UK must rescue those who think they have nothing to lose or face further civil unrest, says Rowan Williams
The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that England risks a repeat of the riots that spread across England this summer unless the government and civil society do more to “rescue those who think they have nothing to lose”.
Warning of “more outbreaks of futile anarchy”, Rowan Williams, called for a renewed effort to reach out to alienated young people during what he described as the “unavoidable austerity ahead”.
In an article for the Guardian, Williams links the disorder spread cross England to the “massive economic hopelessness” and the prospect of record levels of youth unemployment.
Responding to the findings of the Guardian and London School of Economics research study, based on interviews with 270 rioters, Williams argues: “It isn’t surprising if we see volatile, chaotic and rootless young people letting off their frustration in the kind of destructive frenzy we witnessed in August.”
An overwhelming majority of people interviewed about their involvement in this summer’s riots believe they will be repeated and one in three said they would take part in any future disorder.
Of those rioters questioned for the Reading the Riots study, 81% said they believed the disturbances that spread across England in August would happen again. Two-thirds predicted there would be more riots before the end of 2014.
The research project, which is the only study to involve interviews with hundreds of people who rioted across England, found they were predominantly from the country’s most deprived areas.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/05/riots-return-young-archbishop-canterbury