The violent anarchy that has taken hold of British cities is the all-too-predictable outcome of a three-decade liberal experiment which tore up virtually every basic social value.
The married two-parent family, educational meritocracy, punishment of criminals, national identity, enforcement of the drugs laws and many more fundamental conventions were all smashed by a liberal intelligentsia hell-bent on a revolutionary transformation of society.
Those of us who warned over the years that they were playing with fire were sneered at and smeared as Right-wing nutters who wanted to turn the clock back to some mythical golden age.
What has been fuelling all this is not poverty, as has so predictably been claimed, but moral collapse. What we have been experiencing is a complete breakdown of civilised behaviour among children and young people straight out of William Golding’s seminal novel about childhood savagery, Lord Of The Flies.
And just in case anyone doubts Ms Phillips premise that poverty is not to blame:
Millionaire's daughter Laura Johnson, 19, was charged with stealing £5,000-worth of electronic goods, including a Toshiba TV, Goodmans TV, microwave and mobile phones. The goods were allegedly found in a car being driven by Miss Johnson after a branch of Comet in Charlton, south-east London, was raided. Bexleyheath magistrates heard that a 'public order kit' of balaclava, gloves and a bandana was also found in the car.
Miss Johnson attended St Olave's Grammar School in Orpington, Kent, the fourth best performing state school in the country, after transferring from its sister school Newstead Wood. She achieved A*s in French, English literature, classical civilisation and geography A-levels, and is now studying English and Italian at Exeter University.
Her parents, Robert and Lindsay Johnson, live in a large detached farmhouse in Orpington. It has extensive grounds and a tennis court. They sold their previous house, near Greenwich, for £930,000 in 2006. Miss Johnson's parents, who supported her in court, run Avongate, a direct marketing company. Her father is a businessman with directorships in several companies. He was a director in a company that took over the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport newspapers in 2007.
During her schooling, Miss Johnson offered her services as a tutor. On a website she wrote: 'I was a student at Newstead Wood School for girls and gained four A*s and nine A grades at GCSE.'
Miss Johnson indicated a plea of not guilty to five counts of burglary and was granted bail on condition that she does not associate with the two men allegedly found with her. She must wear an electronic tag, submit to a curfew between 7pm and 6am and not enter any London postcode. She is due to return to court on September 21.
Camberwell Green magistrates heard that a 17-year-old and Alexander Elliot-Joahill, 18, were allegedly passengers in the car. Both were denied bail and will next appear on September 7.
Rules don't apply to Miss Johnson. She's important.
ReplyDeleteNo, she's not important. I don't believe that is what motivates her. I believe Ms. Phillips, moral collapse is to blame here.
ReplyDelete"She achieved A*s in French, English literature, classical civilisation"
ReplyDeleteHer "classics" teacher needs firing.
Oh, definitely a moral collapse. But part of that is that attitude that "I am important." That's why celebs get to fly in helicopters and use more electricity in their estates than a small town uses. They are important. They are "owed" such treatment. It is the great unwashed that have to tow the line and pay for everything.
ReplyDeleteYou will notice that the people Miss Johnson was with did not get bail.
The Miss Johnson help enable the scum who rioted. Most "revolutionaries" in the US did not come from poverty -- they came from being spoiled brats. They used their money and their power to castrate society so that the "poverty stricken" could get everything handed to them yet still feel abused.
I am going out on a limb here and guessing that the prats at the beeb are completely oblivious. How else would one explain this idiocy?"
ReplyDeleteGood points Matt. This one is especially relevant:
ReplyDelete"You will notice that the people Miss Johnson was with did not get bail."
She sounds like your classic "rebel without a cause".
ReplyDeleteMelanie Philips always nails it. That's why she's hated so much by the left. They don't like their hypocrisy exposed.
(Jourdan posting here:)
ReplyDeleteI believe Philips is right about moral collapse, but she doesn't say a word about modern business contributing to it. What are these rioters stealing?
The latest TVs, fashionable brand name clothes, the latest videogames and gaming equipment, bling.
If our culture has been dumbed down, the work has not just been the leftist establishment. Business wants people dumb and consuming what they are told and are quite effective at bashing everyone over the head with their incessant messages.
Marx wasn't right about much, but he was right that capital requires constant social destruction, the continual creation of new relations and new needs, so that the masses continue to buy, buy, buy without reference to any permanent values or traditions.
This is why the problem is so bad. It't not just the Labour Party. It's the Conservative Party as well. (Or, if you'd prefer, Democrats AND Republicans).
One must notice that there are virtually no differences in policy when either is in power, and one must acknowledge that this means something.
Olympics "ambassador" is riot yobette.
ReplyDeleteTurned in by her "mum". Ouch.
Jourdan says:
ReplyDelete"What are these rioters stealing?
The latest TVs, fashionable brand name clothes, the latest videogames and gaming equipment, bling."
Yes, this is where the media focus is. But if you look deeper you see that the most unlikely items were looted. An eleven year old boy stole a stainless steel garbage can (say what?). A man stole a bag of basmati rice, a young father stole diapers. Sweet shops were trashed and chocolate bars and soda looted (huh?)
Someone else was charged with breaking into a Primark store, Primark for those of you who never heard of it is about the most down market cheapest chain of clothing stores in the UK, about 100% more down market than WalMart.
There's more here than blaming business, it's like the chicken and the egg. We could go around in circles forever trying to figure out what came first, the dumbing down caused by moral collapse or the moral collapse caused by the dumbing down.
Theodore Darylrmple:
ReplyDelete"British youth leads the Western world in almost all aspects of social pathology, from teenage pregnancy to drug taking, from drunkenness to violent criminality. There is no form of bad behaviour that our version of the welfare state has not sought out and subsidised."
What a lovely Labour legacy.
lewy # 9, yes I saw that earlier today. The sheer "variety" of looters is mind boggling.
ReplyDelete@ annie 7
ReplyDeleteQuite so. The left just viscerally detests her- but never a cogent rejoinder to counter any of her points.
Re Phillips' "...straight out of William Golding’s seminal novel about childhood savagery, Lord Of The Flies.- this was exactly the comparator I used over lunch the other day. In less than two generations, NuLabr and the British "intelligentsia" have caused one of England's great political theorist's vision of society to be reborn.
/any guesses who? One of Earl's coveted Gold Stars is on offer ;)
Enoch Powell.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I can't blame "business" for any of this nonsense. Business is business; it exists to make money any way it can.
ReplyDeleteWhat we have is indeed a complete moral decay, rooted in Marxist/socialist philosophical rubbish and exported to the "poor and downtrodden". It's crap, but as a civilization we've been too complacent and it's infested both our privileged "play at working" class and our government-created "refuse to work" class.
If the bastards are going to riot in their fancy track suits (are they stuck in the 70s? Track suits? Really?) and their designer running shoes and silk boxers, all the while clutching a BlackBerry that working Britons can't afford with a data plan that working Britons can't afford...cut 'em off. Get a job, punk!
What's the worst thing that could happen? They'll riot?
I'm betting that Fay gets Earl's gold star!