In this article I try to piece together what makes up 'Broken Britain' that Prime Minister David Cameron talked about so much, and the factors that have much been the cause of the country-wide riots in the United Kingdom.

Instead of listening to politicians repeating each other in condemnation of the riots, you have to look at the factors which point towards 'why' the riots have happened. Many of these factors are what now make up the theme of 'Broken Britain'.

1. Broken Homes, Housing Estates and Crime
Some 'rioters' don't have good parents, violent or abusive parenting- or perhaps live away from parents in gang groups- or perhaps grew up around drugs,criminals with a career of stealing.This has led to Police racial profiling of black people and stop & search tactics. Housing estates are now overcrowded and a source of criminal activity. Real estate in Britain is expensive, mainly because of the lack of development of new housing. A report a few years ago in Britain said that 5 million houses needed to be built in Britain to accomodate more people- and in reality to drive down the cost of houses. More houses desperately need to be built to drive prices down to give young people more of a chance to buy a house later in life. Government could have invested in house building. In South Australia there are 'Housing Trust' houses- houses set up by Government for poorer families, to give those families who are struggling a place to live and bring up a family.

2.Unemployment, Industry Loss and High Cost of Living
Government cuts to Educational Maintenance Allowance and cutting people off Job Search Allowance does not help the people in the areas where no work is actually available. It's easy to say 'get on your bike and get a job' when in reality there aren't positions of employment available. The Jobcentres cannot create work for young people because the jobs are literally not on offer. Most positions of employment have been filled.

The cost of petrol,electric/gas and food have risen far above wages. Costs in Australia for example are far lower, and the minimum wage gives Australians 360 pounds per week, compared with 240 pounds in Britain. But YOUNG people under 18 get a 'development wage' of 40 percent less than the minimum wage. How can any young person on a minimum wage of about £3.50 per hour get anywhere in such an expensive country as Britain? The wage only goes up by a pound extra per hour if you are aged between 18 and 25...

British wages promote inequality and exploitation. Having lived in Australia I saw people being paid the same wage- not a reduced 'development wage'.  Britain exploits the young workforce.
British Government should have fought to keep industry alive in Britain. The car industry and other manufacturing sectors have disappeared from Britain, and that has destroyed the country as a whole by forcing hundreds of thousands of people onto social security benefits. The factory and industry owners simply moved the workforce overseas to make bigger profits for themselves, and by doing so cut out the British middle-class, who then slip down into the lower-class of society.

3. University Fees and Studying
How can young people from many communities afford University or College if studying fees are now tripled? In Australia students get paid a fortnightly benefit equivalent to about 350 pounds.
The British Government DESPERATELY needs to copy the Australian student benefit system to give incentive to young people. Having grown up in Adelaide I can remember the vast majority of people I knew at school going into work or college- and even those who were unemployed had a better chance of a paying bills when receiving benefits because the COST of bills and rent were far lower.
Where is the incentive for young people to study, when costs of living are too high and wages are too low for a young person to really get a grip in life?

4.Marketting of Violence and of Luxury Goods.
Violent movies and computer games dominate the minds of young people. Over the last 2 decades violent movies and computer games have become more graphically violent. Young minds have become PROGRAMMED to accept violence as part of life, as if being violence is a heroic thing. I call it the 'Rambo Effect'- some just like the appearance and attitude of tough gangsters in gangster movies, and gangster movies and music has dominated the movie and music charts for decades. If a violent movie and 'gangster-style' musician is top of the charts, then that is the influence of the week. Young minds are bombarded with such violence- far more than past generations. The riots across Britain tell us many things- that we are witnessing the inevitable result of young people being preyed upon by the violent media industry- be it movies, music or computer games.

The amount of advertizing on televison has DICTATED to young people to want the best widescreen t.v's , the best clothes and hi-fi goods from childhood to teenage years. Advertizing is a culprit by being aimed more at young people than anything. It is like the anorexic effect that skinny female fashion models have had on young people.  Young girls want to have an ultra-slim body, to look attractive for men, and the industry is aiming that image of ultra-skinny bodies at young people in advertizing on television.  The same method of programming has been used in movies and music. If the shoe fits, wear it. The industry knows that by pumping out the same mode of popular trends, then young people will eventually buy it- and the effect is now evidently taken over young people's minds. Acting like a gangster, a hoodie and a drug dealer is the image that has already dominated and destroyed alrge parts of American society- and the British trends industry has promoted that same gangster/hoodie image to become the 'norm'. Advertizing of violence has been  targetted at young people, and it was never a British-created industry. It is the fault of the violent industry created in America and that was SOLD to other parts of the World, and which is now taking over Britain. 

