Radical myths about Britain’s riots  In: Uncategorized  11 Aug
2011  Rather than discuss Britain’s riots in general terms I
want to focus here on the explanations that relate to the themes
in Ferraris for All. That is to look at the arguments that blame
the riots on inequality, poverty, public spending cuts, greed
and similar factors.  I should emphasise that my critique of
economic explanations for the crisis does not mean to endorse
other popular arguments. For example, the widespread view that
the riots are simply criminal is more an expression of outrage
than an explanation. Clearly looting shops and setting fire to
buildings are criminal offenses. But the challenge is to explain
why such behaviour took place, particularly on such a large
scale, rather than simply condemn it.  Nor am I attempting here
to outline my own explanation of the riots. I am broadly
convinced by the points put forward by spiked and by Kenan
Malik. To reiterate, the point of this post is to look more
closely at some of the apparent