Geographer: London riots caused by 'culture of defeat'

The riots in England were not completely unexpected but were caused partly by a 'culture of defeat' among youths and others without life opportunities, according to British architect and archaeologist Nicholas Wood. Wood, who is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, suggested that the economic crisis, the destruction of traditional British industries and examples “greed and double-cross” set by politicians and the government were also factors. “The division between rich and poor became greater every year. It is not helped by the rise of global capitalism, often American, buying up British Companies and transferring the workload abroad, nor by British companies buying from China at rock bottom prices,” he told IRNA. English cities were relatively quieter overnight Wednesday due to a change in the weather to heavy rain and many more police on the streets after four days of witnessing the worst rioting in living memory. Wood traced the virtual destruction of coal mining, steel and shipbuilding in the 1980s at a time when the power base of trade unions as a root cause of the unrest. Two decades later, the division of rich and poor was made worse under New Labour and Tony Blair, when he “courted capitalism, encouraging personal debt, and allowed banks to print and transfer money which did not exist,” he said. “This eventually resulted in the financial crisis which is still with us. Banks were bailed out by massive injections of taxpayers' money,” he recalled. The geographer pointed out that the banks did not become state owned nor change their behaviours but continued to give themselves huge bonus payments coupled with tax avoidance schemes. “The blackmail threat to the British people was that 'if you don't like what we are doing, we will take our business to Singapore or Hong Kong, and then where will you be?'” he told IRNA. “No coal, no steel, no gas no banks, no chocolate. Public anger grew at this double cross,” said Wood, who also cited another “two swindles by British politicians.” “Firstly Members of Parliament were giving themselves, on top of their salaries, large expenses claims of thousands of pounds for second homes that did not exist, garden ornaments and television sets.” “The second swindle came a few months later. In 2010, an election of a coalition party that said it would abolish university fees, but when it came to power actually trebled the annual fee to £9,000,” he said. The huge increase in tuition fees and removal of education grants led to huge student demonstrations last November and December but who were met by riot police 'kettling' them for hours without food, water or sanitation in freezing weather. “Children got the message. They were being treated, not as someone to love and cherish, but as scum,” Wood said about the way the increase was rushed through parliament as students were held outside. He believed that there was a further ingredient to the unrest in that the way the young and often very poor attain little from education and become an underclass while the more educated children also find there are no jobs available to them. The so-called “lost generation' has been accompanied by “a huge, mostly unseen, growth in teenage gangs, especially in the poor areas of major cities. “With the cuts to combat the economic crisis, even the few outlets of youth clubs and playing areas are being axed. This has also led in some areas to a culture of defeat.” Wood said, The resulting culture, often involving drugs and violence, has been formed into gangs wielding knives and guns “in the shabby blocks of concrete flats of London,” he said. As an architect and archaeologist, he suggested that these young people “never see a cow or a sheep or waving corn fields, but live in an atmosphere of violence and an ugly landscape of concrete and tarmac.” “At school they are told they must pass exams in writing and English to obtain a job, but find these jobs are already taken by Eastern Europeans who cannot speak or write a word of English, but who are strong and cheap to employ and housed in mobile boxes,” Wood said. “Some feel it is futile to seek work, when it is possible to earn a hundred pounds selling a packet of crack cocaine mixed with chalk,” he suggested.