Another Perspective on the Riots

Programme information

Here are some more important facts on the riots in England, as we try to peel back the layers and look at the root causes, rather than merely regard the scintillating burning leaves at the end of the branches...

So - almost half the black children in Britain are being raised by single parents. A quarter of all youngsters live in one parent families – this is three times what it was in 1972, according to the Office For National Statistics. The biggest percentage of lone parent households is among black ethnic groups: 48% of the black Caribbean families have one parent, as do 36% of black African households - compare this to Indians 10%, Bangladeshis 12%, Pakistanis 13%, Chinese 15%, and whites 22%.

Nine out of ten single parent families in the UK are headed by mothers - and children who grow up without their biological father are more likely to be unemployed, commit crimes and leave education early - and to get pregnant as a teenager.

Now in some of the worst pockets of unemployment in London, up to a third of the adult population are living off government benefits. ONS data show how nationally the number of “never worked” households has nearly doubled from 184,000 to 352,000 since the election of the first Blair government in 1997 - and if you grow up in a household where you have not seen your parents (or any other adults perhaps) work, you are much less likely to be successful in trying to get a job or trying to keep a job.

How does England compare to the rest of the EU? Well, England has the most lone parents of any major European nation: one in fifteen homes in the UK is headed by lone woman with children - only little tiny Estonia has a higher percentage. This analysis was done by the European Union’s statistical arm Eurostat, and it revealed that Britain's tax and benefit system is much more heavily biased against traditional two-parent families than any other country in the Western world. So - if you are married with kids and you have one parent earning, you face a tax burden nearly 40% higher than is typical in the developed world and 20% higher than the average EU tax bill. So in the UK, only one in five homes is occupied by couples with children. Nine out of ten couples face a tax and benefit penalty worth more than 100 pounds a week if they live together - so in other words, they are 100 pounds a week better off if they live apart!

This is what I mean when I say that this is a tax farm where the livestock are breeding and living to some degree - to some significant degree - according to tax regulations from the government.

So - why is there such a problem with these local youths and the police? Well, let’s look at the figures for deaths in police custody since 1998 - there have been at least 333 deaths in police custody and not a single conviction of any police officer for any of them!

The Police Complaints Authority stated that, “a disproportionate number of people who die in custody or specifically following restraint are from minority ethnic groups which inevitably leads to allegations of racism.”

So - in England 2/5 of those who are unemployed are under 25! In other words, one in five young men under the age of 25 in the UK is unemployed.

And the other thing that would notice from the Middle East is that food prices often lead to political and civil unrest and riots; we saw this in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. Food prices in the UK have risen three times more than the G7 average…

So this is the background - I'm not trying to imply that every rioter is completely excused from his or her behavior – of course not, they are moral agents - but we are not all facing the same circumstances, we are not all facing the same opportunities, and a culture that is undermined and dissolved slowly through government regulations, through the tax incentives to bear children and live apart - results in young men and young women growing up without father figures, often in households where they have never seen anyone work! And what is their relationship to a free-market classical liberal voluntary society? Well it barely exists - they don't live in that world at all - and to transition them from a world of ironclad entombed statism to voluntary free-market associations is a slow and painful process - and what they're doing is not helping at all - at all! - to get in that direction, but it is important to understand the degree of violence that lies at the root of this violence.

And the other thing that I would say to the British people is that is really, really important to remember that the fear, the anxiety, the danger, the destruction, the sense of civil disintegration that you are experiencing is but a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny taste of what your forces are committing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Whether it is through increased budget deficits and the future enslavement of the opportunities of the young; whether it is through the increased militarization of your police force; whether it is through the continued expansions of the police state, the war overseas always comes home…

Sources:

http://www.tottenhamjournal.co.uk/news/new_plea_as_tottenham_unemployment_reaches_double_national_average_1_837009

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/44768-race-divide-on-single-parents

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23918929-children-locked-out-of-work-by-jobless-parents.do

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/44768-race-divide-on-single-parents#ixzz1UebgpjiI

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372533/Britain-lone-parents-major-Euro-nation.html#ixzz1Uecue2nA

http://themoderatevoice.com/119238/making-sense-of-the-ukriots/