Is Twitter Fueling the London Riots?

Last night as I was winding down, getting ready for a night in front of the TV I logged onto Twitter to get an update on the Tottehnam riots. I was surprised to see Brixton trending.


Brixton had been hosting the annual Brixton Splash only hours earlier, an event I had planned to go to but unfortunately missed. Looking earlier at the photo's of people enjoying themselves en masse, dancing, eating, drinking, socialising and generally having a brilliant time, I was pleased that the event had taken place without any major incident. 

Brixton Splash

Brixton Splash was an event celebrating multi-cultural Brixton, even more poignant having read and watched the events unfolding in Tottenham only the night before.


But Brixton wasn't trending only because of the Splash. There were literally hundreds of posts about a supposed riot kicking off in Brixton, post stating that gangs of youths had descended on Brixton and were causing trouble. 


Locals were quick to point out that actually there was no trouble, that they were in fact in Brixton at the time and apart from people milling about as expected after a festival there was nothing particularly newsworthy going on.


That didn't stop the rumours though. It was becoming a frenzy at this point. Windows were being smashed, shops looted and police were battling to stay in control. Except it wasn't happening. Pictures emerged of a looted H&M, which was actually miles away in North London. 

The next thing I know, it was actually kicking off for real. The looting, the fires, the smashing of shop windows was actually happening for real. In the UK at least this is the first real rioting of any substantial size that has taken place during the Internet generation and it felt last night, like the Internet, in the absence of any credible, accurate and up to date information from the media was the place to turn to get an update.


Social media can be a brilliant tool - I have witnessed campaigns ranging from saving a local cinema to taking action against the stoning of an Iranian women but it can have it's downsides too. The hysteria building on Twitter last night about supposed riots in Brixton, long before anything had even kicked off was nothing short of a red rag to a bull. 

So is Twitter and other social media fuelling the London riots, pouring fuel onto the proverbial and literal fire?


Today, similarly to the events of yesterday, locations around London appear to be trending, with tweets about riots taking place long before they actually seem to happen - Croydon, Deptford, New Cross, Lewisham, Brockley. Is it really that social media is the quickest way to get news out there or a self-fulling prophecy, waiting to happen because the rumours on Twitter say it is? I fear the latter.


The police have said that they will be looking at Twitter to see if there is evidence of people inciting violence and encouraging the looting and rioting that has spread across the capital. I guess that will be like looking for a needle in a haystack, what with the tweets, re-tweets and suchlike that occurs on the site.


It's not that I blame social media entirely. The saying goes that there is no smoke without fire and there have been brilliant efforts by people today to re-tweet messages of how to help and get involved in the clean-up in Brixton. As I said at the start social media can be a tool that has positive uses. But it is worrying. 


What do you think? Has social media - Twitter, Facebook etc played a part in these riots? 

Garden Theft - Are People Really That Desperate?

As it was quite a nice day today, weather wise, I decided to do a spot or gardening. I have a couple of empty water-logged planters in the front garden, which I needed to drill holes into so that everything I put in it doesn’t die within a month. I also needed to clear away the pine needles from the Christmas tree I lobbed out of the window from my first floor living room in early January. Not a good look in mid March.

As I was merrily weeding away, sweeping up leaves, discarded crisp and sweet packets (living next door to one of the areas best primary schools does have its downsides) I noticed that something didn’t seem right.

It came to me a moment later; there was something missing. Some low-life thieving bastards had stolen my lovely bay tree, along with the zinc planter it came in, even though I had drilled holes into the planter and screwed it into the paving so that it couldn’t be lifted away (or so I thought).

I have to say, I am disgusted. It might be a tad dramatic but I feel violated. Not only have they stolen my plant, they have stolen pretty much the only plant I have ever managed to keep alive!

We were very pleased, the Grumpy One and I, when we planted it, along with the (long since dead) box hedges we lovingly shaped and planted in neat little rows (who actually kills a box hedge by the way?) Us gays had brought a touch of class to the otherwise drab and dreary front gardens on our street. Well not any more.

The value of the plant and the pot can’t be more than about £80. I haven’t checked the policy but I am sure the excess on my home insurance is higher than that, plus to claim I would probably have to call the police and I would feel a right muppet complaining to them that my bay tree was stolen. So I guess I will just have to put it down to experience.

Have we really now got to the stage that people are stealing plants from gardens? Well, yes it turns out. I did a quick look online and realised that garden theft is in fact big business. Items are often stolen to order and Halifax has reported that insurance claims for garden theft have gone up by 52%.

So what do I do now? I am certainly not going to plant another bay tree and I won’t be spending a small fortune on box hedge either. I may as well write 'mug' across my garden wall. No, instead I will have to plant something decidedly less trendy, something that nobody wants to steal. Any ideas?