The London Riots 2011

Wat Tyler, a fellow Kentish Man, led men from Kent in 1381 in a riot known as the Peasants' Revolt. It was a riot against what was seen as an unfair tax imposed by Richard II where peasants employed by Lords were taxed less than those employed by lesser beings. Not only the peasants took part but also those owning smaller landholdings. The feudal system was breaking down as a result of the plague with workers in short supply and thus able to demand higher wages. More powerful landowners wished to stop the market in the provision of labour and return to the old feudal ways. The Peasants' Revolt was by all accounts a bloody affair, one of the bloodiest ever in this country but which ended with Wat Tyler being killed in front of the King. There was a reason for the Peasants' Revolt with which one can sympathise but I can see no reason for the riots that are going on in London even as I write. I can see why there would be a protest against the police for killing an unarmed man. This has happened all too often and there are serious question which arise as a result - Why are the police so trigger happy? Should they continue to be armed? Should their terms of firearm use be changed? These questions are a legitimate reason for a peaceful protest but the development of the protest into a riot is completely unforgivable and can only have happened because the protest was taken over by those who wanted a riot for their own ends. Their own ends being the most ignoble of all, the stealing of other people's property and the destruction of their homes. It is a pity there is no penal colony to which the perpetrators can be sent.