On Exclusion, Manipulation, and Repression: The 2011 English Riots

Abstract

The thrust of this paper is to argue that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in power when the 2011 English riots flared up may have manipulated British citizens, with the help of the (right-wing) mass media, into accepting that ‘gangs’ were at the root of their problems. By all appearances, the government instrumentalized these violence collectives, and beyond them the Blacks and the poor, so as to cause terrorized citizens to disregard neoliberal capitalism-generated problems, deep-seated structural problems as it were, at a time when political scandals and the anti-austerity movement were prominently featured in the news. Substantially, I contend that Prime Minister Cameron implemented his Big Society ideology, thereby punishing a section of the community and endangering democracy, seemingly under the pretence of eradicating ‘gangs’ and ‘gang’ culture, when he apparently had no interest whatsoever in destroying what can be simultaneously considered his alibi and fuel for neoliberalism.