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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

I guess the rioters have booked time off work?

216 replies

SunQueen24 · 07/08/2024 10:44

Just strikes me that they’re all available during the working week and yet they somehow think they’re the backbone of society.

If I had to chose who I wanted to eradicate from society it would be exactly these cretins. Fit and healthy enough to riot, fight and terrorise police officers who all have families to get back to but not fit enough to be occupied with any economic activity during the day.

OP posts:
Morph22010 · 07/08/2024 11:55

samarrange · 07/08/2024 11:54

Pretty much any self-employed trader is a company director, shirley? DC's partner is self-employed, albeit with ambition, and he is down as managing director at Companies House. Maybe they calculated that if they told the judge they were a company director, the judge would look more favourably on them than if they'd said "I'm a roofer", and it's not a lie.

Edited

No self employed and operating as a limited company are two completely different things.

5128gap · 07/08/2024 11:55

SunQueen24 · 07/08/2024 11:15

Only on MN can people contort themselves so much that they can perceive a rant about violent thugs as personal insults… 🫢

I think people are more concerned about accuracy and perpetuation of stereotypes. No doubt some of the rioters will be jobless wastrels. However there will be others who have jobs in all walks of life and income brackets, much as was the case with the football 'firms'. The thing these people have in common is that their hobby is violence and ( for some) a genuine belief in their agenda. It's a huge mistake to imagine this is just some workshy mob of miscreants, as some of them will truly be walking amongst us in our day to day. Its interesting when the cases come to court and the backgrounds emerge.

SunQueen24 · 07/08/2024 11:59

TryThinkingForYourself · 07/08/2024 11:54

@SunQueen24 so why are you bringing up the rioters employment status if you don’t believe it reflects on their value/inferiority/superiority? What’s the relevance?

I did set it out in my OP, but I sense you’re needing a hand hold here.

The part where I said they believe themselves to be the “back bone” of society. Ie speak for us all and superior to “immigrants” yet “ are not fit enough to be occupied with any economic activity during the day.”

That’s the relevance. Rioting is neither economically productive, nor productive in any other measurable way. My point being that they’re hypocritical in their beliefs.

But carry on trying to target me. I can tell you’re enjoying it 😃

OP posts:
Wordsofprey · 07/08/2024 11:59

Right. I'm going to get absolutely slated for this but I don't really give a fuck.

Something has clearly been brewing with the anti immigration rhetoric and the anti anti immigration other side going against one another. In a way you could say this was bound to happen, the riots, but I'm finding how they've come about really odd.

So we have 3 children murdered by somebody of unknown origin and background, who was 17. Before any names were released, the internet was going mental - "guess their ethnicity, wonder what true British names they have" type thing. Turns out the guy was actually 17, British, with parents who immigrated here before he was born, likely with mental health issues (I haven't seen this reported but I'm going to assume as he killed little girls for seemingly no reason). But this is the trigger that has caused riots? We see plenty of events that could be the straw to break the camels back so to speak, but this seems... Misdirected? The man/boy wasn't Muslim, he was born here, he wasn't a refugee, yet immediately we see far right protests pop up all around the country.

Basically I'm laying out things that everybody already knows but here's my out there theory - I genuinely think some of the people instigating the violence are paid actors who have been tasked with creating vicious riots, and then the weak willed, violent, no opportunity, disgruntled indivudlas with a chip on their shoulder about immigrants have piggy backed and joined in just as planned. I have never seen groups of people attack somebody for simply being black in the past 20 years, or anywhere near this level besides a couple racist scumbags having a moment. I CANT, as in I DONT, believe there are this many people willing to attack people on the street because they are a few shades darker than themselves. This is something I can imagine happening if instigated by a person, and the hivemind takes over the rest, but it's truly insane what we're seeing.

The catalyst of these protests is strangely an event that doesnt concern refugees or unfettered migration at all, when there are plenty of news stories that would make much more sense to instigate such a response from the public. (Not that would justify it, but that would explain it better)

This is a time where immigration is a very hot topic, and there appears to be quite a consensus that it is going too far when at the same time citizens are unable to have basic needs met, and find services available to them being reduced, GP wait times increasing, council waiting lists growing, needing to access food banks, so tensions are high. Now we're seeing an extremely violent "protest", or riots, all around the country, which I feel will be turned into "you don't agree with 1 in 30 people in the UK having arrived since 2021? So you're a racist on the side of the vile nazi rioters, then?" Type situation.

