Cameron: Riot-hit UK must reverse 'moral collapse'

"Children without fathers, Schools without discipline. Reward without effort. Crime without punishment. Rights without responsibilities. Communities without control. Some of the worst aspects of human nature tolerated, indulged - sometimes even incentivized - by a state and its agencies that in parts have become literally demoralized," Cameron said.

American social engineers would call that "The Great Society."

This is a result when you let the intelligentsia dictate government policy. I hope the U.S. is paying close attention, but it's perhaps too late. The only silver lining is that it's still OK in the U.S.(in some places at least) to carry guns.

Where's Thatcher when you need her?

This looks like a lot of more trouble ahead.

I think his solution is to just get rid of the poor, unemployed and unmarried mothers. The scariest thing is, he has the support of a lot of people.

Where's Thatcher when you need her?

She's right where we need her -out of office! Thatcher was the reason for the poll tax riots. Thatcher also inadvertently gave strength to the Scottish independence movement and brought the union of the UK closer to collapse.

Start at the top and root out the 'moral collapse' in the banking industry and politics and everyone else will follow.

Glad to see that Cameron is taking parenting seriously tThings that need to be doen are stop making prengancy an easy way to get social housing and benefits. Many young girls think this is the easiest way to get on in life and the government makes this possible. Teenage girl should be put in hostels with specialist help with child rearing. If they do not like the regime, then move back to teh parents house unless abuse has been proved.

Instead of wastefull payments of tax money on childrens daycare pay women to stay at home as nature intended. Children do best when mother stays at home in the early years, the children are the future. Four decades of poor government parenting policy have helped the moral downfall in society.

Make school a proper place for learning with real exams not ones that any halfwit can pass. Apprentaships should be common place. Stop this idiocy where all can go to University, It is supposed to be for those who will make a proffessional career, now any Tom Dick or Harry can get into one of these places.

Get the tax cheats. tax cheats are estimated to cost 20 times more than benefits cheats. Go after them the same way they do to benefit cheats. Same laws for all citizens please.

"women to stay at home as nature intended"

wow, may I send this deep wisdom to my female friends with a PhD in science from Harvard? I assure you they are very "natural" girls, and their deepest desire is to stay home, cook and clean

but I do agree with you on the University issue. but try knocking on humanities doors, many friends of mine found it difficult to make a career with a PhD in literature or history

Please do not post inflammatory comments such as "women to stay at home as nature intended."

timeon; With universities i mean scientists , doctors, profeessions that need that extra education. In Britain almost half go to "Uni" as they call it now, do teh easist subject and get a job they could have done at 16 straight after school. People have been conned into thinking they must have higher education with dumbed down qualifications. I know a few friends from school who did not fare well academically. At teh time we had work experience and training courses for plumbing, electricians etc. They are ll doing well now.

It seems several Brirish governemnts have placed priorites on higher education when not needed and making mothers feel they have a duty to work. The results are a broken society and riots.

"children without fathers..."etc. I think he's right there in that paragraph.

steve, however is well off the mark. Canada and Australia are doing just fine with their highly educated female work-forces.

I think it's that England has a long history of rather extreme social policies, based on deeply entrenched class concioussness, whereas the colonies have always offered more opportunity for social mobility. England seems to vacilate between extremes of class difference and an extreme sense of guilt for these differences. never much of a happy medium. the poor seem to be alternatingly both neglected and then coddled.

sourpuss; where have i mentioned ever that well educated working women are the problem? I said ,w ell, why should i repeat it, Easy to see what i put.

...the country's annual political conventions, which begin next month ...

They are called party conferences.

steve, I added the word "work-force" to highly educated. you... well... as you said, why should you repeat it.

"women to stay at home as nature intended"

50 years ago and in all time before, this was a very standard and typical comment. Now suddenly its "inflammatory". I cannot agree. Its the man's opinion and there is evidence in nature to support it at least partially.

