Saddened to see the damage in North London

Like most Londoners, I am completely downcast by the events of this weekend and last night. To see Tottenham High Road burning was tragic in itself, but then to hear that the riot had spread to Wood Green High Road and Enfield Town just added to my misery.

What makes me sad is that these people (and from what I have been reading they are not all children) are wrecking their own communities. Their families will be the ones who will not be able to get into Tescos to do the weekly shop, or into Debenhams to bag a bargain dress for the weekend. They seem to have a total disregard for the long term consequences of their actions, only seeing a short term gain of a freebie, or the peverse fascination of watching a burning building.

This city is supposed to be (well we ARE) hosting the biggest festival in the world next year - how does this make London (and indeed England) look? Where is the money supposed to come from to rebuild these town centres? And whilst the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary talk about 'making people see the consequences of their actions' - where are they going to punish all these people - if they can catch them? Nothing will happen - they may have made arrests, but it will not change the mentality - that is a much bigger challenge.

I was in my hair salon on Lymington Avenue off the High Road on Saturday where we discussed the shooting of Mark Duggan and it was looking like he may not have had a weapon, and that the policeman that had been shot had inadvertently taken a bullet from one of his own colleagues. We all shook our heads in disbelief, but never for a moment did I suspect that Wood Green High Road would be looted later that night! In any case, the family have expressly said that this violence is not in their name.

All I can say is that when this is over (and I just hope we do not have another night of violence tonight), that some good comes out of it. I don't think we have even started in terms of the consequences - it is only a matter of time before someone loses their life at this rate. No doubt the Government will hold an inquiry whatever happens, but we have to get to the deep seated problems in our communities that has provided the breeding ground for this behaviour.

Some of you may have seen this video on the Guardian website 'There'll be riots' filmed in Wood Green. It does make you wonder - whilst we cannot blame this on the cuts (as everyone is affected by those and it is no excuse for a riot), government both local and central has to think hard about how we can make sure this never happens again. A tall order indeed.

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Permalink Reply by Richard McKeever on August 17, 2011 at 11:05

It was very saddening to see our local area caught up in the horrific events of the last few weeks - I personally felt very disconnected as I was camping with my kids (and around 2,500 others!) at an event in Sherwood Forest with limited access to news or details as the events unfolded - I was only back in London for a couple of days to attend a family funeral... before heading to the Dorset coast. So viewed from a distance the riots appear bizzare and unexpected - although a couple of days before leaving I had posted about the Guardian article entitled There will be Riots - nobody had anticipated the reality ...

In the immediate follow-up Bowes Ward Councillors have been very active publishing information and advice on their website - and the LB Haringey website is providing information and advice to those directly affected in Tottenham.

However once the immediate clear-up and much needed support is dealt with, the bigger questions and more difficult issues about how people can become so disengaged from their communities will need to be explored - both at a government level, nationally... but also, and probably more fruitfully, within the local communities directly affected.