I was also baffled at the amount of men who look steroided up to the eyeballs, covered in nazi tattoos, yet they're on the streets and not in prison (I'd assume most of these particular individuals are stomping on brown people often, or commiting other violent and disgusting racist acts or the like), free to jump out and burn down hotels. This is a side note, but I was genuinely confused at how many have these vile tattoos head to toe are free men, instead of in prison for trying to "cleanse" the country of X Y Z. Of course that means nothing related to my main point, but it's something I noticed.

Not to say most of these rioters aren't real people from the dregs of society who blame immigration for their troubles, but I think something fishy is going on here. I'm calling false flag. There, I fucking said it. I think it originated with some paid actors to flare up some of the more serious actions, and the locals have jumped on the bandwagon. It just doesn't sit right with me. Not to say this wasn't brewing, but the severity of which I'm seeing gangs of people attacking random people in the street, I find almost unrecognisable.

Like I said Im ready to be slated for this but I do genuinely think something is amiss with how this has suddenly cropped up and decended into random civilians being beaten and attacked in the street - especially black people (all people, attacking anybody is disgusting but-), since when has there been strong bad feelings towards black people in the most recent decades? I only make the distinction because there is clearly anti islam rhetoric at the moment, but I don't see the same feelings or attitudes pointed towards black people, yet I've seen more videos than I can count on both hands of single people being attacked by mobs frothing at the mouth. Where the fuck have they found these men? That again, was just a side note. Anyway. As you were.

SunQueen24 · 07/08/2024 12:01

@Wordsofprey it’s a theory… who’s paying the actors?

OP posts:
taxguru · 07/08/2024 12:02

It's cheap and easy to be a company director of your own limited company, hence why there are so many cleaners, dog walkers, handymen, gardeners, etc as well as joiners, plumbers, electricians, etc who set up their self employment via a limited company.

Year ago, it used to be harder and more expensive, but now it's been made cheap and easy (some would argue too cheap and easy). Just nip online, fill in a few question boxes, pay a nominal fee by credit card, and hey-presto, you can call yourself a company director.

Calling yourself a company director may be correct in law, if you run your own limited company, but most are still "one man bands" and don't employ anyone else, and are basically just the same as sole traders, just under a different legal structure.

Bodeganights · 07/08/2024 12:02

sandgrown · 07/08/2024 11:24

In my line of work it would be instant dismissal for gross misconduct. Totally agree benefits should be stopped for those who should be actively seeking work . I am not a benefit basher but many of the people rioting have the brain capacity of an amoeba and would struggle to get a job .

If true and I've no opinion either way, then benefits is all they live on, forever.

Taking away their only source of money will backfire massively. They will start stealing from anywhere and anyone.

MargolyesofBeelzebub · 07/08/2024 12:02

People said the same things about climate protestors "Oh they must all have bohemian lifestyles funded by mum and dad" when a lot were retired, students or in the case of a lot of my colleagues, working in the environmental field and had taken last minute annual leave approved by our employer.

I don't condone the behaviour AT ALL, but saying they must all be jobless is a rubbish argument.

Expatfamily · 07/08/2024 12:03

SunQueen24 · 07/08/2024 10:44

Just strikes me that they’re all available during the working week and yet they somehow think they’re the backbone of society.

If I had to chose who I wanted to eradicate from society it would be exactly these cretins. Fit and healthy enough to riot, fight and terrorise police officers who all have families to get back to but not fit enough to be occupied with any economic activity during the day.

Before maternity leave I used to work as a youth worker. Get to know these people. The majority of them have been abused, should have been diagnosed with a learning disability, missed childhoods, they never stood a chance. There’s a difference between working class and underclass.

Mock them for not having any GCSEs, or teeth, or having to live on £70 a week benefits, for not understanding how voting works, that it’s not their foreign colleagues fault for competing for the same zero hour shift (imagine turning up to work at 5am and being told that there’s no work today) but actually the shareholders/government policy for allowing zero hour ‘contracts’, laugh at the guy who blames foreigners for stealing his job when he’s got a criminal record (obviously got learning disability too but who cares), how do you expect them to be able to form a debate or understand how our government works as it’s not taught in schools? All they know is that they regularly don’t have hot water and have never stayed in a hotel but ‘those’ men are put up in ‘fancy’ holiday expresses.

