Lock 'em up and cut their benefits but don't then think the job's done

I have blogged elsewhere about what I described as the 'Fuck you' society (apologies for French) that we seem to live in these days. Not condoning in any way those involved in the recent, totally unacceptable riots in London, Birmingham and elsewhere, but trying to understand in a small way, their mindset. Not a popular position to take when everyone was shouting for them to be locked up and the key thrown away - as well as cutting benefits and even evicting people from their (council) homes.

Since then many have been imprisoned and some of the sentences seem to me to be very harsh, almost certainly a case of 'pour encourager les autres' (apologies, see above!). No doubt many of these sentences will be quietly reduced in the coming weeks and months as rationality regains some influence - I hope so.

One young guy who was interviewed said that 'it's all about greed' and that 'we have been told, time and time again by this society, that greed is good.' I happen to agree with him. These people were not 'stealing Trevelyan’s corn so the young might see the morn', but nicking tellies and trainers - they are not on the bread-line by any means and that, the point of this blog, is part of the problem in some ways. Please don't condemn me as a raving right-winger for that last comment, please hear me out!

Just very briefly, my contention is that the rioters have seen rich greedy people avoiding tax; greedy MPs falsifying expenses; fat cat public sector leaders making cuts to public services while taking double-digit pay increases and premier league footballers earning more in a week than highly qualified and hard-working nurses will earn in ten years. In the face of this conspicuous greed, essentially these so-called leaders of society or role models saying 'fuck you' to everyone else, I can understand some people. Misguided perhaps, returning the compliment.

There are of course criminal elements to the rioting, gang activity etc., but my concern is really about those normally law-abiding people who got involved and are now being severely punished. Yes if they committed a crime they should be punished but I humbly suggest that catching and charging these people is not the absolute solution to what is a much wider problem. Of course we cannot have lawlessness on our streets, whether people are rioting under the flag of tuition fees or social depravation and we also cannot have the police standing watching people stealing booty - that was mad. Nor should we tolerate benefits cheats and I am glad to see Cameron taking an initiative on this. But I have a serious question to ask you:

There are young girls in a town near where I live for whom 'starting a family' is seen as a genuine career option. And just to provide some sort of counterbalance to my earlier 'breadline' comment, I am on their side. Brought up on benefits by a mother who took the same option, probably when she was under age and who was also copying her own mother, these girls can, by having a child, jump the council house waiting list and secure considerable welfare benefits, without having to do a single day's work or make any contribution in taxes, National Insurance etc.

It's not illegal, it's just playing the system - a system that has become completely skewed over several parliaments to 'help' the poorest in our society - BUT IT'S NOT HELPING. 

Of course, in the short term it helps her, she can eat, keep warm in the winter, live in a dry, actually quite nice 'decent home': Evidence suggests that she can probably afford to smoke and go out for the odd drink and have Sky. If you asked her she would probably say that she 'does OK', has a reasonably nice life. She is accountable to no one, doesn't have to get up and go out to work in the morning. Doesn't have to do anything really, except have sex at the outset in order to secure her 'career'.

Outraged of Tunbridge Wells (that's not the town by the way) would say that this is disgusting. 'How can we allow this in our modern society?' The point is, it's not her fault. She's just playing the system. And if she wants to better herself by getting a job, going out to work and become a valued member of our so-called 'society' then she can of course.  

But how many girls who left school at 14 when pregnant and therefore didn't get any qualifications and who has no CV at all, no work experience, will be able to walk into a job paying more than the at least £300 a week she needs to just match the benefits she is already getting? £300 a week is £15,600 a year net, so she'd need to walk into a £20 grand job just to stand still. And why would she. What possible incentive is there for her to do this even if she could which is virtually impossibility. No pun intended but I think the word 'virtually' is redundant in that last sentence.

The bottom line is that this situation is both real (tens of thousands of our population live like this) and clearly not their fault.  The fault lies with the system that is creating an underclass and lost lives by trying to help people.  I don't have the answer, but I do know that we, collectively, have a massive problem to solve in this country.