Erstellt am: 8. 8. 2011 - 15:10 Uhr

London burns... again

Reality Check: The London riots and the US downgrade

Riots in Tottenham echo events of 25 years ago

About 20 years ago, I lived in North London. I loved the area for its vibrancy and famous names. You could be out shopping and a famous guitarist would walk past to buy his cigarettes. Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics had his recording studio around the corner; my flatmates would come home with stories of sightings of Bob Dylan or Jamiroquai. Parts of the area were quite posh with lots of grandiose looking Victorian houses, other places were quite downbeat, and if I turned right at the end of my road I would end up in Tottenham.

Tottenham was and is famous for two things. One is the football club and its elite soccer team with a passionate following; the other not so positive fame comes from riots back in the 80s. Then, like now the riots were triggered by a death in which the police were present, and blame was laid on police authorities. In October 1985, it was a lady who died of a stroke during a police search of her home. In August 2011, the police were involved in a shootout with an individual on the street.

So what caused these riots to flare again so quickly? The irony is that crime has gone down in this area of North London and police and community leaders have been praised for their efforts in working together since the bad old days. But there is still a widespread mistrust of the police, who are generally seen as racist by many young black men and women. They say the police are too willing to stop and search anyone who they feel may be out to cause trouble, and members of the black community feel they are being unfairly targeted. There is a lack of job opportunities in this part of London as the British government’s austerity drive starts to bite and facilities for the communities are being closed down. A feeling of hopelessness kicks in and becomes endemic.

The riots of the 1980s have become folklore to the kids living in these communities today. Though they are too young to have experienced what went on then, the legends of fighting back have become engrained upon this new generation and teenagers seem to want to emulate the kicking their fathers gave authorities 25 years ago.

Political and social analyst Ivor Gaber gave me his thoughts on the roots of this weekend's riots:

US credit ratings downgrade

It took lengthy political wrangling, but last week the US government finally came to an agreement to raise the country's debt ceiling and avoid defaulting. The experts were clearly saying that this was simply a short term fix, and not a solution to the country's debt problems - so why should it have come as a surprise when the country's top AAA credit rating was downgraded to AA+ by the rating agency, Standard and Poor. However, the downgrade has been greeted with anger and indignation in the White House and the US Treasury, who are questioning the credibility and integrity of the agency.

So with come countries in Europe being labeled "junk" why is the downgrade in the US causing such outrage, when they clearly do have debt problems. Elizabeth Alcock asked the Chief Economist and Group Head of Global Research at Standard Chartered, Gerard Lyons, about the downgrade and its implications.