George Kerevan: Young people are just as alienated north of Border

Published on Wednesday 10 August 2011 15:24

HERE'S an uncomfortable fact: riots are a staple of urban life. Mix different classes and ethnicities in a confined space and you get friction as well as creativity. And that includes Scotland.

Back in 1784, the plebeian residents of Edinburgh became annoyed that local distilleries were using huge quantities of oatmeal for industrial purposes, pushing up food prices. So a mob marched out to a big distillery in Canonmills and proceeded to attack it. Facebook and Twitter were not available so the mob was summoned (as was the norm) by beating a drum.

As trouble spread across the city, the Riot Act was read and troops deployed from Edinburgh Castle. During the height of the disturbance, rioters stopped a private carriage whose blinds were drawn.

On discovering the occupant was a lady, they let it proceed. Such politeness did the rioters no good: the ringleaders were whipped through the streets then transported for 14 years. ("Good idea", I hear some say.)

Historically, riots in Scotland were common. While religion and politics played a part, they were usually triggered by local grievances involving customs duties or food prices.

For instance, in 1725, a Glasgow mob objecting to the new malt tax burned down houses in the city. And in 1736 came the infamous Porteous Riot in Edinburgh.

A local mob lynched the said Captain Porteous, who had had the temerity to order his troops to fire into an unruly crowd watching a public execution in the Grassmarket. The rioters left a guinea to pay the shopkeeper from whose premises they stole the rope used to hang poor Porteous.

More on the riots

• In cold light of day, looters and rioters facing justice

• Cameron's blueprint

• Pester power has the beating of Glasgow's gangs, says policeman

• 11-year-old girl smashed shop windows in 11:30 rampage

• Riots: Dancer and would-be lawyer end up in dock

• David Maddox: Scots out in force to have their say on 'English problem'

• George Kerevan: Young people are just as alienated north of Border

• Joyce McMillan: Greed gets its grim comeuppance

• Leader: New measures needed, but public most want protection

In both these cases Westminster took umbrage at the failure of Glasgow and Edinburgh town councils to maintain order. You can just imagine prime minister Walpole being grilled by an 18th century version of Jeremy Paxman. So Walpole fined the two councils for their failure to bring the ringleaders to justice - an interesting notion.

Industrialisation only made matters worse. Rioting had always been a plebeian response to perceived injustice or economic hardship. Now it became infused with the fight for trade union rights and democracy. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, there were protests and riots throughout the West of Scotland culminating in the Radical War of 1820.

The Scottish tradition of public unrest also included children. In Falkirk in 1889, there was a spontaneous strike of pupils in local schools, in opposition to brutal corporal punishment.

This set a pattern for school strikes over the next two decades, usually coupled with mobbing the most resented teachers. In 1911 there were mass school strikes across Scotland.I mention this lest we delude ourselves there was some golden age of respectful children, enforced by the belt.

Of course, not all riots have a worthy motive. No one should find an excuse for this week's mindless arson and looting in English towns. Equally, no one north of the Border should think it is an English problem.

I see nothing in Scotland's urban history - nor in our contemporary proneness to individual violence - that says Scotland is exempt from outbursts of collective mayhem. The last time there was mass unrest in England, following the Brixton riots of 1981, it triggered copycat riots in Edinburgh.

Certainly, there are significant social differences between Scotland and England. Unlike England, Scottish cities tend to have middle class centres, with the worst of underclass housing pushed to the periphery - the proximity of rich and poor in London seems to have been an ingredient in the rioting.

Scotland also lacks the Afro-Caribbean communities - whose young men are the most socially alienated - which were the seedbed of the current unrest. And though Scotland has its share of youth gangs - witness Peter Mullan's recent film "Neds", if you are ignorant - it is the ubiquity of gang culture in London that has been the primary agency of the organised looting down south.

There are some 200 gangs in Greater London, with at least 15,000 members. Around half of members are Afro-Caribbean. Gangs go under a medley of creative names: Love of Money, Wood Green Mob, Suspect Gang, Ghetto Boys, Shower, Peckam Boys (reputedly the most dangerous), and Stick'm Up Kids. One worry: the age of gang membership is falling, suggesting it is a growing phenomenon.

At heart, the English riots reflect the deep alienation of young black men from British society and the fact they are now trapped in a gang culture that, in a perverse way, validates their existence. North of the Border, I think that the growth of a modern Scottish identity has given many young men from poorer backgrounds (especially in the immigrant community) a sense of collective identity that London's Afro-Caribbean youth lack. I say this with no sense of triumphalism. But Afro-Caribbeans suffered the worst excesses of British (including Scottish) colonialism, so it is difficult for them to feel any close identity with Britishness as such.

That said, street riots - political or otherwise - are the province of young men. Rioting involves boredom, testosterone, bravado and a sense of invincibility, and those things teenage boys have in excess.

No one should imagine that Scotland is exempt from this rule. Nor is Scotland exempt from a general phenomenon in the Western world, whereby young men between 15 and 25 (unless they go to university or become professional footballers) find themselves at the very bottom of the social heap.Let's remind ourselves for the umpteenth time that Scotland has a greater population of young men with no skills to their name than does England.

The long-run solution has to do with education. But in the short run we need to ponder new institutions and social conventions that give young men a sense of place and worth. I've always seen an argument for some form of mandatory national service - which you'll still find in relatively cohesive cultures such as Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Switzerland. Would an independent Scotland be bold enough to join their number?