What is inflammatory is the broken record of such comments from the same guy in just about every danged thread no matter how unrelated. Yeah, we heard you the first time, the second and all the way up to the twentieth. But now, we are starting to tune you out. Too bad too, because in this thread you might actually have something of a point.

I believe there is room in society for working mothers. But somebody has to watch the children. Their own mothers doing that is as traditional in society as it is nature. Working mothers are ok, but the PUSH to create as many as possible is totally misguided and may play at least a small role in these riots.

It has been demonstrated that children who grow up with their fathers present tend to be better behaved. That usually means the mother is also there. And like it or not, that implies a traditional family unit. Nothing wrong with non-traditional per se, and people who think traditional is a one size fits all shoe are nuts. But for most people, traditional is probably better. For those for whom it isn't, it isn't. Can't they just live together in peace without all the judgementalism and attempts at intervention from outside?

American social engineers would call that "The Great Society."

No, Lyndon Baines Johnson did call it "The Great Society." He rammed through the Civil Rights Act. Are you suggesting, BreitbartVictorious, that it was a mistake to outlaw racial discrimination by state governments and other institutions that were supported by federal tax money?

No, Lyndon Baines Johnson did call it "The Great Society." He rammed through the Civil Rights Act. Are you suggesting, BreitbartVictorious, that it was a mistake to outlaw racial discrimination by state governments and other institutions that were supported by federal tax money?

@Virtuoso: The Civil rights act of 1965, was passed to make sure that the rights that blacks had gained after the Civil War and the first civil rights act (passed in 1869 by Grant) were enforced. They were still on the books, but the Plessy v. Ferguson decision made by the Supreme Court in the late 1890's pretty much took away some of their effectiveness.

The Great Society had nothing to do with Civil RIghts in terms of Black vs. White, but trying to eradicate poverty by eacting social programs, that some at the time said would further continue the poverty. Take a closer look at some of the legislature that was passed in terms of welfare. Women who had no father in the home were eligible. If a man was in the home, then the family was not eligible. So what do you thing people will do in that case? Go for the option that will give them the money, and thus you have the situation that you have in America now. I know of people who have spent generations on the public dole, and do not see a problem with it. The policies that were inacted though they had good intentions, fell way short of what they needed to do.

This is Cameron's way of saying what Merkel informed Germany and its neighbors of : 'multiculturalism' has failed.

Good luck with reversing the moral collapse. The liberal elites wanted multiculti and cultural relativity, and now they got it. They better learn to live with the mess that they created.

You can´t dump Western culture and values in the trash and still enjoy its benefits.

Alpha ape

"The Great Society had nothing to do with Civil RIghts in terms of Black vs. White, but trying to eradicate poverty by enacting social programs, that some at the time said would further continue the poverty."

Well said. Johnson, and the New Left that arose later, knew that infantilising Americans is how they could best repeal the American Revolution. They are directly responsible for the destruction of the nuclear Black family; and proof of this is that the out-of-wedlock pregnancy rate for white teens is rising proportionally over time and in response to the same perverse incentives the Dems first experimented with on African Americans.

Multiculturalism (which by the way has more than one definition)? Nah, you're just trying to ram your square peg into the round hole on this one.

Multiculturalism (which by the way has more than one definition)?

Pick any definition you want; each is basically an argument that seeks to make relativism a legitimate position.

The way I see it, people coming to the UK should take part in the British way of life. That's how we understood the term "multicultural society" as I was growing up - enjoying Chinatown and its New Year celebrations with the Chinese community is a simple/simplistic example. I guess the term has evolved and I should be talking about assimilation. So in terms of relativism perhaps we have no argument. Sharia law in Britain? Of course not, in no shape or form.

That said, these riots were not the result of an alien, non-British culture. If you have ever been to Tottenham or had experience of British chavs, you will know that white chavs have the same scum attitude as black chavs or chavs of any other colour. When some gobby so-and-so is giving it large on the tube, it's got nothing to do with colour. They are all the same. And a middle class black person will of course be different from a black chav. That's to do with class and attitude, not colour.