Riotous London 2 October 2012

                                                            Riotous London

Last year something new happened or something old if you remember past experience, there were riots. I happened to be out of the country at the time but news broke that riots had been happening all over London. The reason ostensibly was the killing of Marc Duggan by the police allegedly because he had a firearm. This incident sparked off rioting in North London which came down to South London.

By the time they had really started the reasons were soon forgotten ad the whole distance took on a momentum of its own. Shop windows were smashed and looters poured in taking whatever they could get. A friend of mine who was there at the time told me how frightening it was because he said it felt as if law and order did not exist. People were smashing windows and raiding shops and the police were nowhere to be seen. He told me he had seen a bus driver attacked for the takings of the fares(Since most buses in London have a pre loaded card system these would appear to have been minimal).

In many ways the targets seem to have been random. One of the stores attacked was “poundland” where everything costs only a pound. However this apparently provided rich pickings. Other stores were attacked by mobs and extensively looted. It took several days for order to be restored ad then of course the prosecutions began.  It looked absolutely crazy in terms of the fact that Britain is one of the most spied on societies in the word. CCTV cameras are everywhere and soon looters began to be identified

In Peckham the smashed up shop of poundland spawned a wall of peace where people wrote messages of hope for Peckham, a fairly deprived area of London. Standing nearby a shop rather inappropriately named “loot” stood and still does (It appeared not to have been attacked). After a spell of renovations the messages were transferred to the public arch nearby in order to make a permanent memorial. Today it is possible to go and read them today. All speak of peoples love for Peckham and their hopes for the future.

Will the riots happen again? I think without any doubt. They were avoided this year but present government policy particularly cuts in youth facilities and benefits will probably serve to make the problem worse. In many ways it is hard to credit the stupidity of rioters thinking that they would not be caught with CCTV everywhere. However rioters were very much in a minority among their own age group. Many of the people caught up in the net were simple opportunists who saw a smashed window and took the pickings. Of course they are now paying dearly for it with the courts still convicting and harsh sentences being handed down usually some term of imprisonment.

All around as in Peckham the civil pride shows in the walls. Even in the ghettos a pride in the area does arise and that is perhaps the best legacy to come from the whole sorry episode.

Olympic London feat

                                                Olympic London Feat

Well now the Olympics have been and gone. London is now a different place. The public transport of course went back to its earlier state. Cancellations as usual and the buses do not run!!! Long delays become part of life again

What can we make of all this now? In many ways the Olympics made us! Instead of wallowing in self pity we chose to look at the careers of others. And so many stories were made here!! The wonder of Mo Farah, our Londoner who clinched so many gold’s. Also the story of the great Jamaican, Usain Bolt that electrified the proceedings. In many ways we found the feelings again that we thought we had lost. Londoners came together to cheer their heroes on. With Team GB getting a good medal haul one other factor seemed to arrive. The transport disruption was not as bad as most of us had feared. Somehow during this period everything ran on time. Most people were electrified by the tales that arrived from the front and the Olympics was a regular topic of conversation all around

In many ways London is coming of age again. True there is still the time of the Paralymmpics. Yet though the interest is there and though they have been promoted well they are not catching the public interest quite as well. This is probably a long haul as the public attitude to disability has to change and though it is changing it will be a long haul. Tales of heroism are greater still particularly in the overcoming of disability as well. For the first time controversy has raised its head and all are talking about Oscar Pistorius’s complaints about the blades of his opponent being too long. This level of debate and argument has never really been heard before in the context of the Paralympics.

London is recapturing  a bit of its glory in these races.

The only worrying thing about this an apparent spike in the attacks on disabled people. This has been reported and shows that there are still problems despite the great efforts to promote the recognition of the disabled in this town and nationally by giving almost as much recognition to the Paralympics. Recognition of disabled people obviously still has a long way to go!

Olympic mania

Olympic mania

At the moment London is supposed to be abuzz with Olympic fervour. We are all supposed to organize events for the Olympics.  And the street committees are working overtime. We hear about events being organized though none of them seem to be organized anywhere where we all live. Supposedly sports meetings will be organized for those of us not lucky or well connected enough to get tickets for the real thing.  Too bad that most of us have not been able to get tickets for the events. Mostly we have been too busy trying to stay sane and solvent in this city!

Still the Olympic mania goes ever on! We are exhorted to get into the spirit of it as if all the wealth of London depended on it.

Most of us have had to put up with the roadworks and the transport disruption. That has been something else. Everywhere you look we see the roadworks. In almost every street they rear their ugly heads.

Every street becomes an obstacle course with pedestrian signs leading in all directions in most cases right into the road. But that is another story. I wonder if there are any statistics to do with an increased number of accidents!

 In many ways there seems to be little rhyme or reason in this.

Every small crossing is full of people supposedly working all hours though they tend to look abandoned more times than not! To say nothing of the transport disruption that is to ensue! We are told everything will work as clockwork though most of us here will have some reason to doubt that assertion!

Austerity times

                                                Austerity times                           25 June 2012

London the great city and capital of England woke up a few years ago to a government that was promising austerity. There were to be cuts across all government departments that would not impact on frontline services. Delivery of services was to be paramount.

The reality however was soon to be a bit different. The big bureaucrats turned out to be surprisingly good at keeping their jobs. The deliverers of frontline services were of course to suffer. In all government departments the bloodletting was to commence! Soon the numbers of P45s (leaving work forms) being issued in the silent holocaust was upon us!

As if to describe the times in London I thought this was a good title for the series about living in this city at the present time. London somehow contrives to describe itself as following different trends. In the years of boom its image tends to speak of the cutting edge of fashion and style in times of austerity it seems to combine that faded image into itself speaking of slightly timeworn grandeur. Grandeur that is somewhat fading and receding into the distance of the years

Now the side of London looks different as all around the cracks show. Yet in some ways it is surprisingly resilient. Public buildings are still built. Road works are ubiquitous everywhere and people still go out and enjoy themselves albeit not so much as before.

Here is the new blog. This will include all my comments and insights into London in austerity times. Link up to this blog to gain insights into London the old city as we live in the austerity times!
A little about me. I work in this city at several part time jobs and have been affected of course to some extent by the recession and subsequent austerity.  I live in one of the areas seen as ripe for regeneration i.e. newspeak for less salubrious areas and juggle many interests and jobs at the same time. I am a teacher, poet and gardener.