By Matt Falloon
(Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron will face
pressure Thursday to soften his austerity plans, toughen up policing and do
more to help inner-city communities after days of riots and looting laid bare
deep social tensions in a depressed economy.
With the public seething over
the looting of anything from sweets to televisions, Cameron has so far
dismissed the rioters as nothing more than opportunistic criminals and denied
the unrest was linked to the knock-on effects of deep spending cuts.
But community leaders say
inequality, cuts to public services and high youth unemployment are also
probably to blame for some of the worst violence seen in Britain for decades.
As the clear up continues, the
Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government must find quick fixes to
avoid further unrest while also addressing longer-term problems in what Cameron
has called "broken Britain."
"There are pockets of our
society that are not just broken but frankly sick," Cameron told
reporters.
A surge in police numbers
helped to calm streets in London and cities across England such as Manchester
and Birmingham on Wednesday night, but four days of often unchecked disorder
have embarrassed the authorities, leaving communities ransacked and exhausting
emergency services.
Police arrested more than
1,000 people across England, filling cells and leaving courts working through
the night to process hundreds of cases. Among those charged were a teaching
assistant, an 11-year-old boy and a charity worker.
It is unclear whether the
peace will hold, but trouble on Wednesday night was limited to the odd
skirmish. Businessmen and residents had also come together to protect their
areas.
"Blacks, Asians, whites -
we all live in the same community - why do we have to kill one another?"
said Tariq Jahan, whose son was one of three young Muslim men run over by a car
and killed while apparently protecting property in the mayhem in Birmingham
Tuesday night.
"Step forward if you want
to lose your sons, otherwise calm down and go home, please," he said.
As police investigate that
incident and the many other crimes of the last few days, attention is now
likely to turn to finding out why the riots and looting erupted and spread and
why police were slow to tackle the violence.
PARLIAMENT RECALLED
Cameron has ordered a rare
recall of parliament on Thursday from its summer recess to debate the unrest
which flared first in north London after police shot dead an Afro-Caribbean
man.
The opposition Labor party,
eager for the government to take a less harsh approach to dealing with a record
budget deficit, said cuts to police budgets had contributed to the escalation
in violence.
"The scale of government
cuts is making it harder for the police to do their jobs and keep us
safe," said Yvette Cooper, Labor's home affairs spokeswoman.
Long-term tensions between
police and youth, a dearth of opportunities for children from disadvantaged
areas and visible inequalities where the wealthy often live just yards away
from run-down city estates have also been highlighted.
Others have sided with
Cameron, condemning the groups of youths as thrill-seeking thugs who are
indicative of a breakdown in Britain's social fabric and morals.
Tensions have been bubbling in
Britain for some time, with the economy struggling to grow after an 18-month
recession, one in five young people out of work and high inflation squeezing
incomes and hitting the poor hardest.
Finance minister George
Osborne will also address parliament Thursday amid growing concern that the
widely publicized scenes of rioting could damage confidence in the economy and
in London, one of the world's biggest financial centers.
(Reporting by Matt Falloon,
editing by Tim Pearce)
Source : Reuters
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