Once upon a time we used to throw the British underclass into work houses and it was seen as charity work. The underclass was seen subhuman, children separated from mothers to be trained to go into service, men and women worked to the bone 6 days a week for literal gruel.

I wonder how many people on here have turned up to work and there’s no shift/sent home penniless? Been on the housing list for years? Not ever stayed in a hotel? Not got a working shower? Zero opportunity for social mobility? Live on £30 a week? Not supported at school? Never told to brush their teeth as a child? The only book they were forced to read at school was Shakespeare and wondering why they don’t value the only resource they’ve got?

You’re expecting a members of our society living on crumbs to share those crumbs nicely. And when they say ‘why are we having to share our crumbs?’ Or ‘I’m not racist as I’ve got friends that are foreign but my housing block is half foreign and my sister has been waiting for eight years.. and number 7 only arrived here five years ago’.

But nobody has ever listened to them. The only way they know to get attention is bad attention. Keir telling them that they’re all going to get thrown in prison for ten years if they don’t go back to their grotty little lives whilst the rest of society continues to laugh at them. It’s not the way to de-escalate the situation. It’s like telling the naughty kid that he’s going to be thrown out of school unless he start behaving, but he doesn’t care as he can’t read the worksheets, feels everyone hates him and told it’s a waste of time. At least he’s got some attention being told he’s about be thrown out. They need someone to put their hand on their shoulder and feel listened to. At the moment they’ve only got Tommy and Nigel.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 07/08/2024 12:04

Morph22010 · 07/08/2024 11:55

No self employed and operating as a limited company are two completely different things.

A lot in the building trade do have a limited company- they’d be mad not to tbh

Choochoo21 · 07/08/2024 12:04

I actually feel really sorry for them.

They desperately want to work but find it impossible to get a job when they’ve got criminal records, face tattoos which look like they’ve been drawn on by a 3yo, can’t spell the work GCSE, refuse to get up before 10am, hold racist views, need 3 pints of cider and a line of coke before getting out of bed and have poor hygiene.

All whilst some brown skinned man clicks his fingers and lands a job purely based on the colour of his skin and the fact that he’s worked hard in school, went on to FE and HE and spent years training hard, doesn’t have a criminal record, chose to wake up early and go to work/uni, chose not to take drugs or alcohol, isn’t a racist and doesn’t smell of piss or stale fags.

I guess life just isn’t fair for some people and their lives would absolutely be better if all of these immigrants (brown and black people) were shipped off to other countries.

Then ASBO Dave who’s never worked a day in his life because he feels that the world owes him a favour, may finally get his chance of becoming a neurosurgeon.

AntoinetteCurtain · 07/08/2024 12:05

samarrange · 07/08/2024 11:47

In some woke politically correct linguistically-sensitive contexts, "cretin", along with "moron", "imbecile", and "idiot", is considered to be a ableist slur. All of these words were originally used as technical terms to classify various levels of mental disability, and then adopted as terms of abuse. Cretinism was a name for disabilities caused by hyperthyroidism. ("Idiot" in its original Greek meaning just described a person who didn't take part in political life and was not a slur at all.)

I don't worry about it too much and I'm happy to call Donald Trump a moron, but you might get pushback in some situations. 🙏

Edited

@Samarrange most interesting etymology, thank you!

BobbyBiscuits · 07/08/2024 12:05

If anyone working for me was involved they'd be sacked in a heartbeat.
Absolutely disgusting what's going on. Innocent people's shops and property mindlessly destroyed. People attacked and injured.
I honestly need to see what Starmer is going to do about it?!

Paganpentacle · 07/08/2024 12:05

TryThinkingForYourself · 07/08/2024 11:12

So do we despise the unemployed now? I can’t keep up …

No. We despise racist rioters.

TryThinkingForYourself · 07/08/2024 12:05

The part where I said they believe themselves to be the “back bone” of society. Ie speak for us all and superior to “immigrants” yet “ are not fit enough to be occupied with any economic activity during the day.”

