DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived post-Murdoch era

heh dumdum bullets are called that cos they were invented at a place called Dum Dum (long after the mutiny)

'police issue' is a bit vague

Dum Dum is right by Kolkata airport! A friend of mine used to spend summers visiting grandparents there.

Also, reading the comments on the Graunblog (I know...) it's ironilol to see the green ink brigade make too much of the text from Duggan to his partner that mentioned he was being 'tailed by Feds'. Apparently use of this jargon makes one a hardened criminal. Apparently these people live in ignorance of widespread young/urban London slang terms.

I'm trying to work out what's going on in Brixton right now, it seems to be mostly smoke and rumours.

There was something earlier about trouble kicking off at the festival (retracted a few minutes later by the same tweeter) but there have been way more sirens than usual screaming up over the hill. Most people just say there's a huge police presence but little else.

Then some joker decided it would be hilarious to post a picture of a burned-out H&M from Wood Green or Enfield or somewhere, and claim it was Brixton H&M and since then there's been nothing but people freaking out, and other people saying it was a mistagged picture and nothing is going on in Brixton, except one arrest at the festival. Someone even posted a picture of themselves standing in the middle of a (deserted) Coldharbour Lane, saying "does this look like a riot?" I suppose this is the problem with social media, that it can spread on the ground reports really quickly, but it can also spread lies and misinformation so quickly.

The irony is, of course, that Morrissey is playing the Brixton Academy tonight. If there's one person one would really *love* to see get caught in a massive 80s style riot... no, I can't even think it, it would just be tempting fate. I'm not even going to joke.

Ha! In fact, Coldharbour Lane is actually closed off for a street party after the festival. Didn't stop the helicopters roaring overhead.

Oh my goodness. So she refuses to draw conclusions about the police murdering someone until there is an inquiry, but somehow she manages to know, without speaking to any of them, without even leaving her house, presumably by ESP, that the rioters were entirely "greedy" and "lazy" and not at all "angry."... Someone is dead, and her reaction is basically "oh noes, my property values!" Not much sympathy TBH.

I don't think she's saying that though? She's presenting polarised opinions that surely exist. But yeah there's a weird lack of empathy there - an acknowledgement that some of her young black pupils will be hassled by the police and at the same time playing that down or outright dismissing it. Mutual lack of trust between police and kids on the street is poisonous as hell but it's not as if the police are innocent in all that.

The other strand of the post is more cogent I think - there'll be local, working class people will have lost their jobs as a result of this. Not saying that's more important than someone being shot (and really not wise to speculate on that, we don't know anything), riots damage the community or communities in the area even if the rage is directed elsewhere (at the police, largely).

http://twitpic.com/62lw0t

so it's kicked off in enfield now?

Amid all this, Boris is staying on holiday.

as is d-cam, who just flew his private tennis coach out to italy

there are pro tennis players who can't afford a travelling coach

On one hand WTF BORIS YOUR CITY IS IN FLAMES, on the other, can you imagine anyone less likely to make a meaningful contribution?

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m3/may2008/0/7/BEA88AA6-CD00-E05E-DC329B3F5CDB68FF.jpg
Just point your hose thingys over there, ok, super.

lol
xp

Waltham Cross now says twitter.

westfield too

Mate just texted me to tell me trouble in Walthamstow High St and to stay indoors. Haven't noticed any noise, maybe it's the other end? There's a bunch of people on the corner of my road and the High St, but that's not unusual

Just saw that selbourne walk was being targeted in e17. Hearing plenty of sirens now at the top of cryPal

TimGatt Tim Gatt
by OwenJones84
Disturbances in Walthamstow. Shop "smashed up" RT @tomwilliamsisme: Police blocking off area around Walthamstow Market twitpic.com/62n3r7
10 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Palace sirens have got to be something else surely?

think a lot of this might be bullshit/wishful thinking

just heard something is going on outside parliament http://twitpic.com/hindenburg.jpg

Matt, wind carries the sirens miles and to be honest I hear plenty most nights, just had a couple of bursts of lots though which is unusual. Right now though it's all v quiet, no plane traffic, no helicopters.

Meanwhile David Cameron has gone back to a bar in Tuscany to sort out a misunderstanding about a tip.
http://news.sky.com/home/article/16045391

i guess he's thinking, may as well use this currency as it won't be worth a damn in a week

there are reasons why maybe the PM should not be on holiday right now, but the riot isn't the biggest

http://twitter.com/#!/shobz/status/100353100778438656

http://thewestlondoner.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/breaking-riots-in-enfield-edmonton-brixton/

0017: Update via jc54322 on Twitter, Hemel Hempstead is not on fire.

0208: Yes, the kissing couple picture was from Vancouver, thanks to all pointing it out via Twitter – my fault for not checking it first!

lol http://twitpic.com/62pr98

http://twitpic.com/62pt9a

http://yfrog.com/j19kqz

http://twitpic.com/62m4ox

http://twitpic.com/62q1p0

this is pretty significant now i guess? stratford, edmonton too....someone on twitter says police w/ smgs in streatham

smgs? lol not buying that.

yah that was firsthand but signal to noise pretty lopsided right now....

A
C
A
B

All cops are bastards.

lol

i feel bad for falling asleep through it last night :/

the real root of the riots is not the cuts/coalition etc, its police brutality in the black community, an ongoing issue. so so so fucking weird to see no mention of this in any paper.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riot-community-destruction

ok i found one

guess we should get ready for more riots across london and england asap then

xp otm. that's what i was getting at last night. kind of feel like these riots are being appropriated by the ~chattering classes~.

people want to see it as a response to the coalition but its not, or rather it wasnt. most (white) people just arent aware of how deep this issue goes in the black community. they knew there was something dodgy about the shooting so they protested. other people just used it as an opportunity to start something else. im not supporting the riots nor what opportunists did but i dont really know what a more constructive way to deal with it is. fact is this sort of thing explodes periodically and i suppose this weekend was the latest explosion before it bubbles back under again.

2 phone shops... No, just passed a 3rd at Streatham Hill broken into, JD Sports ransacked in central Streatham. Honestly when I went to bed, there were dozens of reports that there wasn't rioting in Brixton so wonder what happened after I went to bed.

teenagers get some free trainers. justice is served!

i think the police being the root of this rings v true. and this is against the backdrop of an erosion of whatever authority the met had over the past few months: violence and thuggery at ground level (tomlinson, smiley culture), corruption at the top (hacking). which maybe played a role in triggering the situation to tip beyond chronic distrust into full-scale rioting?

Well, at least the powers-that-be will be gratified that The Ritz escaped attack in preference to the branch of Aldi. Did someone 'refuse' permission to use The Mall/Picadilly for the protest?

Reports of Walthamstow BHS being set on fire turned out to be wildly exaggerated, I think there was a broken window and the entrance is cordoned off. Barclays bank also had a window put through, but that seems to have been it.

Crowd of hoodies gathered on my street corner around midnight with police vans driving through sporadically, there were sirens going off til at least 3am when I finally managed to fall asleep.

these fucking kids are no anarchists sticking it to the big banking boys, they just want free shit.

why burn/break down M&S in brixton though? unless the kids were trying to get free underwear for their mums and gfs. honestly im surprised at how many areas have been looted (though tbf most of the big chains have enough money to replace their windows etc). bit worried for ppl i know who live in brixton.

That was the quietest riot I ever heard of, I slept right thru it. There's no trail of destruction over Brixton Hill. I would have expected one. (Stolen?) car abandoned on the pavement by Sainsburys tho.