Bit of a wild comment then bull boy. boxer, im a student.

Neither am I with their continued use of the term UK riots. It isn't. It is English riots.

In Toxteth, Brixton and Bradford they could blame the immigrants. Would be nice to see the English media point the finger at their own for once in the absense of someone to blame.

Scotland has no rioting, neither has Wales.

That said, we could do with some looting. I quite fancy a new bike and a television set.

It seems it's not really kicked off at all in Leeds either. Seems to be London, Birmingham and Liverpool mostly.

Not that wild. I was just wondering what contribution/sacrifice you had made for your country that made you feel that you were in a position to be critical of our armed forces. We may not all agree on the politics but I still believe the guys out there deserve a little more respect than you seem willing to give.

I'm struggling to understand why anyone would 'want' to have to deal with those yobs down in London and the attacks the Police are under. If you're that keen, perhaps you have found your perfect job?

Seen as though you asked bully, i was in the royal engineers.

Those with Sky - check out channel 847 - Very interesting - live footage from Birmingham

And therefore, you have had a load of fun seeing the likes of me have a real go at you when in fact I should have been according you respect. You've done it again, you bloody wassock!

its no probs adey. its all part of the fun.

To all the people who voted for this government, I hope your are very proud of yourselves. Wake up and smell the coffee. Pay cuts, price rises, pay freezes, job losses, cuts in the police services, cuts in the armed forces, biggest youth unemployment........this has been brewing for years, HISTORY REPEATING!!!!!!!!

I credited you with a bit more intelligence than that! Poor form old boy!

regardless of who is in power, people should still know the difference between right and wrong. These are not protests against anybody, just a set of mindless idiots jumping on the bandwagon, trying to get some free gear.

the worrying thing to me is that the idiots get bored with looting and take it a step further.......

Police/government need to gain respect/authority - softly, softly approach is not helping!

It's been a bad week

Agree and I really do feel for the people who have invested everything into businesses that are now ruined by these mindless thugs.

It all comes down to for mine in that people are now longer scared of the police and the consequences of their actions landing them in prison.

Agree mick - one thing that gets me is what do the parents of the teenagers think when their sons/daughters are out until the early hours in the affected areas.

Discipline starts at home!

It's only going to see childrens behaviour deteriorate further if you ask me, because as we all know the children of today are the parents of tomorrow which is rather worrying in my eyes.

Gledhill, you are a fekking idiot if you think the looting and all the other things you list there can be blamed just on this government! You yourself say it has been "brewing for years" - a statement with which I agree. Pretty well everything we are suffering from now is the consequence of actions (or lack of actions) over previous years (and decades).

Give it several years, and THEN it will be clearer what can be blamed more properly on the present lot. I fear it will be a list no less short, but I guess we must live in hope.

Whoever came into power was doomed to 'fail' for the first year of their tenancy. The cuts we have seen would come from labour as well, be it maybe in different areas, with the same results. These riots aren't political in nature however, just an excuse for young men without jobs to get some frustration out and 'stick it to the man'. Discipline is a majopr factor as England has lost it's family mentality which these people don't have and is why they have become invalids. if anything the riots highlight two things. My generation needs serious attention as to make sure incidents like we are seeing do not happen again, and that our police force is not-prepared/scared to tackle rioting by serious measures ie water cannon etc

If I hear the word "disenfranchised" on the radio one more time, I am going to scream.

I just stopped reading right there. What an idiotic phrase that is. Wake up and smell the fekkin coffee my arrse. Do you even know what that's supposed to mean? What the bleedin ell has coffee got to do with anything? Is there a point in there trying to get out? People who say that really get on my nerves. "Wake up" - that bit i could understand. But "smell the coffee"? WHAT coffee? What if they [icould [/ismell coffee? How would that help? What if they prefer tea anyway?

The Tesco which was looted in Ponders end had nothing at all to do with the social climate we are in. It was just premeditated robbery wheeling trolleys out full to the top with all sorts.

When in Rome?

Another thing which gets on my nerves is the insurers' opportunistic whinging about how many millions it is going to cost them and how people can expect huge premius rises etc etc etc - when in fact it won't cost them anything, as they are able to, and therefore of course will, claim back every penny from the police. So how dishonest are they being with their crocodile tears and weasel words?

There is no excuse for the rioting, looting and attempted murder we have seen, and burning shops with people living in flats above them, is exactly that - attempted murder. If they were stealing bread and milk I might have considered they had some excuse, but they weren't; it was expensive consumables like TVs, computers etc. These weren't food riots by people with bloated bellies and flies hanging round there mouths, not knowing where there next meal was coming from, it was simply yobs who wanted something they couldn't afford.

Yes, I know there are no jobs for people with little or no education (where did all the manufacturing jobs go?, oh I remember, one of our beloved governments got rid of them and they went overseas) thing is though, would any of these louts actually be employable? Would you give them a job? Nor of course, have any of our governments since made any effort to attract these jobs back, preferring to allow 'the city' to get on with 'manufacturing money' with their smoke and mirrors and con tricks which led to 2007 and 'puff' there it was gone.

As for the politics, well it doesn't matter who you vote for - it's always the government who get in; one set of self serving, I'm all right Jack, lying, toe-rags after another. To be honest the current set of losers running the country might get more sympathy if they cut the nonsense about being "all in it together". It's pretty obvious that the likes of me (and maybe the rest of you) will have drowned well before the likes of Cameron and Osborne get their feet wet, so maybe being honest might be worth a shot. It would certainly make them unique.

Excellent post.

No excuses, but a myriad of complex reasons.

One is that people are disenfranchised with society and may feel they have nothing to lose, yet some of the people brought before the courts have relatively good jobs and are well into their 20s. Another one is that people feel driven towards having these material possessions that they feel compelled to have, yet some people went looting for Tesco Value Basmati Rice or Frisps from Poundland.

I think the major looting in Manchester may well have been orchestrated by some of the prominent gangs in the city, but I reckon a lot of the people there were just in it for the buzz and to get kicks out of 'playing cat and mouse' with 'the feds'. Just dicking about and having a laugh, whilst thinking your actions will have no consequences is probably why people do things like set fire to shops.