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Abandoning our collective future?

24 August 2011

Dan Silver from One North West, the regional BME network, has warned that the government risks missing an opportunity to listen to the voices of young people in its response to the recent riots.

In a blog entry for Voice4Change, the national network for BME VCS organisations, Dan claims that simply handing out draconian sentences to those involved in the riots risks stirring up further problems in the long term:

"No one would wish to condone looting, burning and attacks on the police, nor ignore personal responsibility. However, it is also the case that by focussing on the easy targets, the so-called ‘feral youths,’ and dismissing the riots as ‘criminality pure and simple,’ the Government’s reaction avoids the harder questions. These harder questions include the role and culpability of generations of government policy, discrimination throughout society and the issue of poverty that blights people’s lives.

"To understand is not to excuse, despite what some politicians and commentators that are intent on stifling debate would have us believe."

He also points to the recent Voice of the North project, which found that young people experienced discrimination as a result of their ethnicity and age, and that aspirations are being constrained, which leads to hopelessness. The project report calls on government and policy-makers to listen to and value the voices of young people.