LONDON // British politicians yesterday condemned riots that injured 26 police officers on Saturday night while residents in the north London area of Tottenham are wondering if they will have to endure more violence this summer.
The riots started after an initially peaceful demonstration outside Tottenham police station to protest against the shooting death by police of a young man on Thursday. Residents blamed youths from outside Tottenham for turning the protest into the worst rioting since 1985, when a police officer was stabbed to death and nearly 60 others were hospitalised.
"There is no justification for the aggression the police and the public faced or for the damage to property," said a spokesman for David Cameron, the Conservative prime minister. "There is now a police investigation into the rioting and we should let that process happen."
The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government is overseeing some of the harshest austerity measures since those imposed by the government led by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
In pictures: London riot
Photos from the north London area of Tottenham riot
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While public disorder in Britain has not matched the levels in Greece, violence did mar student demonstrations last December. In March, London's West End endured looting and vandalism amid protests against alleged "tax-dodging" large retailers.
Yesterday morning, police cordoned off Tottenham High Road as smoke continued to rise from smouldering buildings set alight on Saturday night. About 200 people attacked police with petrol bombs and bottles, burning two police cars and a bus. Police arrested at least 42 people on charges including violent disorder, burglary and theft.
Speaking at the scene, David Lammy, the Labour member of parliament for Tottenham, was heckled and booed.
As he spoke, a member of the public shouted out: "Why does the place have to burn down before we have a discussion about all this?"
The diversity in Tottenham and nearby Wood Green include the Caribbean, Africa and the sub-continent. There is also a sizeable community of Orthodox Jews from eastern Europe.
Youths of Afro-Caribbean descent say they feel discriminated against by the police. Marlon, a 29-year-old administrator who did not want to reveal his surname, said while he often felt targeted by police, the different ethnic groups of Tottenham live together peacefully.
"The police can be very aggressive and treat us all like hooligans," he said. "But we live here peacefully and it was a minority who caused all the trouble."
The Metropolitan Police, whose chief recently stepped down after questions were raised about the force's handling of investigations into wrongdoing by Rupert Murdoch's media group, said it would investigate the rioting.
An independent police complaints commission is also looking into Thursday's shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan, a father of four, who was killed after police stopped the minicab he was driving in.
Adrian Hanstock, a police commander, said the force had not anticipated trouble following the vigil by Duggan's family. He defended the response, saying there was "no indication that the protest would deteriorate into the levels of criminal and violent disorder that we saw.
"We believe that certain elements, who were not involved with the vigil, took the opportunity to commit disorder and physically attack police officers, verbally abuse fire brigade personnel and destroy vehicles and buildings," he said.
Much effort was invested to repair community relations in the years after the 1985 riots, but Tottenham remains poor with high rates of joblessness. An article in last Friday's Guardian newspaper described how many experts predicted a rise in crime because budget cuts were leading to the loss of facilities that had kept many inner-city youths occupied.
"Services are not just being taken away from young people, they are being taken from poor young people," John Pitts, a professor who has researched gang behaviour for more than 40 years, told The Guardian.
"At a simple level, that could mean an increase in antisocial behaviour and vandalism. In the longer term, if you withdraw state protection then there will be ever greater reliance on the groupings that emerge in that vacuum."
Mustafa, a Turkish-Cypriot who has lived in Tottenham for more than 20 years, could barely contain his anger after listening to Mr Lammy. "The rich people, with their houses and two cars, they don't care what happens to us and neither does Lammy," he said.
He described how he had recently sold his kebab shop because of poor business and was forced to apply for unemployment benefits for the first time in his life.
"They treated me like a dog, putting their feet up on the desk as they spoke to me," he said. "If people feel they have nothing to lose, they have no rights, no power, then this [the riots] is what happens. And it could happen again."
sdevi@thenational.ae
RedCrow Intelligence Company Profile
Started: 2016
Founders: Hussein Nasser Eddin, Laila Akel, Tayeb Akel
Based: Ramallah, Palestine
Sector: Technology, Security
# of staff: 13
Investment: $745,000
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Getting there and where to stay
Etihad Airways operates seasonal flights from Abu Dhabi to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport. Services depart the UAE on Wednesdays and Sundays with outbound flights stopping briefly in Rome, return flights are non-stop. Fares start from Dh3,315, flights operate until September 18, 2022.
The Radisson Blu Hotel Nice offers a western location right on Promenade des Anglais with rooms overlooking the Bay of Angels. Stays are priced from €101 ($114), including taxes.
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Company Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
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Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
'Will of the People'
Artist: Muse
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The Details
Kabir Singh
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Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
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Industry: Digital receipts, finance, blockchain
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Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
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Coming 2 America
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Starring: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones
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Company: Eco Way
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Company name: Mozn
Started: 2017
Founders: Mohammed Alhussein, Khaled Al Ghoneim, Abdullah Alsaeed and Malik Alyousef
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