To wonder what would it actually take to cause civil unrest in the UK

[Frenchfancy]

Why aren't people angrier about Brexit? Why have there been no riots? Is it because the part of society that are more likely to root want Brexit and the rest of us are too polite.

I live in France where we have been having weekly riots for the past few months because people are a bit upset they haven't got enough money. Yet in the UK not a single window has been smashed.

I'm not saying rioting is a good thing, I'm just wondering why other in other countries people get angry enough to riot but in the UK they don't.

What's BigFatyellows beef? Having a bad day, love?

To answer the OP, it won't take much.

Too many ready meals.
Netflix.
Nobody knows what to riot about yet.

As it was at a cost of thousands of lives would you really call it a ‘successful uprising?

It would be classed as a successful uprising I suppose because Britain had to revoke its territorial claim over Ireland. And it is now written into Ireland’s constitution that if the people of the (island of) Ireland vote to become one country, we cannot stand in their way... after over 800 years of oppression, countless lives lost - and not just during the famine - I would say that is a successful uprising against the British.

PMSL. I totally agree. We don't actually know what to riot about yet! Provoke enough and you will have chaos on your hands.

It's because the people who usually riot are working class men. Look at the the Gilet Jaunes by way of example. In this case many working class men voted leave. It's the so-called "metropolitan elite" that want to remain. They might sign a petition or join a march but they are pretty unlikely to start lobbing Molotov cocktails at police and turning cars over.

Because there is a huge amount of lethargy towards it. The working class are beaten down so much they feel they have no say any way.

If they do riot they are called classless and ignorant and shamed by their own people

ethelfleda

Thanks for the response, which was calm, measured, and also thought-provoking, I am beginning to suspect that BigFatYellow is posting in bad faith so am coming off the thread, but hopefully will cross paths again for some good discussion with you.

Which is why I’m confused. I understood it was the whole crux of the mess but Bigfat seems to be suggesting it’s no biggie

Hard border goes against GFA - which acknowledges that there are a significant number of people in NI who identify as Irish and so the need for the country not to feel fragmented or to be fragmented in any way is very important - as is not having a ‘presence’ at the border. Albeit it would be a revenue and customs presence and not a military one, per se. It’s still a presence.
I guess the ideal scenario would be referendum in Ireland and the majority vote for NI to be part of Ireland again. Although I guess the troubles are still too fresh in everyone’s memory, GFA too recent for this to happen peacefully??

This is my take on it. But I am by no means an expert and this is based on fairly limited knowledge.

Hahaha only on MN could lack of rioting over brexit be blamed on the working class!!! Of course, the lower class are too busy smoking drugs, shagging each other and working out how to claim more UC whilst the upper class are spending their days queuing outside the headteachers office to report some perceptron sleight.

*percepted

We would need to have weapons, rather than a few pointed sticks.

But we can’t not have some kind of border there either... it’s the only land border with the rest of the EU as if there weren’t any checks in place then theoretically, people and goods could easily cross from the EU to Britain without any checks in place. And seeing as the leave campaign was pretty passionate about ‘controlling our borders’ this wouldn’t be in the spirit of Brexit either. So what to do??

In my opinion, it’s more important to hold up the GFA (also democratically voted for) than it is to adhere to the EU referendum. So I think we should revoke article 50.

@ethelfleda

Sorry about the mistakes. Got a bit carried away there.

'S okay. Assumed the pair of you were chatting in Gaeilge.

Aaaand that would cause your riots OP

It's a vestige of the British class system, OP.

Day-to-day engagement with mainstream politics in the UK is associated with higher levels of education, because its traditions and infrastructure are opaque and not very accessible. Politics isn't a standard part of the school curriculum.

The exceptions to that are union politics and the politics of racial division, because of the way they are cross-cut by class war. So such civil unrest that has happened in the UK is typically associated either with strike action or with conflict between the police and BAME communities. (I daresay there are exceptions but I'm speaking generally.)

Disaffection among the chattering classes tends to be self-censored - rioting requires a level of disinhibition the British middle class doesn't tend to display. The poll tax riot happened by accident - it was infiltrated by troublemakers who smashed things up and started looting (I know because I was there).

France is different: civics is taught in school and the average French person is much more politically knowledgeable and engaged from an early age. I'm astounded with the level of political ignorance that is widespread in the UK by contrast, but I wonder if the upcoming generation of voters will be different, not least because of Brexit and the central position it will occupy in their lives (if it happens).

WTF

Are we being denigrated for NOT rioting now? NOT being violent?

Where else on MN is violence proposed as a reasonable response??

FFS will some of you grow the fuck up. Oh and be very very careful what you wish for - it could be YOUR house that is set fire to, with YOUR children inside.

The thing is that if nobody actually understands what was "democratically voted for", it can't actually be done. What a shitshow!

Rioting doesn't do any good and doesn't achieve anything, other than cause hardship for people who cannot afford it and don't deserve it.

If we do have rioting, it will be the brexiteers doing it. Soon after they realise they've been fooled.

We'll riot just as soon as we run out of beer.

Can we riot next week? I’m at work tomorrow, taking the boy to football on Saturday and Sunday I like to chill and catch up on Corrie....plus it’s payday soon so transport costs will be less of an issue after Wednesday next week

Bella next week doesn’t work for me. How about a week next Tuesday?

Those that voted leave are staying quiet now and watching the remainers with interest. I would think the vast majority of leave voters are WC and have very little to lose.

Perhaps they are quietly amused at watching the remainers, who are more likely to be MC and have assets, lose their shit.

It was a vote that was a fuck you from the downtrodden. They don't care about working in the EU when they're out of work anyway.

There'll be no riots, chattering classes chatter.