Bloody hell - Telly tonight 'Knives n Gangs'

[girasol]

I live in Tottenham at the moment and the council here provides plenty of sport and social initiatives for kids and teenagers. Yet Tottenham has huge anti-social problems.

Giving them something to do is just one aspect I think. It's not the full solution. I mean, when I had 'nothing' to do I'd go a read a book, I didn't feel the urge to go around destroying things. There's a generation of boys growing up with the wrong role-models, no strong family influence and no importance attached to getting a good education.

For boys who are not academic there seems to be no good career prospects. Even though there's lots of jobs they could be doing that involve no academic skills, is this being pointed out to them? Are they aware of the amount of money they could be making as plumbers, for example?

 

[DRINK?]

None of it is really crime related.... if you discount the crime of actually stabbing someone that is - none of this is born of desperation, none of these kids are starving or have families to feed, it's about kids overreacting and lashing out on account of having an overinflated sense of their own importance.... who simultaneously believe the whole world is against them, while demanding respect yet giving none..... aggravated by the fact that they have almost no adult supervision. national fucking service blah blah....

 

[HoratioCuthbert]

Giving them something to do is just one aspect I think. It's not the only solution. I mean, when I had 'nothing' to do I'd go a read a book, I didn't feel the urge to go around destroying things. So there's also the belief that there's a generation of boys growing up with the wrong role-models, no strong family influence and no importance attached to getting a good education.

So if you have parents who don't take an interest in you and you don't feel valued, sport alone isn't going to fix it. But it can be a good way of using up all that energy they have.

I'm not sure i believe that there is no importance attached to getting a good education. Some people are ***not*** capable of doing well in school, and it seems like the options for these people are far too limited. It used to be allright to leave school at 16 and take a job or apprenticeship or whatever. Now it's totally frowned upon. Everyone is expected to be brilliant at everything, and if you're not, then what next? Of course that doesn't drive everyone to violence but combined with many many other factors i can see how it makes a dent.

 

[camouflage]

None of it is really crime related.... if you discount the crime of actually stabbing someone that is - none of this is born of desperation, none of these kids are starving or have families to feed, it's about kids overreacting and lashing out on account of having an overinflated sense of their own importance.... who simultaneously believe the whole world is against them, while demanding respect yet giving none..... aggravated by the fact that they have almost no adult supervision. national fucking service blah blah....

Also, I honestly don't think they have the slightest clue what the word "respect" means... do their mean they want to be feared? they want the esteem of their idiot peers? I think for them "respect" means wearing crisp new white trainers every single day of the week, lots of bling, and being known to have a history of violence. Where can you go with that kind of attitude? I don't think I'm being old in not understanding this point, when I was a kid only the stupid kids thought like that... oh.

The dumbing down of sociey is to blame, not that society was ever that bright in the first place, it's just like the film Idiocracy. We've found new and better ways to make kids stupider.

 

[sojourner]

23.15 - THIS IS YOUR KNIFE

Dramedy in which we identify a celebrity whose media value could be improved with a lengthy spell inside, and have them go out into the street and slash up ordinary folk for money. In this week's episode an overview of Chesney Hawkes' lifetime achievements earns little sympathy as he is handed a spoon and kicked out of a moving car in the midst of a gang war.

Contains extreme violence, some scenes of one hit wonder.

 

[camouflage]

21.50 - CELEBRITY DANCING WITH KNIVES ON ICE CELEBRITY

In tonight's dullard dance off, some Big Brother chump prances around trying to stab off Jodie Marsh's impossible tits with a Stanley knife. Amy Winehouse gives up trying to perfect her toe step sequences and slashes her wrists.

Terry Nutkins.

23.15 - THIS IS YOUR KNIFE

Dramedy in which we identify a celebrity whose media value could be improved with a lengthy spell inside, and have them go out into the street and slash up ordinary folk for money. In this week's episode an overview of Chesney Hawkes' lifetime achievements earns little sympathy as he is handed a spoon and kicked out of a moving car in the midst of a gang war.

Contains extreme violence, some scenes of one hit wonder.

00.40 - HOLBY CITY KNIFE SPECIAL

Desperately lacking NHS funding, the surgeons replace all the patients' limbs with rusty blades and have them fight it out. Will this novel approach reduce transplant waiting times, or will it all be amicably concluded as these hackneyed examples of society's dysfunctional ills realise the errors of their ways and vow to free themselves from the fruitless emancipation of their destructive lives? John Leslie makes a cameo appearance as a rapier.

Tallscreen.

Did you used to write for tvgohome.com?

 

[poster342002]

Those kids make me feel like a rightwing maniac the other night, I was more or less reduced to bashing the arm of my sofa and barking "What we Need is Fascism!" at the screen, not the neo-nazi kind or anything, just some regime that's all about discipline and uniforms and marching in precise regimented formations and unquestioning obedience to iron-fisted authority, that sort of thing.

I was only joking though, I think Stalinism would work much better. Leftwing maniac then.

What you describe does also sound like Stalinism (I.E; "some regime that's all about discipline and uniforms and marching in precise regimented formations and unquestioning obedience to iron-fisted authority")

 

[mauvais]

Did you used to write for tvgohome.com?

Sadly no, but you've spotted the inspiration

 

[Iguana]

Has it always provided these facilities? Is it possible that the provision of them is a reaction to the anti-social problems? Just wondering ...

I couldn't tell you, we've only lived here 3 years and they've been here all that time.

 

[pk]

Yeah ok you're right. Iran then.

Yeah, fuck it why not?