h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What's going on? It's south of the river now. I worry.

Ben

there was rioting on sat night thats whats left of a carpet place

Rumours of looting and a shooting in Birmingham.

Follow @PaulLewis, Guardian journo. He's quite good.

I'd been wondering where this thread was.

Reports of trouble kicking off in Chapeltown, Leeds over a couple of shootings. The ambulance and police stations near me are certainly like hornets nests right now.

I was just thinking if it's spread to Brum, Leeds would be next.

A fiery summer to come? The police'll have to balance putting on show of force to stamp this out and accusation of incompetency with the perennial "tensions between minority communities and police" and accusations of police overreaction, especially given the context of Thursday.
And one might expect that the EDL/BNP will want to try to get some mileage out of this by stirring things up with some marches.

First I heard of it was Hyp's journal and I thought she was talking about the US.

My Mum phoned today, and that's when I realised it must be bad. My Mum never phoned when bombs went off with depressing regularity in Moscow every summer.

So I turned on twitter and, good lord, anarchy seems to be kicking off and I'm missing it.

Blasted domesticity.

If Leeds does kick off properly, Bradford will too. Nothing unites that city like a bit of civic disorder.

Then it will be Manchester and Liverpool.

In the 80's most of the riots were organised. Dad called the Police when 4 men were discussing plans and using the Liverpool A to Z to point out a route. These were not local men, but from south of Brum.

These days they will just be using the internet.

Sorry, I should have added that Dad had a pub in Birkenhead, and the men were in his bar.

Reported that they're using Blackberry Messenger to organise looting attacks on mobile phone shops, sports shops etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14442611

While Tottenham was burning, Cameron was going back to tip some Italian waitress.

Whoever in his press office thought this needed releasing right now needs sacking. Makes him look like an out-of-touch prat.

Oh wait...

Speaking as a Brummie, I'm worried about what's happening in my city right now, and for all my family that live in various parts of it.

I also note that A1132039 does not include 'going looting' as a potential activity. Surely this was a gross oversight?


Geggs

I see an Austin Reed's has been done over.

Gonna be some well-dressed homies in da hood tomorrow.

This is very worrying. What frustrates me is that the politicians are all saying things like "This is awful" but not making any constructive points. They could at least reinforce what the police are saying and ask people to get out of it so that the police can sort the wheat from the chaff and get on with their job.

Let's hope someone can make some sense of this in the morning.

How will those people be compensated whose businesses and lives have been ruined?

I feel like that old Bill Hicks routine in reverse. He left LA the day before the riots, picked up a paper and the headlines were "LA Burns To Ground", and he was like "Did I leave the gas on?".

I'm in Las Vegas, and I left a country I thought could take care of itself and by the time I arrived at my destination it seemed to be mostly in bits. wtf, as the young people say...

Good grief. It's most of the headlines on the BBC News website right now. What kicked it off? Have any of our researchers been affected?

TRiG.

>> How will those people be compensated whose businesses and lives have been ruined?

I most surely have sympathy for them, but how are the lives of the long-unemployed, whose lives have been ruined been compensated?

Many of these youths who are involved with looting etc, will be in that position if they're not already..

To rub salt into the wounds, those who are at the bottom of society are blamed for being there, wasting taxpayers money. I'm not at all surprised that the balloon has burst! The british poor are no longer treated with respect!!

I didn't see the news or put the radio on until I was driving back from mum's tonight, what the hell is going on? I've just seen the pictures of Croydon, looks like most of west croydon has burnt to the ground. This is awful.

Is it the zombie apocalypse already?