Ok
First of class - I mean that no one had really used the media or been able be sooooo single minded and unyielding before. She was the first in her class of PM to be able to do this. Yes I know there were others but not on her scale.
As for a general election I think it will. As (please forgive this reference I didnt catch her name) the black female MP for part of London said - this may cause far worse problems than it will sort out and is the wrong response. This was in reference to the suggested militarisation of these districts of London. Which has been a popular statement but she being at the coal face knows best. She did during the week suggest curfews of these areas though as an intermediate step. But the PM was adamant that any course of hard action would be taken. It will inflame the situation. Brixton. Come in hard and remove everyones rites hurt everyone because of the actions of a minority and you will indeed see a response that will send shudders through Britain. And that will result in a reduced confidence in the PM to understand the community. Which as he has already shown will not back down from and so it will escalate. Brown all over again.
Agreed the Terrorist Act allows this but this is not technically terrorism. It is social unrest but is not technically concern for the now defunct/incorporated Special Branch. Oh dont get me wrong I am sure, in fact I would stake my life on the fact that they already monitor these networks under some dubious legal guise. But as you say legally they cannot prosecute. But they can or could, if it breached the terrorism laws. And this situation doesnt it breaches public order laws.
Left wing is a catch all phrase. You used it to imply perhaps that my comments were in some way in this vein. Not true. I speak from hopefully common sense. If you bully people you get resistance. If you push harder still, you risk them pushing back. This is not a political reaction and therefore should not be referred to as such. This is a reaction to a perceived injustice, whether it is or not. It matters not what you think nor I, but what these rioters thought when they did it. If they feel injustice, greed, or low moral values it is as a result of how they feel in their gut, not their political bent.
As for your last point a cynic may say that this all happened because it was cheaper to let it happen rather than deal with it. Costs of policing in high levels versus sending the police in hard and fast and risking lots of them getting injured. Later to sue the government for being injured at work. In one year the Royal Navy paid out 50 million in sexual harassment cases alone. This was across 10 cases. In one year. Think what a copper injured in the line of duty could acquire. Let alone hundreds of them.
Now the PM has stepped forward and said all those shopkeepers who were not insured can still claim under my brand new shiny policy under the rioters act. What he did not say was that they have to claim. In that claim the criteria for payout by the government is that the Police were present, but that they did not intervene at a particular time. And the business was damaged as a consequence. LOL Unless someone was stood there with a camera and can actually beyond doubt say that the police were neglectful in their duty there will be no payouts.
Thats what a cynic would say. When politics became a business instead of leading is when it became about counting beans and not about peoples rights.
My prediction will be that the poo will hit the fan when insurance companies turn on the government and sue them using their rioter policy. So instead of the insurance paying out, they will legally engage the government to pay out using their policy against them. Why wouldnt they. And then the PM will wriggle. And then you will see a U turn on helpful policy. Or at the very least claim capping. Thats getting real. No doubt time and the press will tell if I am a loony lefty or aware of just how ruthlessly tactical this lot can be. I hope I am wrong. I get your point about deprivation but it does exist. And there is a slight wrinkle to it too. Perceived deprivation on the part of the sufferer. Meaning that they feel deprived but have two holidays a year and plasmas in every room. And then there is real deprivation. Both types of people may riot. Only one is understandable to a degree. So until you educate people as to what is deprived, and by people I mean government and people in general, your going to get no where.
