Thursday 18 August 2011

Martin Rowson on the UK riots sentencing: cartoon



Martin Rowson does it beautifully.

And John Harris sums up the hypocrisy of MPs lining up to condemn looters for stealing items such as water worth £3.50 and accepting a pair of shorts someone else had nicked (six months and five months in prison). Who could not feel distinctly ill as Labour MP Hazel Bears — who felt compelled to return £13,332 to the public purse for capital gains tax she shouldn't have had — called for harsh sentencing for looters?

Or how about this paragon of virtue?
The then shadow education secretary, Michael Gove, lately heard bemoaning an "absence of discipline in the home and in the school", agreed to pay back £7,000, spent on furniture and fittings for his house in north Kensington. They included a £331 Chinon armchair, a Manchu cabinet for £493 and a pair of "elephant lamps" worth £134.50. Also: a £750 Loire table, a Camargue chair worth £432 and a birdcage coffee table that cost £238.50.

Mmm, good taste, Michael.

Even the Prime Minster David Cameron had to return £680 for home repairs he should have paid himself. Sense of entitlement? Culture of greed? How can we possibly compete with our political class?

The real damage to this country is the erosion of our democracy, its values, and its replacement by Thatcherville.


1 comment:

Chai Latte said...

YES YES YES YES to infinity. Thank you so much for writing this.

For the record, I totally agree--of course, I'm speaking as an American who's never been to London, still less knew anything about domestic policies until recently. I was hoping things were better there than they are here in the U.S., but it looks as though it's not.

Reading about all the events leading up to the riots, I can't imagine how anyone could even feign surprise that this happened.

The only surprise for me was that it happened in England, not America.

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