Monday, July 06, 2009
Bubbling ...
We are not the only ones who think trouble brewing below. There is a mood in this nation of ours ... you can't measure it but, outside the Westminster bubble, you can feel it.
Of course, The Great Leader below also predicted it recently although he just had to put a party political spin on it. Would that he knew – not that he would ever admit it – he is part of the problem
Top North Wales policeman warns of a 'second Toxteth'
http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/Top-North-Wales-policeman-warns.5431101.jp
A TOP North Wales policeman has relived the moment he faced rioters in Toxteth 28 years ago – and claims the situation in Britain in 2009 is similar to that in 1981.
Mr Wolfendale was working for Greater Manchester Police in 1981 when he and 30 other officers volunteered to help out the Merseyside force.
Recounting his experiences on the city's Upper Parliament Street he said: "We joined hundreds of other officers in a long cordon; a seemingly impressive show of strength. And then they came; first banging on dustbin lids and then hurling stones; the mob.
"Tucked in as one of the 'second row' binders I peered through the shield at our enemy. They were young men, black and white. They carried sticks, steel bars, slabs of concrete and petrol bombs.
"I could see from their smiling anger that, tonight, they didn't care if I lived or died. I don't know how long we stood our ground but it seemed like hours. I suspect it was a much shorter period.
"They set milk floats alight, placed a brick on the accelerator and pointed the vehicles into our lines. Someone commandeered a JCB digger and swung its bucket into the row of static officers.
"Balaclava'd campaign marshals whizzed around on small motorcycles orchestrating the attack in a vision eerily reminiscent of the Belfast Troubles."
He went on: "One by one my colleagues fell and the line grew gradually thinner. My turn eventually came. A scrawny boy of about 15 rammed a scaffolding pole over the top of our shields and took my helmet off.
"I then felt a blow to the top of my head and fell to the ground. I guess from the wound it must have been a brick. I lost consciousness.
"I don't know who rescued me or how, but the cuts to the back of my legs suggest I was dragged along the glass covered road and then taken to the Royal Liverpool Infirmary.
"My only recollection for the rest of the night is rousing in the ward to see an orange glow through the window, as Liverpool burned."
Speaking about what he learned from the experience, he said: "When enough of the public become disillusioned with what the police or the government are doing we can get into big trouble.
"There are some similarities between the state of the nation in 1981 and 2009. We need to watch the signs. So when temperature and humidity begin to rise at this time of year I always remember Upper Parliament Street."
K NEWS
TORIES WARN OF RIOTS ON STREET OVER BROWN CUTS
Gordon Brown's relaunch is already unravelling, say critics
Tuesday June 30,2009
By Macer Hall, Political Editor
TORY leader David Cameron yesterday warned that Labour’s failure to be honest with the public about spending could lead to “riots on the streets”.
His alert came after Gordon 
The Prime Minister was facing intense pressure to make clear how the debt-ridden Treasury would fund his latest multi-billion pound spending spree.
Mr Cameron said: “You go in to an election pretending you are not going to have to make spending reductions, then you have to make them, and then you really do have riots on the streets because people do not have faith in their politicians.”
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson had earlier said the Government would not be publishing spending plans ahead of the General Election.
It was impossible, he said, to predict how the economy would perform over the next two years.
But Mr Cameron claimed that it was “a blatant attempt to cover up the truth”.
There was “a thread of dishonesty” running through the Government in its denial of the need for public spending cuts, he said.
A new pledge to put British-born families ahead of asylum seekers and other immigrants in the council housing queue was disintegrating under close scrutiny.
Mr Brown claimed local people would be favoured in the distribution of council houses. But housing minister John Healy admitted the current rules would not change.£1billion to be spent on creating jobs – with a warning that under-25s who are jobless for a year could lose benefits.
Also unveiled was £1.5billion to build an extra 20,000 “affordable homes” over two years, with councils encouraged to house local people first.
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