panic on the streets of London

Anarchy in the U.K.

 

Hopes may rise on the grasmere, but honey pie, you're not safe here.

Some nice Johnny Marr footage here.

 

Summer's here and the time is right for fighting in the streets.

 

Nice pull.

Actually, about half the Clash's first album could be referenced here.

 

Here's my favorite quote from the AP story ...

I guess if you're going to re-distribute wealth, chocolate bars and ice cream cones is a good place to start!

 

I'm not saying the reports are exagerated but London is such a huge area. Deskslave is right. It mostly seems confined to the poorer, working-class neighborhoods. The only thing I've seen out of the ordinary is a couple of armed cops on the tube ride in from Heathrow this morning.

In the end, it's the working class people in these areas who are going to take it on the chin (the vast majority who actually do work and have lived there for generations.) This Tory government isn't going to spend the cash to rebuild these neighborhoods. What's more, there's been a move afoot to ship lots of folks in subsidized housing way, way out of town to cheaper digs. These riots will do nothing more than help turn London more into Manhattan than it already is.

 

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

Black people gotta lot a problems
But they don't mind throwing a brick
White people go to school
Where they teach you how to be thick

An' everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
An' nobody wants
To go to jail!

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

All the power's in the hands
Of people rich enough to buy it
While we walk the street
Too chicken to even try it

Everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
Nobody wants
To go to jail!

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

Are you taking over
or are you taking orders?
Are you going backwards
Or are you going forwards?

 

Terrifically helpful in finding what happened where:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=207192798388318292131.0004aa01af6748773e8f7&msa=0&ie=UTF8&ll=51.558503,-0.055275&spn=0.114195,0.298691&source=embed

 

They must be CM Punk fans.

 

Another Clash lyric - from "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" seems to fit here too:

White youth, black youth
Better find another solution
Why not phone up Robin Hood
And ask him for some wealth distribution

 

So get back to work and sweat some more
The sun will sink and we'll get out the door
It's no good for man to work in cages
Hits the town, he drinks his wages
You're frettin', you're sweatin'
But did you notice you ain't gettin'?
Don't you ever stop long enough to start?
To take your car outta that gear
Don't you ever stop long enough to start?
To get your car outta that gear
Karl-o Marx and Friedrich Engels
Came to the checkout at the 7-11
Marx was skint -- but he had sense
Engels lent him the necessary pence

What have we got? Yeah-o, magnificence!!

 

Let's unpack this, shall we?

An anarchist (1) likens working-class rage against the police (2) to wingnuts in the United States (3) by noting that this is the uprising of the working class (4), and that they're redistributing the wealth (5) by stealing candy (6).

First off, 5 is basically the opposite of what 3 claims to want (leaving aside government subsidies, red-state socialism, etc., etc.). 2 is probably the opposite of what 3 claims to want, and I dare say underneath the jes-common-folks! demeanor, 3 doesn't really like 4 too much either. 1 should by its very definition not really like any of the other numbers. Also, accomplishing 5 by 6 is a really stupid idea.

And you're 28. Lay off the Cheetos and Game Fuel, bro.