Basic HTML Version
IT CAN'T HAPPEN
HERE!
NOTHEREIN
BRITAIN!
~~~o1oN'T
think it
would come to
t his," were the
words of a diminutive
Liverpool lady who
stopped to chat with
me in the shadow of
a series of fire-gutted
buildings- the for–
mer premises of local
businesses.
Two nights before
Mrs. Margaret Thatch–
er had almost echoed
her thoughts on a TV
interv iew. The Prime
Minister said: "Most of
us did not think t hese
kinds of things could
happen in our coun–
t ry."
Reaction from across the
Atlantic Ocean was much
the same. One knowledge–
able
Times
reporter ex–
pressed it in these words:
"Americans, however sorne try to
conceal it, believe Britain has been,
remains and will forever be the most
civi l society on earth. So there is
September, 1981
,,
by
John Ross Schroeder
shocked reaction to the recent riots by
those who thought that ' it couldn't
happen there'
"(The Times.
July 15,
1981 ).
The Financia/ Times
termed the riots "like an
epidemic of sorne alien
disease." The widespread
extent of the rioting,
spreading like a brush fire
f irst from London to
Liverpool and then very
rapidly on to Manchester ,
Leicester and other inner
cities in England , was a
big surprise to people.
But should it have been?
We Llve In Two Different
Worlds
To the discerning eye all
the troublesome ingre–
dients that suddenly
erupted into violence havé
been present for sorne
t ime. Take Liverpool as a
:s
microcosm of this so–
i
called alien disease. Let
1
us start with the environ–
~
ment. Two different
~
worlds now exist side by
8
.!l
side in Liverpool.
1 disembarked from a
London express train at Liverpool 's
Lime Street Station in the heart of
the city. A colleague had come to
meet me. As we drove to the scene
5