(no subject)

[jeffreyab]

Via nelc

A little bit of politics

From Tony Evans' (football editor of the Times) Twitter @tonyevanstimes (cleaned up and inverted for easier reading):
First off, I don’t know what’s best. But this is what I do know. Unlike most of you, I’ve fought with police, I’ve thrown missiles at them
I’ve kicked in shop windows and looted stuff. I was born into an area that people told me was full of ‘the dregs of society’
I’ve been young, poor and angry. I’ve felt there was no opportunity in life and all that stretched in front was a bleak, penniless future
And I know that most people with happy, fulfilled lives don’t go on rampages of violence.
I also know that successive Governments have put the pursuit of wealth ahead of maintaining a sense of community
When you’ve been told there’s no society, why would you care about other people?
When you see the bankers nearly destroy capitalism and still get their bonuses, what do you think of personal responsibility?
The key is making people believe they have opportunities in life, not opportunities to loot
And maybe the money spent intervening in a civil war in Libya would be better spent on schools
I could go on, but most of you have made up your minds. You get the society you create. Enjoy it

Comments

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

So, the shopkeeper who's lost his livelihood because Tony Evans and his friends feel oppressed is complicit with the government's mis-spending how?

And apparently, because Mr. Evans was told he was something growing up - he decided to prove to world that what he was told is absolutely correct?

This little narrative is about the most juvenile hogwash I've seen today.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

I don't believe that you've read very carefully here, and you are replying to something that exists only in your own mind. Unless you feel that the editorial staff of the Times are one of the deprived/depraved groups causing trouble this week. I guess you could make a case for that....

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Um, I have no idea what you're referring to. My comment was clearly an answer to Tony Evans' quote posted here, not jeffreyab himself. Please clarify what I didn't read carefully and what exists only in my own mind?

[nelc.livejournal.com]

I wish I could, but your reply seems to have no bearing on what Evans tweeted. Well, I'll give it a go:

"The shopkeeper" — Evans did not say that no crimes were commited nor that innocent people haven't suffered.

"Tony Evans and his friends" — Do you mean his fellow editors at the Times?

"feel oppressed" — Present tense, when Evans is talking about his past misdeeds.

"is complicit" — I don't know where this is coming from. Again, Evans did not say anything about a link between shopkeepers and the government. His link is explicitly between the government's treatment of those at the bottom of the social pyramid and those at the top. If I can editorialise, the shopkeeper is an innocent victim in this because he's there while the bankers and MPs are far away and protected with better security.

"told he was something [..] absolutely correct" — Two things: first, he is now an editor at a Fleet Street broadsheet, so unless you're making a comment about Murdoch papers perhaps, I don't see how you're linking "dregs of society" with a (somewhat) respectable job; second, abuse produces abuse — people who feel valued by their society do not rebel against it — Evans explicitly says this.

"juvenile" — My impression is that you believe Evans to be a present-day member of the gangs and opportunistic looters that have characterised the disturbances since Sunday, and that he's making excuses for this behaviour. I can't characterise this as anything other than a failure of reading comprehension.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

First meet Tony Evans:

Tony Evans
@TonyEvansTimes
Football Editor of The Times. Author of Far Foreign Land: Pride and passion the Liverpool way. Neutral in the paper, passionate on here. Football should be fun
http://www.thetimes.co.uk

Second he was talking about his past not his present. About a United Kingdom where the poor were written off by a government in pursuit of wealth.

The poor are stuck in council housing and given a basic stipend and forgotten. There are no jobs for them because unlike the Germans the UK did not try to protect manufacturing jobs. Their accents make it hard for them to break out like Tony did and get wage paying work. So they sit around and fester until something makes them explode.

There are books, movies and documentaries about this situation and try your local library to see if they have them.