5. Wars and Political Spending
Just how much cash can the taxpayer keep giving to the defense industry. Is Britain really going to be attacked by hoards of Al-Qaeda? It's very doubtful that, despite what 'intelligence' America has provided to the British Government that Britain should need to keep forking out close to 40 billion pounds per year for a defense sector that acheives very little for Britain.
Ten billion pounds each year is spent in Afghanistan and on other military ventures. That is the sort of money that is desperately needed to invest in the British youth today.  If that money had been put into a student benefit system, building housing, setting up industry and loans to small businesses, then perhaps Britain's workforce would be far stronger?
Many political ideas receive huge amounts of funding, but are then scrapped when funding is not available- leaving incentives half-built and having wasted so much taxpayers money. The House of Lords is an example where money is badly spent. Retiring 'Lords' get huge retirement payments.

6.Profiteering and Greed.
The media,music and sport industries make huge amounts of profits each year. Britain has a lot of football clubs for example which make collosal amounts of money, and a great chunk of that money could be spent on projects for young people. Other big business in the financial sector have created the 'debt bubble' which has been simply too much money loaned out in mortgages, credit cards and personal loans- and now people cannot repay their loans because jobs have disappeared.

Summary:-

You can blame the level of advertizing that has dictated to young people to WANT so many things that they don't actually need, and young people have been PROGRAMMED to want so much. The industries have robbed people of hard-earned cash in the past, and a lot of cash has disappeared into bank accounts in taxhaven areas of the World. How can Government afford to give money for new incentives when so much money is disappearing overseas? Think of hard drug dealers who get cocaine supplies from America. Tens of millions of pounds are handed to the cartels in America. The drugs are shipped to the U.K and the young people are paying the British middle-man for all types of drugs. The middle man is getting the majority of the money from the youth.
This would have to be another big reason why young people have little money, because so many have drug habits- and the mass riots are probably being mostly carried out by those who give their benefits and small wages to drug dealers.

Broken Homes, Housing Estates and Crime, Unemployment,Industry Loss and High Cost of Living, University Fees,Marketting of Violence and Luxury Goods, Government Spending and Wars, Profiteering and Greed- all these topics mentioned add up to the overall destruction of quality of life in Britain. Will jobs be created?  Probably not, because countries likfe Britain and America are already developed to an extent where there is not much else to develop- unlike China, South American and African countries which are in the process of developing and which are getting all the investment.

It is too late for politicians to suddenly try to get to grips with what young people are becoming, the influences and trends have dictated to so many that if you can't buy what you want then just become part of a gang and steal it. The frustration of young people is evident when violence is used to get the luxury goods that are advertized 100 times each day on television.

The looting and arson attacks are something of a trend in themselves. Young minds are already programmed to WANT by the level of advertizing, violent gangster movies and music- and the news broadcasts have advertized the violence to the young people in society who just accept it the riots as the new 'trend'.

You can't explain this to a majority of posh politicians and other 'high-class snobs' who were never brought up in the era of violent movies and music. Those politicians and people who have always been shielded from such trends and influenced will never get to grips with what is escalating, will never accept responsibility for letting Britain slip into many areas of negative influence- and their narrative is just to call it all 'criminal opportunism and thuggery.'
Only those who are in touch with the influences upon young people can see the changes in society over many decades, specifically the last 2 decades of intense violent movie/music trends and the fashion market which have preyed on young people as a source of quick and easy profiteering.

Some of the rioting boils down to the anger of black British young people who have been pushed around and bullied by British Police, but the overall factors mentioned in this article surely explain just how society has changed, and race and colour is not the sole blame in broken Britain. There have been hundreds of people who have died in Police custody. Perhaps the Police methods are also something to blame?

There is no doubt that young minds are easy to shape. We are all taught different ways of life, depending on our families position in work or in society- and surely the level of violence that we see on Britain's streets and in America boils down to the fact that young minds have been influenced GREATLY by violent movies and the gangster image. It's a trend that has sold well, and perhaps the entertainment industry has sold the wrong image over and over to millions of young people over the past 20-30 years? 

The riots and looting kicked off on Saturday 6th August 2011, when one black man was shot dead by Police. The day after, a young man was stopped and searched by Police and was about to be arrested, and a group of young people rushed to the suspect's rescue, kicking off another riot. From that point on the riots spread like wildfire, and young people used the BlackBerry private encrypted messaging service to arrange more riots and looting. The rioting and lotting of shops has become the new 'trend', because police are actually feeble and weak in Britain, and didn't have the ability or authority to physically stop and arrest people on the first day.  Now it will be too late. The riots started in Tottenham, and spread to many parts of London- and then onto Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester and other parts of Britain. It is doubtful that the Police have enough manpower to tackle the situation, and I can only see this carrying on in the future- and getting worse. It might even catch on to other countries. Or perhaps Britain caught the bug from the Middle East revolution?

Perhaps it is already too late to regain control of young people's minds, because the entertainment industry has a firm grip on dictating trends and fashion. Blame it on America, blame it on the economic depression, blame it on entertainment- violent Hollywood movies and black rap music, blame it on the wars and massive spending on wars which leave much less to be spent on society.

But when you listen to politicians, they won't accept any of the blame is the wrongdoing of any Government policy decision making...

by Russell S.Wyllie