p5 government & politics

8/3/2019 P5 Government & politics

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Sam Bamber, Nick Harrison, Alex Wilkes & James Lamin



What Were They?

The race riots that occurred in 1981 in Brixton, South London were cause by theMetropolitan Police when they began Operation Swamp 81 and introduced the suslaw.

The sus law allowed the Police to stop and search any persons under their own

suspicion, when the sus law had been passed through Parliament (see task 5), thePolice took advantage of it and searched almost every ethnic minority becausethey had the power to do so.

The riots/protests began due to someone being searched, the riot escalated onFriday 10th April due to a black youth (Michael Bailey) being stabbed.

In the space of 5 days, over 1,000 people were searched (mainly of the blackpopulation) and there were 250 arrests!



How Did They Effect The Public Services?

These riots had a dramatic result on the Police service, the rioting left 299 PoliceOfficers injured, at least 65 civilians (including criminals) injured, 61 privatevehicles and 59 police vehicles were damaged or destroyed, 28 premises wereburned with another 117 buildings damaged and looted. 82 arrests were madethroughout the whole process.

Members of the public also lost trust in the Police service as they wereinstitutionally racist and they therefore could not make a reasonable and necessaryarrest because they believed that all ethnic minorities were criminals, and this leadto the introduction of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.

This also resulted in the Ambulance service being stretched to their limits due tothe number of casualties and the Fire service was required to put out the fires thatwere made to buildings and vehicles.



What Were The Results Of The Riots?

When the riots had finished, Lord Scarman was appointed by the Home Secretaryto hold a Public Enquiry. Lord Scarman focused on the policing during the riots andthe Police service was advised to recruit more people of the black population tomake the service more diverse and so they don’t discriminate against ethnic

minorities.

The government created the PACE Act 1984 and the Human Rights Act 1998which introduced equality into communities in Britain which resulted in the Policeservice becoming more trusted by the members of the public as they have the dutyto provide equal service to ALL people in society.



What Were They?

Students began protesting in London due to the increase of tuition fees made bythe government.

Students from at least 12 universities and colleges within Central Londonparticipated in the protests and even some school pupils left their lessons to join in

with the students.

Students became violent as the protest lengthened, fires were started, shops andvehicles were sprayed with graffiti and other acts of vandalism were committed.




The protests made by students caused £50,000 worth of damage and over 1,500Police Officers were used to prevent any damage being caused and this cost thegovernment £77,000.

During the demonstrations, there was few casualties so the Ambulance service

were not put under any major stress; however, the Police service was under a lotof stress due to the large numbers of students protesting and causing damage toproperty.



What Were The Results Of The Protests?

Police have reported that 17 people were injured, including two Officers asprotesters were contained on Whitehall. There have also been occupations in atleast 12 universities, including Oxford University's Bodleian Library. School pupilswalked out of lessons to join university and college students on local protestmarches across the UK. Towards the end of the day, fires were started, graffiti

sprayed and windows broken in Whitehall by demonstrators who were beingcontained by police. Hundreds of remaining protesters were gradually released bypolice throughout the evening.Earlier a Police van was attacked and barricades thrown as protesters tried tobreak through Police lines.



What Were They?

In 2000, the cost of fuel in the UK went from being the cheapest in Europe to themost expensive. Haulage companies said that due to the higher transport costs,business is hard to make competitive because the price of oil went from $10 abarrel to $30 a barrel.

Lorry drivers in London went on protests against the rising costs of fuel, on the 29 th July 2000 the Conservative party organised a day of protest to draw the attentionof the protesters and say how the price of fuel had increased under Labour’s

power.




When the public heard that the price of fuel was going to increase, they began tobuy as much fuel as possible before the prices were finalised.

Some fuel had to be transported by military vehicles as lorry drivers went on strikeand refused to deliver. One protest that was made by truck drivers was contained

by the Metropolitan Police and no disruption was caused.



What Were The Results Of The Protests?

In his pre-Budget report of 8 November 2000, the Chancellor, Gordon Brown,announced a number of changes which could ease the tax burden for motorists,and which included the taxing of foreign lorries using British roads.

These changes included a cut in duty on ultra-low sulphur petrol, a freeze on fuel

duty for other grades of fuel until at least April 2002, placing more vehicles into thelower vehicle excise duty (VED) band, an average cut of more than 50% on VEDfor lorries, and a Brit Disc vignette scheme requiring all lorries, including thosefrom overseas, to pay tax to use British roads.

The fuel duty freeze has been estimated to have cost the Treasury £2billion

pounds annually in a 2004 report by the Economic and Social Research Council.

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