12th August 2011

Well, this wasn't supposed to be like this, was it?

What a horrible week us Brits have had to suffer. When the news of rioting in north London first came about, my initial thoughts was 'oh god, this is another Rodney King'. It seems I overestimated my fellow countrymen. As has been the case recently in the UK, what started off as a peaceful protest has swiftly been overtaken my mindless yobs, or "feral youth" as they have been called of late.

Up until this evening, I was proud of my home town of Salford. Despite 'riots' happening in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool and (bizarrely) Nottingham, they hadn't spread to Greater Manchester. The comments on the Manchester Evening News website seemed to share my view: Manchester don't join in, we're better than this. Unfortunately, as the embarrassing events of Tuesday 9th August showed, that didn't last.

Manchester has had its share of troubles in the past: the race-riots in Moss Side in 1981, the drug wars of the late 80s, the Arndale bomb on 1996. Somehow, the city had grown and improved despite these horrible incidents. It had improved so much that, just months before, the Lonely Planet guide had called Manchester 'truly special'.

A side-annoyance to this petty looting was the patheticness of it all. Manchester is renowned for its gang culture and - without condoning rioting or looting - none of this was on show. Instead, it seemed to be 13-year-old kids on bikes breaking in to Bargain Booze. I suppose I should be glad really, it could've have been much worse.

Anyway, back to the music. There are only a few words to describe the looters. They are lowlives, purely out for their own gain. There's nothing political about their actions, no cause to back them up. They want material goods regardless of the damage to the innocent.

Snuff are a north London punk band, apt seeing as that's where the trouble started. Are the looters arseholes, fuckwits, gobshites, farts in a jar? Yes, they are all of these, whereever they are looting.

Thankfully, Snuff have just the song to soundtrack my inner thoughts whenever I watch the news of late.