Were the British riots down to a lack of courtesy?

Well this issue of what caused these terrible riots keeps popping up so I thought I would blog about it.

Here is a link to the article which prompted this blog - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16035543

We hear reports from interviews with the rioters that the main reason that they rioted were because they feel like society doesn't recognise them, they are given no chances in society or that it was the police's fault for performing unfair stop and searches.


Today's Guardian /LSE Reading the Riots research reflects on how a "discourteous manner" from officers conducting stop and search in many of the districts where rioting occurred was a "significant factor in sparking the disturbances". (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16035543)

Could it not be that they were searching youths in the areas because these were the people likely to be rioting, or could it be that they thought that these people posed a threat.

Well i say this is complete rubbish. The riots were pure criminality and the way that the police dealt with these people during the riots was perfectly acceptable. I quite liked it when we heard statements like 'police tonight will be allowed to use what ever tactics they deem necessary to ensure the safety of the general public.' It is no less than we expected. During the riots we never heard support for the rioters from anyone but the rioters. we heard calls for rubber bullets and water cannons. Which were eventually listened to and perhaps were one of the major deterrents which eventually stopped the riots.

It is only ever after events such as these that we hear people piping up that we are 'oppressing youngsters', or 'we are not giving them a level playing field, we should listen them.'
No one should defend these riots. They were wrong. That is it. It was down to pure criminality and lack of respect for society. If they had an issue with the police as they all say, take it to the police. Don't run around cities looting. Which is what the majority of them did. The rioters just took this as an opportunity to get things they wanted.

I remember hearing reports that rioters were telling reporters that they were only taking what they needed, however, the items the reporters filmed these people carrying whilst giving these statements were 40' Televisions. I cant see a television as a necessity. Perhaps we could condone stealing food to eat as it is your  only way to survive. But a TV? This is why I cant see that any of this behaviour can ever be explained by anything but criminality. A bunch of opportunists running around and ruining other peoples lives and livelihoods just to claim something that inst theirs.

This Ridiculous World

NUS and Student Politics

Okay this post is about the incredibly left wing world of student politics.

At the NUS national conference 2011 i felt extremely marginalized. by this i mean everyone else who spokes view seemed to be incredibly left wing. Now this honestly is for one reason. Left wing people by nature are more active and tend to argue for their points more hence running for their positions in their unions. But why is it believed widely that all students by nature are Left wing. I sat in the audience at this conference and was called 'Right wing scum' and a 'Tory millionare' now these are incredibly rude but also totally against the right wing views. Now these statements received cheers from the mass audience and applause.
I think this shows the wrong side of student politics. Well i think most of the world of student politics is wrong right now because of pure bigotry and complete lack of understanding of compromise.
But really how can an organization such as the NUS expect to be taken seriously as a political body fighting for the rights of other students when it has no representation from a proportion of the student body. No one should feel like they are a minority and can not have their voice aired which a student like myself actually feels in the conference with Hundreds of other students. I thought it was part of the NUS's statute that no member may be discriminated against because of beliefs, views or creed. And it is a blatant violation of this statute when I am member and delegate walked back from giving a speech on a Motion for Censure on Mark Bergfeld and was told i was a w****r, had the middle finger put up at me and had someone try to trip me. Now i realize that this happened in April and i am not one to hold a grudge (well i am) but this should not be accepted in any political forum. Which is what the NUS is. I just felt appalled by this... And this is what people view students as... firstly apparently we are all exclusively left wing, well that is wrong... here i am a right wing student. I am for the cuts! I am for £9000 tuition fees!

Now away from slating the NUS for being one sided and not listening to right wing views, All students around the world are always said to be against austerity well i think it is high time that people listened to the views of students like me and especially politicians.

This Ridiculous World

The so called 'Geek'

Now this can apply to most of the stereotypes of today. But seriously i hate this stereotype of a geek.

For me this stereotype means people who play lots of games mainly MMO's or MMORPG's or lots of 'geeky' strategy games. Yet the cool kids seem to just play first person shooters... well actually they only really seem to play CoD. What is it with CoD? Is it just me or is it really not a good game?

I am going to go out on a limb and say that without a doubt Battlefield is a completely different league.

Now to the issue of 'Geekyness' By the definition i have given i am a massive incredible geek. I play a lot of games and always have. Most of these being MMORPG's or Strategy games. This ranges from HoN to WoW.

Now i cant say a single person i know would say i am an A class geek (or even a geek in this sense at all), but i am exactly like everyone i play games with essentially. They all seem to have the same interests as me, talk like me, don't sound overly obnoxious, or in any case no more than me, and actually all seem to be pretty all right guys.

So where does this stereotype come from? Well in my opinion it is from the old school media. You know the Jock and geek era of Hollywood movies... but in this day and age when everyone seems to spend more time on a computer than on a field couldn't we dispense with this ridiculous stereotype? Come on... Seriously.

This Ridiculous World