As rioting spreads across England, journalist Laurie Penny argues that structural inequalities have been ignored for so long that Britain's disenfranchised youth feel they have no stake in society.
Penny, watching the rioting unfold from her London apartment, points out that this is not "mindless" violence; that the rioters have been living with poverty and humiliation a long time:
"Most of the people who will be writing, speaking and pontificating about the disorder this weekend have absolutely no idea what it is like to grow up in a community where there are no jobs, no space to live or move, and the police are on the streets stopping-and-searching you as you come home from school."
"Noone expected this. The people running Britain had absolutely no clue how desperate things had become. They thought that after thirty years of soaring inequality, in the middle of a recession, they could take away the last little things that gave people hope, the benefits, the jobs, the possibility of higher education, the support structures, and nothing would happen. They were wrong. And now my city is burning."
FULL STORY: Panic on the Streets of London
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