Pretty obvious why this is relevant tonight.
It comes from 1981.
A year or so after the Tories came to power.
The lyrics:
This town, is coming like a ghost town
All the clubs have been closed down
This place, is coming like a ghost town
Bands won't play no more
too much fighting on the dance floorDo you remember the good old days
Before the ghost town?
We danced and sang,
And the music played inna de boomtownThis town, is coming like a ghost town
Why must the youth fight against themselves?
Government leaving the youth on the shelf
This place, is coming like a ghost town
No job to be found in this country
Can't go on no more
The people getting angry
Thanks to James for suggestion
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
That brought back memories… they were in my brother’s car!
Fab! I have this on my protest songs compilation in the car. It’s inbetween UB40’s ‘One in Ten’ and The Beat’s ‘Stand down Margaret’.
It’s an age thing
Richard, I appreciate that you won’t let this comment through moderation, but you ought to look at this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sXcI-NL3Tro in which a looter is asked why they’re doing it, and the reply is, “we’re getting our taxes back”.
Looks like the “tax injustice” narrative has had an unexpected consequence.
Given we promote paying tax just what is your point?
That the tax avoidance industry is to blame?
I accept entirely that feral capitalism is the underlying cause of the stress that has resulted in rioting – but I think you may be over extrapolating
I think it was a very interesting answer from a looter, not the kind one would expect, and wondered where they could have got such a thing from. They don’t look like they’re in a high tax bracket. It’s entirely reasonable to wonder whether they have picked up a narrative of tax injustice. Everyone but a psychopath needs a self-justification for a criminal act. This girl’s justification appears to be one of tax injustice.
We have seen tax campaigners invading (“peacefully”) shops en masse. Of course, they are all nice organised protestors, so they didn’t steal anything but the owners’ space and time. It’s not a huge leap from that to invading and stealing the contents, especially if you’ve seen authority figures on the telly saying very loudly that the shops are stealing from everybody else via the tax system.
The kind of person who loots probably doesn’t have a deep grasp of economics. The result is a simple justification that “I can steal because they deserve it”. I am of course merely speculating. But hearing a young looter talking about taxes should make us curious as to where such an idea came from.
I now see your insinuation and it is utterly absurd
For anyone to suggest a peaceful protest in 2010 started rioting – a previously, of course, unknown phenomena, is so crass it is ludicrous
But if you do want explanation of what was being said read this http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/08/tottenham-riots-not-unexpected
Ed: This reply was deleted as I considered it racist