@SunQueen24 I’m not trying to target you. My last question was to try to understand you. You’ve made yourself perfectly clear so I’ll leave you to your derision of unfit people who are not economically active.

Thepeopleversuswork · 07/08/2024 12:06

@5128gap

It's a huge mistake to imagine this is just some workshy mob of miscreants, as some of them will truly be walking amongst us in our day to day

It’s a really important point and I completely agree.

I suppose what sticks in the craw for some of us is that this belies the whole narrative perpetuated by some of the more intelligent elements among these thugs that this is justified because “immigrants have taken all the jobs” and they are “marginalised” and all this self pitying bollocks.

If in fact these people have regular enough wages to not only keep rooves over their heads but to keep them in beer and cocaine and train tickets to tour the country smashing stuff up it makes this narrative about the “betrayal of the white working class” even more contemptible. If anyone is betraying these people it’s themselves. Nor metropolitan elites or asylum seekers or whichever other convenient target they can leech onto.

We can’t have it both ways. If these people earn enough to sustain their dubious leisure activities they are certainly doing much better than a lot of the immigrants (legal and illegal) who they claim are benefiting from the largesse of the government and society in general.

But I agree that painting them all as benefits scroungers in unhelpful for several reasons.

SunQueen24 · 07/08/2024 12:07

@Choochoo21 thank you for the laugh.

OP posts:
DadJoke · 07/08/2024 12:09

The problem is that some people don't integrate into society, don't understand British values, and have no idea of the history of this country. They are people whose beliefs have been rejected time and time again.

They are white supremacists who don't understand the cause of their own unhappiness. And they are rioting to support their values of exclusion and racism. Some of them just want a fight.

A lack of housing isn't caused by asylum seekers. Inadequate infrastructure isn't caused by immigrants. The country would crumble without immigrant labour. And they literally don't care how many generations someone has been here - they are just looking at skin colour. These are the genuises who attacked a paedeatrician thinking they were a paedophilie.

They are egged on by far-right grifters such as Farage, in a climate created by constant anti-immigrant scare stories from the right-wing press.

Unforgettablefire · 07/08/2024 12:09

Nicely done using the riots to snipe at benefit claimants.
You don't have to be unemployed to riot.

Kebarbra · 07/08/2024 12:11

SunQueen24 · 07/08/2024 10:50

Would your employer be happy with you taking part? It would be an instant dismissal for me.

As it probably will be for a lot of these too? People have been sacked for making comments online about the riots let alone taking part.

GnomeDePlume · 07/08/2024 12:12

@Choochoo21 I almost hit the 'report' button but finished reading your post!

DramaLlamaBangBang · 07/08/2024 12:12

I wonder how many of these ' self employed tradespeople' take money from black and brown people who want their houses fixed up? If any of them worked near me, I would be looking elsewhere if I needed my roof fixed or removals services. How many offer jobs and apprenticeships to young people? Maybe they should spend their time and money doing that instead of snorting Coke and smashing places up!

EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · 07/08/2024 12:13

Hopefully social services will be visiting the households of the school children involved.

Wordsofprey · 07/08/2024 12:15

SunQueen24 · 07/08/2024 12:01

@Wordsofprey it’s a theory… who’s paying the actors?

Hmm. I'm not entirely sure, it depends how deep you're willing to go. If surface level I'd say perhaps MI5 with the goal to dampen the snowballing anti immigration rhetoric that has made waves through all levels of class in the country, as it does seem to be getting unmanageable at this point.

If deeper, then I'm looking at high level foreign agencies tasked with creating similar meaningful push backs on the same rhetorics but on a global level - think great replacement theory but not quite - stemming from Agenda 2030 goal to create an economic "level playing field worldwide" by lowering the economic and cultural prosperity of western nations and increasing the economic and cultural prosperity of 3rd world and developing nations. I mean that really is me with my tin foil hat on, but having read through thousands of pages of these "global initiatives" (for fun, with my cup of tea, whilst twiddling my hair with too much time on my hands) there does appear to be an inclination towards lowering the wests standard of living, rather than bringing 3rd world and developing countries up to the prosperity of the west, so we meet in the middle. I don't think the level of success, happiness, riches, etc that the west has been privvy to for the past 100 years or so is considered sustainable to worldwide organisations tasked with implementing policies and strategies to level out the playing field, so to speak.