第869期:Protests

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Todd: OK, so Julia, I thought we would talk about social unrest.

Julia: OK.

Todd: So recently in the news, there has been a lot of protests, there's been some riots and I believe in your country you actually had riots recently.

Julia: We did, yeah, in the summer last year, yeah.

Todd: That was in London?

Julia: That was in London and in a few of the other cities around the UK as well. It spread to other cities but mainly centered in London, yeah.

Todd: So what was your perspective of the riots?

Julia: Well we, actually, we were just visiting home and so we just arrived in London right as that all kicked off. So actually I was quite shocked and of course, a lot of my friends here were a little bit worried because they knew we were flying into London and London is suddenly all over the news and not in a good way. A lot of violence and quite shocking imagines. You don't think, when you think of London you don't think of people wearing balaclavas and smashing windows and behaving in this violent way.

Todd: So it was pretty shocking?

Julia: It was quite shocking but after being there I think within a week it had calmed down and I think the response from the police was very good and from the public was very good and from the media generally it was also very good so it wasn't such a big deal in the end. It was, it wasn't a political movement, it wasn't people protesting anything specific, it was just a kind of unbridled violence so it didn't gain any support.

Todd: Right, so it was just basically kind of releasing maybe youthful angst or kind of built up aggression?

Julia: Tensions of some, yeah, some kind but because it was all focused around consumer goods and a desire to rob stores of products like shoes and TVs and nobody really took it very seriously. You know, I want a pair of Nikes so I'm going to smash this window doesn't really gain much momentum as a movement.

Todd: So there was a lot of opportunism?

Julia: Absolutely. I think that's pretty much all it was, yeah.

Todd: So do you think it's going to happen again in the future?

Julia: No, I don't think so, no, because of the way the public responded and the way it was handled, I don't think it's the kind of thing that would gain momentum again. I don't, I think it was a one-off.

Todd: Yeah, a one and done deal?

Julia: I think so, yeah.

Todd: Well that's good.

Julia: I hope so.