Politics and Looting and whatnot

Part of me is loathe to start talking about politics on here because I don't want to be writing a political blog.  There are plenty of those already written by people far more eloquent than I.  However I do have a political interest, it is part of me, I am opinionated and I do despair at where we are going.

The first thing that makes me despair is the idea that the riots in London and Birmingham are somehow a shock or a surprise.  They are disgusting and disgraceful but surprising?  Hardly.  It's been apparent for a very long time that a section of the community has been allowed to move away from society in general to the extent where, now, they don't seem to think that they have any stake in society at all.  If you have no stake in something, if you cannot see a situation where you would ever have a stake in something, then what does it matter if you set fire to it?  People have a surprising and depressing ability to only feel empathy for those in their own social group, to the extent that they won't feel empathy for those who are 'outside'.

The thing that really makes me despair, though, is the sheer blatant hypocrisy coming out of the political arena.  There's talk of "playing by society's rules" yet the Government- and not just the current coalition but the previous Labour and Conservative administrations- consistently and regularly fail to play by society's rules either.  The real anger seems to be about the looters helping themselves to things that don't belong to them and about making people homeless due to damage.

However I'm struggling to see what the difference is between smashing Currys' window in and pinching an iPad and submitting an inflated expenses claim to the House of Commons for the purchase of an "essential" iPad.  I'm struggling to see what the difference is between making someone homeless due to fire damage and making someone homeless by removing all mortgage or rent support and cutting back on unemployment and incapacity support.  It's the same end result: all your stuff is lost and you have to up sticks at short notice.  Especially when we consider that the welfare benefit budget cuts for the next three years total about £6billion.  Which is the same amount of money Dave Hartnett told Vodafone they needn't worry about paying in tax to the Government.

When it comes down to it Vodafone's actions are really not very different to those of the looters in London.  It's about getting something for nothing, failing to pay your share, taking the short cut at the expense of millions of other people.  And it doesn't matter whether you lob a brick through JD Sports' window or wine and dine HMRC into "settling amicably", the end result is the same.  The most vulnerable people in society will lose their homes and lose their support so that Vodafone directors can get a bigger bonus this year.   There's no moral or ethical difference between taking a bonus that doesn't belong to you and taking an iPad that doesn't belong to you.

It surprises me how businesses are allowed to get away with this corporate thievery with barely a whisper yet we propose calling in the Army because someone nicked a plasma TV.  Why aren't we calling for Dave Hartnett to be pelted with rubber bullets?  Where are the calls for Fred Goodwin, or Adam Applegarth, or any of the other rich and powerful CEOs, to be locked up without chance of parole?  That's where the real destruction is.

The Government can't argue that we should abide by the social contract when they, and their cronies, make precious little effort to abide by the social contract themselves.