I live 20 minutes walk up the road from Borough Market. It’s the kind of place that we might go for a summer evening walk with our kids. Yesterday, we didn’t, and I don’t yet know if any of my friends or acquaintances did.
There are no simple answers, but here are two observations:
Education: Eleven years ago I was looking for a secondary school for my daughter in Central London. Most of the places I saw were institutions I wouldn’t send a dog to, uninspiring, brutal, hostile. I managed to get my daughter into a nurturing state school environment, but my overwhelming feeling was, and I tried to explain this to anyone who would listen, that although I might have found a nice environment for my kid the vast majority of her contemporaries will attend schools which I believe will damage their souls and spirit.
So unless my kids spend the rest of their lives in a high security gated community, we have got a problem–because those kids who went to those brutalising schools, where they are treated like dirt will grow up, and they will be adults who will be her contemporaries. And those kids will create damage.
Opportunities: The kids with whom my daughter went to school are in their early 20s and in London, with no family support and a miserable education, their chances of doing anything worthwhile, even feeding themselves is convergent on 0. There is and there has been no opportunities for young kids in London–and this is one of the richest cities in the world.
In contrast I grew up in Budapest / Frankfurt / Cologne / Salt Lake City in 70s and 80s. There was masses of things to do. From the age of 12 I attended art / sports / debating clubs my parents didn’t even know where I was–had nothing to do with organising it–in London today, that would be impossible. Playing in a football club will cost you £500 / months-- who can afford that?
So, my theory: These were young men in their 20s who grew up in the South East, with a hurt ego, feeling emasculated desperate to show the world that they were real blokes–who ought to be respected and are not to be messed with. It’s the same twisted logic that motivates the same kind of kids to be in a drug gang.
But one thing is certain, these were young men. There is a crises of masculinity and unless we help young boys to find ways to become part of the mainstream community–this problem will not go away. Have a read of this insightful analysis of the Prevent strategy and its utter failure.
EDIT to correct appalling typos… combination of auto-correct and me.
