[QUOTE 1499036"]
What's happened here then? Because as far as I can tell you can have a load of people with no respect what so ever for other peoples property looting and setting fire to things. I very much doubt that the wider economic issue entered their mindset when carrying out the above.
[/quote]
And I didn't say that it did. There is a big difference between saying that 1. the riots are motivated by economics or politics and that 2. there is an economic and political context to the riots.
Dell and Smeggers have already expressed some of what I would say is going on. You've got a profoundly unequal country pervaded by consumer culture, so everyone is brought up to think that they should be able to have anything they want, but in practice some so and some don't. Then there are all kinds of minor hatreds and divisions that only get expressed when certain triggers produce the 'right' circumstances for frustrations, fear and anger produced by the feeling of being seen as human waste. (As an aside, if you don't think people do feel like this, you only have to look at the language in this thread - scum etc. and calls for people to be killed - this language isn't just produced by these riots, it's how many people think about their fellow human beings much of the time. And that's part of the problem too).
The particular actions don't make a lot of sense and we shouldn't expect that they do. Many of the specific outcomes are just mindless criminality - and there will be plenty of people who will and should be prosecuted. But, if you think that's all there is to this, and if you think that therefore the only way to deal with this is to treat the entire situation as one of 'crime', then you are being woefully naive, and what's more, you will never understand how societies work or be able to do anything about the situation that gave rise to this.
To continue the film theme that seems to have taken over the Cafe recently, it's worth watching two films to get a sense of this: Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, which gets this 'it makes no sense' riot spot on, and La Haine (Hate), a rather brilliant French film.
And to understand the context, I recommend the remarkably clear-sighted and sane book, The Spirit Level.