Design, debate and debrief after rioting

Caught up with report writing this morning. Followed on with a banner design for Mr Wishart. The challenge was to take a variety of different rectangular elements, such as QR codes, photos and text blocks and also a very long and thin logo. Equalised the width of the 6 rectangular blocks and arranged them in a gentle vertical wave. The long logo was rotated by 90 degrees, which allowed it to take up the full length of the banner. Sent design to Mr Wishart to discuss, change or approve.

Mr Wellman dropped by to return his evaluation of my Toastmaster's speech last week. We found ourselves in a fascinating discussion on the nature of people, personality. This digressed onto perceptions of reality and the observer principle (the observer influences the object observed). Discussions took an interesting turn towards debating fear and phobias, where Mr Wellman found himself in a vigorous discourse with Ms T.

With grateful feedback from the author, made some final corrections to the e-book I was editing yesterday, incorporating metadata, tags, cover image and ISBN. Sent off to the author and to my Kindle for checking.

The discussions in the media are now taking on the aftermath of the past days rioting. Many of the submissions to the local radio station tended towards authoritarian solutions. This was mirrored by the e-petition to the government, that offenders should have their benefits removed. This is likely to reach the 100,000 signatories to ensure that it is debated in parliament.

The police are caught in a vice between criticism that they did not do enough at the time of the riots and concerns that stronger action would be counter productive or lead to charges of police brutality. However, television images of police breaking down doors to get potential offenders and there was praise for police bravery in certain situations.

Parliament met in special session today and there was unanimous condemnation of the riots and looting and repeated questions of “where were the police”. Magistrates are still active dealing with the accumulation of cases. However, it was reassuring that the government thought that extra draconian measures were not required, rather changes in police policy to permit faster responses and release more desk bound staff for the streets.

Magistrates are still active dealing with the accumulation of cases. In London, half the people charged were under 18. One of the factors brought forward to explain the raiding and looting was the increasing social pressure to have high status clothing and other items to show status, even in deprived areas. The contrast was that there were no opportunities in those areas for work to actually earn money to meet these perceived needs – hence the idea of stealing when the opportunity arose.

Inspiration of the day came from the Malaysian student attacked and robbed by people “helping” him. Slightly hampered by a broken jaw repaired with a metal plate, he was saddened that even small children were involved. However, he was not going to be put off staying in the UK to complete his accounting training and appeared remarkably resilient and positive.