Riots 1981 and 2011: writing off the North...

Of course, some of us are old enough and awake enough to remember but here are two excellent reminders from this week's Guardian that [a] nothing much changes in the Tory and media responses to riots in the UK and [b] if they could, the Tories ideally would wash their hands of the North of England and let it rot. It is no coincidence in my view that their 2011 'cuts' disproportionately affect the North, as well as women and labour voters. These categories are disproportionately represented amongst public sector workers, and some Northern cities are very dependent upon state investment. See Geoffrey Howe's comment in the first press cutting - he was then Thatcher's Chancellor of the Exchequer and was saying that the government could not afford to regenerate Liverpool [and presumably other Northern cities if they rioted]. Perhaps this explains Bush's response to the flooding of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005..... 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/30/thatcher-government-liverpool-riots-1981?intcmp=239

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/30/national-archives-1981-riots-parallels?intcmp=122

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