2011 England riots

The 2011 England riots were a spate of violence, arson and looting that spread across several areas of Britain in August 2011. Much discussion has taken place about the social implications of the incidents.

David Starkey and the race issue
Following the riots, the BBC programme Newsnight held a panel discussion on the matter. The conversation was dominated by historian :

Starkey's comments were widely condemned - Labour leader Ed Miliband, for example, argued that it was "absolutely outrageous that someone in the 21st Century could be making that sort of comment". In all fairness, Starkey's main point - that there is a criminal subculture associated primarily with black youth - is not far outside the political mainstream; Miliband's old boss Tony Blair made similar comments in 2007, arguing that such violence would not be prevented "by pretending it is not young black kids doing it". Where Starkey went wrong, then, was not with his basic message but with his choice of words - namely, the implication that turning to crime involves "becoming black", and that the most successful blacks are those who can be mistaken for whites.

Starkey later defended himself in an article for the Telegraph, pointing to ethnic commentators who agreed with the thrust of his message. The piece concludes by calling to a strong but inclusive English national identity: "an English nationalism we must have. And it must be one that includes all our people: white and black and mixed race alike", writes Starkey. "The riots are the symptom of a profound rupture in our body politic and sense of national identity. If the rupture is not healed and a sense of common purpose recovered, they will recur – bigger, nastier and more frequently. Can we stop bickering and address this task of recovery and reconstruction – all together?"

Conspiracy theories
As with any event of this scale, conspiracy theorists were busy cooking up explanations. "The illuminati are behind the riots", wrote Godlike Productions poster "2012 is COMING!!!"; "the powers behind the government are looking at the longer term aspect and want to enslave us all by preventing us from future free speach and demostration rally's against there proposed ideas and schemes. they will use there untouchable status as the means and stepping stone to initiate there one world government."

"Why are these people running amok like this?", asked the Truther Girls blog. "[T]hose participating have not made any clear statements concerning their reasons for acting like hooligans. Officially, what sparked this was the death of a young black man by the name of Marc Duggan... it is odd that not only are the rioters not holding up placards drawing attention to the case of Marc Duggan, nor are they chanting any slogans related to police brutality, but only small numbers of Londoners even payed tribute to Mr Duggan after his death". It goes on:

The article concludes that the riots were most likely "designed and instigated by the globalist elites in order to herald the advent of martial law in Britain and soon the rest of the Western world".

Religious tomfoolery
Woden's Folk took the riots as evidence that Ragnarok would occur in 2012.

Left-wing lunacy
The riots were celebrated by some of the sillier segments of the British left, including the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) and UK Indymedia - the latter even providing a list of buildings that should be attacked.