Violence Again in Britain as Leaders Continue Their Holidays

English Dictionary:  Holiday, def (1) a vacation; def (2), When Government Leaders Leave the Country and Abdicate Responsibility for Rioting



Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

People stood in front of a burned out shop

in Tottenham on Monday in London. 



England is  suffering through another day of violence, touched off when police shot a man in a poor neighborhood.  Although some have tried to link the rioting to British politics which has cut government spending, the truth of the situation is that the rioting is a purely criminal act, conducted and sustained by criminals and looters.

 Compounding the problem is the fact that almost all of Britain’s political leaders had left the country, and felt relatively little compulsion to interrupt their vacations (holidays in England terminology). 

We have this comment about the Mayor of London.



The aftermath of the weekend rioting
 in the Tottenham area of London



The London mayor, Boris Johnson, is apparently not considering cutting his holiday short. Kit Malthouse, the deputy mayor for policing in London, said a return would "kind of reward" criminality.

This of course explains the motive behind the rioting, it was to ruin the “holiday” of the Mayor. 

Since many other British political leaders apparently had the same attitude, it fell upon the Home Secretary to deal with the problem.

With many British leaders including the prime minister, David Cameron, overseas on vacation, the home secretary, Theresa May, cut short her holiday and flew home Monday to help deal with how to manage the mayhem, which recalled earlier spasms of violence rooted in deep social problems.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg also rewarded the rioters by returning to London from Spain in order to defend the government.

Nick Clegg defended the government against accusations top ministers were on holiday as rioters brought chaos to London and markets crashed.

And late word was that the Mayor would indeed reward the rioters by returning to the city.  He is reported to have said next time he will stand firm, and if there is major rioting he will not only stay on his vacation, but will extend it.



Mr. Cameron in Parliament - A rare occasion when
he is not in Italy



No mention in any of the news reports was made of the Prime Minister Mr. Cameron, who had already interrupted one trip earlier this summer to deal with the phone hacking crisis, and apparently was not going to interrupt another. 

There is no sign so far that the Prime Minister intends to come back to Britain early.
David Cameron is away in Italy and Chancellor George Osborne is in the US.

He is just not into a “reward the rioters” position. 



Here it is British Government Officials
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Update:  The Financial Times is reporting that Mr. Cameron and other British government officials will be returning to London to deal with the problem. 

 

 

 

British prime minister David Cameron and other senior politicians were planning to fly back from holiday on Monday as riots spread through London with potent images of the capital ablaze beamed around the world and emboldened youths attacking in broad daylight

And next time government officials, why not vacation in Britain.  There's the Lake District, the Brighton Shore, wonderful Roman ruins to see.  How about it?