AIBU to suggest that civil unrest may soon come.

[HappyDays40]

Just been listening to a programme on the radio about finance and 3% rise in benefits. The programme explained that there is generally an 8% rise on costs of living. There was a food club charity who collect and redistribute near to the sell by date food for a very discipline saying that they're having to turn people away. Then a woman came on saying that she is feeding herself 4 children and husband on £1900.00 a month which although sounds like a large sum when it's got to feed, clothe etc six people it isn't a lot. The woman said that she has to ration fruit, has to get her children to put their pyjamas on when they get home as they can't afford wear and tear on their clothes. She hasn't hated he house so the family can eat!
It sounds nightmarish I just feel like what the heck is his county doing to people when they are having to live like this. Sorry for the rant but feel free to contribute to my rantings.
I predict a riot!

After a decade of media programming like Benefits Street, Can't Pay We'll Take it Away, Benefits Britain, Life on the Dole, Rich Kids go Skint, Saints and Scroungers, which provide an entertaining account on the poor as those who are to be held in suspicion, to be belittled, to be pointed at and offered up for the consumption and moral judgement of the comfortable in a decade of austerity when those who are most financially vulnerable have been kicked around for the political football they have become, can we really be surprised the poor continue to be shamed into silence?

If any of the people struggling voted Tory and/ or brexit I have absolutely no sympathy. This is what you chose.

I have a LOT of sympathy for those who didn’t and are caught up in the shit show.

If any of the people struggling voted Tory and/ or brexit I have absolutely no sympathy. This is what you chose

Is this the new worthy and unworthy poor?

I often get the feeling everybody wants other people to riot.

In the early days of the pandemic, people said you can’t do a lockdown in Britain, people would disobey/riot. Didn’t happen. Ghere were a few protests but with a tiny attendance. This is a very stoic country.

I expect crime and alcoholism will shoot up but I think people are too tired and drained to run around rioting. Cos then what? Get kettled for the afternoon, have your head kicked in by the police, and spend the night in a cell, and then what?

There might be protests but no, there won’t be riots.

This is what the French do. They seem to protest at the first opportunity. Perhaps we end to be more like them and not pit up with it.

@FourTeaFallOut

If any of the people struggling voted Tory and/ or brexit I have absolutely no sympathy. This is what you chose

Is this the new worthy and unworthy poor?

It's the 'im such a good person look how kind and caring I am, as long as you meet my criteria trope...

@DadOnIce

I often get the feeling everybody wants other people to riot.

Indeed - reminds me of when I was a train once and someone had ear-splitting music emanating from his headphones.

A posh sounding woman opposite said "oh we're all so British aren't we? Why doesn't anyone say anything?"

@C25kBecky

I think we need to riot. Otherwise they will continue to take the piss out of us. It's been long overdue imo.

Why don’t you start a riot then? Find some like minded people and go round smashing up businesses (you can do some looting while you’re at it) and burning down properties. You’ll have a whale of a time.

Besides which rioting is an outdoor activity. When the heating costs are biting hardest only the hardiest would leave their poorly heated home and head out into shit winter weather. There's a reason why riots happen in summer.

@vickibee

This is what the French do. They seem to protest at the first opportunity. Perhaps we end to be more like them and not pit up with it.

Setting fire to everything in sight doesn't seem to have achieved much for the Gilet Jaunes though does it?

@AlternativePerspective I started the original thread, before Martin Lewis got in on the action. I am not out rioting because I own my home outright and am severely disabled and in chronic pain with limited mobility. I am one of the lucky ones who will suffer, but survive this.
I can no longer afford to donate to our food and clothing banks and am making do an mending and going without so my daughter is provided for.
I do apologise that I can't physically get out there on the street to riot, but I can assure you if I were in the position many others are in this country, I'd be making a damn lot of noise about this.
The government have taken the piss once too ofter (Sunak is the final straw). Enough.

*and

Wintersonata

C25kBecky
I think we need to riot. Otherwise they will continue to take the piss out of us. It's been long overdue imo.
Why don’t you start a riot then?
Find some like minded people and go round smashing up businesses (you can do some looting while you’re at it) and burning down properties.
You’ll have a whale of a time.

And that should reverse decades on fuel policy, decades of production decline and with solve inflation too.

@FourTeaFallOut

I don't think so. We live in a country in which people are more likely to be ashamed to be poor than angry about it.

This.

Plus we like to kick downwards instead of upwards.

I wish it was different.

Not very British is it?

Closest we've been to a popular uprising in god knows how long was a night of organised shoplifting

Ok maybe not riot, but properly organised protests and boycotts. Hit the government where it hurts. Make them actually take notice and show them we won't stand for all this.

But I think burglaries and muggings etc will spread and ramp up into wealthier areas before anything is done by the government.

But I think burglaries and muggings etc will spread and ramp up into wealthier areas before anything is done by the government

There are plenty of burglaries and car thefts all over expensive parts of London.

Ok maybe not riot
Why did you suggest it in the first place then? Don’t you know that rioting involves smashing up businesses and looting?

It was only the poll tax riots that brought about change, look about the riots in the 80's, unemployment was high, inflation was high, we had a government who thought they could do what they wanted & nobody would stop them, we are heading that way again.

@Nat6999

It was only the poll tax riots that brought about change, look about the riots in the 80's, unemployment was high, inflation was high, we had a government who thought they could do what they wanted & nobody would stop them, we are heading that way again.

I think the riots did make a difference with the poll tax, but more than that it was all the nice, middle class people who ended up in court for refusing to pay it. When vicars were being threatened with prison sentences even backbench Tories decided it was a bad idea.

I don't think we're likely to see riots, because enough of the types of people who could make a difference just don't care enough and don't have the motivation to go on a wantonly destructive bender for long enough.

I do think that we are edging closer and closer to a period where we may well see more structured forms of social disruption, such as a general strike, mass peaceful protests and so on. People have to think carefully about what will actually make this government sit up and take notice. They're an ultra-Thatcherite, reactionary, right-wing kleptocracy. Destroying random buildings and fighting with the police is only likely to prompt that moron Patel to start dribbling nonsense about capital punishment again, and the clowns who back this government will lap up the 'lock them up and throw away the key' rhetoric.

What will get this government to sit up and take notice is an organised, concerted effort to disrupt trade and productivity that harms the bank balances of themselves and their uber-wealthy, tax-dodging buddies.

@Fedupbuyer

Is that is £1900 after bills?

I'm curious about that as well. OP, can you clarify?

Rioting? No

Civil disobedience of mass refusal to pay council tax and others? I would support that. They can't prosecute everyone. It's the social contract and the government isn't keeping to their part of the bargain.

I think it would take a trigger event, much like the death of Mark Duggan, before we started rioting. The Met Police doing something shitty to someone again might set something off, and let's be honest, it's only a matter of time before they do, they can't help themselves.