A few days ago, I was at my parents, when there was a belated report on the British riots on TV (belated, because the program in question was on summer hiatus during the riots and now had to reassert its relevance). In the middle of the report, there was the following line: “The British prime minister David Cameron also proposes to have convicted rioters do clean-up work, dressed in special orange clothing…”
My Mom and I looked at each other. “Hey, David Cameron has been watching Misfits.”
“Yeah, only too bad he didn’t get it.”
Also on the subject of the British riots, here is an interview about rioting and youth alienation in Britain and Germany with Andrej Holm, sociologist at the university of Berlin. Andrej Holm researches the process of gentrification, which also played a role in the London riots (there was more rioting and looting in areas where rich and poor rub against each other such as Hackney and Woolwich than in areas which are entirely poor).
sending...
Orange jackets have been tried already, under Labour.
Thanks. I didn’t know that.
Ah see someone has got there before me! My mum worked in training for offenders until recently (special exception has to be gained so people on community pay back schemes don’t have to wear the jackets in places of education) and she went balistic that no one in government seemed aware that such a scheme already existed.
It’s rather disturbing that the British government isn’t aware of its own policies. But then, on the other hand, bureaucracies are often organized in such a way that the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. Still, one would expect that someone would have looked up existing schemes for dealing with offenders before presenting new policies.