There are many universal traits that occur at the end of every Empire but watching the riots these three come to mind:

•           A desire to live off the state

•           A massive disparity between rich and poor

•           Leaders and citizens who abandon duty and service in order to chase the spoils

Great empire wealth dazzles but history shows that beneath the surface the greed for money and material possessions gradually replaces duty and public service. In the post British Empire hinterland – that is where we find ourselves today.

As washed up politician after politician are wheeled out to decry the riots, clamber for the moral high ground and drench the airwaves with moral indignation many are nodding but many more of us are asking – ‘were you really surprised?’ Not for a minute should we condone any of this behaviour but face it: Britain has a crisis of political leadership. No one saw this coming and that’s precisely the point – no one saw this coming but - for years - everyone saw it coming.

Political and Intellectual Bankruptcy

Globally eyes are being opened by the English riots and many are coming to the conclusion that our political classes have created this underclass. They are correct but our English pride and ridiculous stiff upper lip will not allow us to admit it.
 

Over the last 30 years it’s the British political classes who have given birth to the rampaging generation who ripped up England’s green and pleasant land. But as if this isn’t bad enough we are again asked to endure posturing political theatre while ‘leaders’ mimic the pseudo Victorian values of their predecessors pointing to how it should be. One finger may be pointing at the rioters - but make no mistake - in many British hearts and minds three fingers are firmly pointing back at decades of political and intellectual bankruptcy.
 

What is being played out on the street is a carbon copy of the deceit, corruption and duplicity at the heart of our political, media and economic systems. Because of their risible actions and track records the media, police, government, parliament, footballers and bankers have no moral authority whatsoever over those at the those at the very bottom of the social pyramid. How on earth can you lead or be a role model when you behave without any thought about the consequences or perception of your actions?
 

Freeloaders and Joe Sixpack

We have careerist, opportunistic, egomaniac, politicians running the UK many of which don’t have enough worldly experience to run a mobile fish and chip van. Although they can’t articulate it, if the underclass challenged any politician or banker to start a value adding business in the UK today, they would fail – magnificently. The vacuum of authority in our centralised state shows the underclass that the politicians do not, in general, have any experience of the real world. The ‘freeloaders’ understand this intuitively – but who are the freeloaders?
 

Apologies for being so face-smackingly obvious but if you dangle all the consumerist baubles that capitalism offers in front of Joe Sixpack and then deny him the economic opportunity to get them then the riots are the logical outcome. In their mind the looters went about aggressive price-cutting, redistribution of wealth and trashing Britain - do you know why? Because they have seen politicians and bankers do it for themselves for years and they couldn’t wait a minute longer.
 

A disenfranchised thug says ‘I’m takin what’s mine bruv’ the MP says ‘but that’s wrong’ the thug responds ‘you’ve had your fingers in the till for years’. So let’s all ask: who exactly is going to give our sick society these lectures in morality? I mean it’s not like they vote is it? See the problem? Same mindset, same I, me, mine, mentality – just a different socio-economic bracket.
 

Newsflash Flashman

So here’s a tip: park the moral sentiments, pick a proper political fight and do what’s really needed: radically restructure the British economy. Because newsflash: Hoodies don’t what your patronising middle class chintzy hugs and robust rhetoric – they want economic opportunity.
 

The more accurate description of our ‘sick society’ is actually one is suffering from apartheid – economic apartheid. But where in the mainstream media is someone genuinely unpicking the thorny issue of the economic set up that has delivered these riots? Because these problems are lived by most every day in the UK allow me to write a brief non exhaustive list of the social challenges:
 

•           No social mobility

•           A state education system that is not fit for purpose

•           A intellectually bankrupt political class who are in it only for themselves

•           A banking system that has raped the country

•           A police force that have no moral compass or compassion for the underclass

•           Facile populist media who legitimise filth and continually deride younger generations

•           An out of reach housing market

•           Unfettered, ill thought out immigration filed into inner city slums under ‘too difficult’

•           A welfare state that’s so perverse we now feel it’s normal

•           A tax system that rewards the rich and penalises the productive

•           An economic paradigm that sees marriage as economically inefficient

•           Celebration of entrepreneurship but inability to create the conditions to unleash it

•           A parliament who have made lying, deception and fraud a function of government.
 

We could go on but do we need to?
 

Action and Accountability

Thatcher’s greatest political achievement was New Labour – they cemented her legacy and Cameron et al. are now building on it. For over a decade these individuals pursued policies which undermined the family, rewarded the feckless and insulated the dysfunctional from the consequences of their own actions. The poster boy for all this was Tony Blair, he literality got away with mass murder and wasn't held accountable. What sort of message does that send out?
 

We could name the full list of failures but it’s too easy. More positively we should be asking how do we begin to change this? Over the last ten years we have been in an economic dream we need to wake out of this consumerist stupor and focus our minds. Although most bankers, politicians and bureaucrats couldn’t run a bath let alone a company their priority now is to encourage those who have not been educated to release their entrepreneurial intuition and add some value.
 

To do that we need to re-schedule the tax system so it champions the producer and ensures the rich make a proportionate contribution to the country - if they threaten to leave - drive them to the airport. The only way to stop moral decay is to give people an economic system that allows them the autonomy to do the right thing. Please stop moving all this chaos to the psychological realm and start to understand the underlying economic drivers. It won’t happen in one sitting or during a shouty BBC debate but that’s the real issue and that’s the path to renewal.
 

Empathy not Sympathy

When so many at the top have been seen to have taken so much without consequence are you really surprised about what has happened? Anger rises when entrepreneurial skills are not nurtured or in simpler terms when you are denied making a living - especially when that is your passport out of poverty. Where real commerce is unleashed community appears – community will not be created buy some government box tick social initiative – have we not learnt from all that ridiculous failed New Labour social engineering?  
 

Understandably sympathy is in very short supply for those who trashed Britain but empathy is revolutionary. Young men need missions - young men and women need to trade.  They need to channel their creative energy into an enterprise that, whilst knocking the sap out of them on a daily basis, also begins to lift them out of poverty and simultaneously builds character. Only this will start to diffuse the intergenerational conflict, bring meaning and purpose back to a lost generation, begin emptying the jails and slowly rebuild the fabric of our communities. That is what we all need to facilitate. This is too important to be left to a morally bereft Government our pioneering mentality has to begin today.

Many have started doing their bit – what are you doing?