Causes of the riots - Ian Duncan Smith says the UK voted for the wrong people

[ChickenLickn]

Ian Duncan Smith says the UK voted for the wrong people in the xfactor, and this is the cause of the riots.

Xfactor voters should have voted for people who had done "serious hard work".

Ian complains that "Kids are meant to believe that their stepping stone to massive money is The X Factor... We do not celebrate people who have made success out of serious hard work."

Link?

the link

I've read that article. It bears no resemblance to the description in OP, which is why I asked for a link!

The article itself is a very interesting read. What he says about ghettoisation, and the imbalance between effort and reward are interesting themes, especially as he is in a a position to proper changes and have then taken seriously.

The Guardian subs and editors really need to do a better job - the X factor is barely mentioned, and then only as an example of "get rich quick celebrity culture" which in turn is but one facet of the imbalance, which is the real substance of what he is saying.

Discussion of the imbalance in society is important - attaching vaguely populist headlines to attract attention is in itself an interesting example of the pervasiveness and perniciousness of what IDS describes.

I wonder why he focuses on the Xfactor rather than other greater sources of unearned wealth, such as inherited wealth.

It is good that he is thinking about the effects of ghettoisation of areas of wealth and poverty, but he wilfully ignores the fact that his party's policies have made this worse.

He is not taking his position seriously. His party unfairly penalise those in society who have the least (people then sensibly become more matrialistic).

If he is serious that people should be rewarded for hard work, he would do better to reconsider the attacks on hard working nurses, teachers, and lone parents, who do the job of two parents single handed.

He would do better to support hard working students, rather than penalise them and force them into debt for life.

He would do better to support those who are job seeking in the toughest job market since the 80's, rather than force them to work for no reward whatsoever on dubious 'workfare' schemes, while remaining the most impoverished people in the country.

Oh get off your high horse and stop sermonising. The whole point about X-factor is that it promises overnight success and vast wealth for practically zip. Scallies weren't ripping off electrical stores because some guy they know was left a few thousand by his granddad. They see the adverts all around them for this stuff and they can't get it via legal means... so they nick it.

Yes, we'd all be better off if there were jobs for everyone to walk into and every student was rolling in cash. But, then again, some of the same people out looting this summer weren't unemployed, poor or uneducated. Most were just petty criminals, already known to the police, making the most of an opportunity.

Are you talking about jesus cogito? He sermonised, but he didnt have a high horse, just a little donkey.

Petty criminals are more likely to be poor, uneducated and unemployed. They have no better opportunity. :(

During the riots, a woman stole a large box of washing powder. Why would someone steal a box of washing powder, except for the fact they needed it but couldnt afford it?

Is this really the fault of the adverts and consumer culture, or poverty?

People in the middle of the chaos this summer stole anything they could get their hands on because they were criminals. It's patronising and insulting towards people who are poor to suggest that there is a straight line cause and effect between a low income and being a common thief....

I tend to agree with him and I never thought I would say that, ever.
We have created the sort of society where young people think they can have something for nothing, that they don't have to work or try very hard. Their role models are talentless male and female bimbos who are on tv every week on shows such as X factor, TOWIE, and the rest of the shallow, self-obsessed reality tv shows.
X factor is a very good exmple of how our priorities are all wrong.

purepurple - how can you say that when so many young people are doing unpaid internships?
They study hard at university, unpaid, and getting only debt for it.
You have a very bad attitude towards young people.

There are many young people investing in further education or an internship and they are not part of the something for nothing culture. But you'd be foolish to deny it exists. Having overheard a conversation between a group of young women (late teens) once where they were discussing how pretty a friend was and deciding she was 'pretty enough to get herself a footballer' and should give up on education, it's clear many think there are easy short-cuts.

X-factor, Big Brother, WAGs etc., aren't the only culprits however. The entire advertising industry is geared to making us feel inadequate if we don't have the latest stuff. The entire magazine industry is geared to finding 'celebrities' and making us feel inadequate if we don't look like them, spend like them or live like them. The bombardment is relentless. It takes a lot of character to reject all of these influences and 'keep it real' and sadly, as we can see from petty criminals to people in horrendous credit card debt, not everyone succeeds.

The employers who refuse to pay their staff a living wage, while at the same time taking massive profits out of the company are the ones exploiting something for nothing culture.

We must ensure that hard work pays in this country, otherwise people will turn to alternatives.

I don't think the people doing it were necessarily materially poor. the women thought if she nicked the washpowder it would save buying some and she could spend the money on something else.

Also people used to be really poor in GB in say the 30's with mothers going without food and didn't go around looting and robbing.

Why are people protesting now rather than in the past? I think the political landscape is much harsher to the poor.

so alemci, it is a political reaction to poverty.

I expect the mother calculated that if she saved money on a large box of washing powder, she would be able to afford food and heating. :(

No I really don't agree. There were not the benefits that people now get in the 30's. No welfare payments. I think people expect so much now without working to get it. Also alot of the people arrested were not necessarily poor.

I think people in the past were more respectful and fearful of authority and had some self respect and respected other people's property. It seems to have evaporated. TBH even if the rioters were poor I still think it was the wrong thing to do and they should not be excused.

"I wonder why he focuses on the Xfactor"
He does no such thing - there's a pretty broad range of 'reasons' he cites in that article, but if people only look at the Graun headline & your OP then I guess that's the impression they're going to take. Anyway, it was an interesting read - took more from it than you'd have perhaps wished though

even nick clegg himself said there would be riots if the tories won the last election...bet he's regretting saying that now :D