All quiet on the West Ealing front

After the prayer meeting on Ealing Green we had an early dinner in Carluccio’s.  I booked a table knowing my son would be most upset if it was too busy.  For the first time in the 7 years I have lived in Ealing the place was practically empty. And remained so until we left around 8.30pm.  Walking back to West Ealing along Mattock Lane we stopped off to look at the preparations for the   Shri Kanagathurkkai Amman Temple chariot festival tomorrow.  We then carried on along the Uxbridge Road home – West Ealing was like a ghost town, incredibly depressing to see.

Let’s please support Ealing and the local traders however we can, they need us more than ever.

 

4 Replies to “All quiet on the West Ealing front”

  1. We went to the Fistfull of Film last night in Walpole Park (good, but very poorly advertised IMO) – and then onto the Red Lion afterwards. Never seen it so dead on a Saturday night.

    I think things will pick up again in a few weeks, though. The damage will be repaired and the riots will recede from memory.

  2. Chris,

    I admire your optimism. And it’s true that the Brixton, Toxteth and Southall riots were all just one offs. However the recent Tottenham riot was not totally dissimilar to the riot two decades ago in Tottenham. The notion that such riots could happen again in Ealing does hold water. Until we know exactly what happened it’s difficult for anyone to come up with reasons why it happened and suggested solutions to avoid repeats of the riots.

    We have to discover exactly what happened in central Ealing on the night of 8/9 August 2011. Save Ealing Centre (SEC) – an alliance of 26 Ealing residents’ and community groups of which WEN is a founder – has now formally asked Ealing Council to research and publish such a report.

    Armed with the content of that report tax payers, those in authority and ‘experts’ can then attempt to explain why it happenned, and why it happened now. From these explanations locally and nationally we need to reach a consensus about what needs to change and how to bring about these changes.

    It won’t be easy I’m sure.

    1. To begin with, at least in Tottenham, the riots were incredibly easily to predict. There’s been a long history of the actions of the Met, whether it being through the killing of black men/boys or SuS laws, leading to riots in urban areas – Toxteth, Brixton as you mention. My LSE piece has more on this.

      What is unusual is that they came to Ealing. And I emphasize came. These were by and large, not local boys. They came in their cars from Hackney and Croydon, smashed the place up, and left (I saw 5 of then get into a car outside my back window at about 1am last Monday and leave). In that way I don’t believe there’s a huge amount we can do in Ealing to prevent it happening again. I see all the community vigils and meetings as a way we’re trying to deal with the trauma that’s happened here; they’re totally needed, but they won’t make one iota of a contribution towards stopping things from happening again here. The problems come from elsewhere.

      If anything these riots show us that there is a vast underclass of people who are completely outside our networks of opportunity and community. Total anomic social disorder. This is never going to be fixed unless we have a fundamental rethink of how we treat those at the bottom and the opportunities that they have available to them.

    2. The reasons of why it happened and why now are many and complex. I myself was aware of the many causes as I deal with the people “identified” in the riots on a daily basis and was completely aware what they were capable of. I hope the enquiry gets to the real causes and that effective measures are taken. Knee jerk reactions without a deep understanding of the problems we all face as a society will only solve the problem in the short term.

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