Today we learnt that David Cameron is looking at the experience of Los Angeles’ recovery from the 1992 riots. The first lesson he should learn is the value of an inquiry, as Ed Miliband suggests. Californian policymakers held an inquiry, and it taught them plenty about the nature of modern poverty, urban unrest — and how to tackle it.
Part of the reason that poverty in Britain is so ingrained is because so few politicians look at it in any detail, and even mentioning the word ‘underclass’ solicits squeals of disapproval. We remain aloof. As I argued in the magazine last month, we like harmless sketches about British poverty (Rab C Nesbitt, Little Britain etc.) but think that The Wire represents an American malaise that could never take root in Britain. Compared to America, we have a staggering lack of data on (and, I fear, interest in) the nature of poverty and social breakdown.
Emily Maitlis summed it up nicely in a Tweet earlier: ‘Whatever you felt was a problem before, you just repeat LOUDER and reference riots.’ This is precisely what’s happening, as Thursday’s parliamentary debate showed: where the right questions were asked but no one has any answers. Who were the looters? Could it be that those charged are merely opportunists who saw a broken shop window and took their chances, but forgot to cover their faces? Was BlackBerry Messenger used to organize crime, and if so how? Was there a concerted criminal gangland attack, torching buildings to distract attention from subsequent looting? Was there a “stand and observe” instruction issued to officers, and were they trying to use G7 protest tactics against a riot?
Polling could be done to see if there’s a correlation between looting and joblessness? For example, 40 per cent of people in Toxteth, Liverpool, are on out-of-work benefits. That’s a scandal in itself; but, worse, that figure was 41 per cent during the boom. Why did the economic boom bypass these areas? Has the welfare state unwittingly barred the route to self-improvement through work? How has mass immigration affected the ability of unqualified teenagers to find jobs, and do they have to compete far harder now? Is ethnicity a factor?
Then there is family breakdown. Did the looters come from broken homes? And if they didn’t, is it possible that parents no longer care about where their children are at night? Finally, how much sympathy is there for the rioters? Was this the intifada of the underclass, or just an expression of how far a culture of casual criminality has infected those who actually work?
While I have my suspicions on all of these issues, I don’t know. We need facts, figures, data and surveys. We need to take poverty as seriously as the Americans do. It is supremely arrogant to assume that we have nothing to learn from an event that has shocked the world.
The LA report was called “To Rebuild Is Not Enough” – a very good title, which applies to Britain. The report led to the unlikely Clinton/Gingrich welfare reforms. An inquiry is a Labour idea, but if there is to be consensus on any issue in British politics, it should be over tackling poverty, joblessness and lawlessness.
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