I was going to go to bed half an hour ago, but my Twitter feed twitched to life with news of a riot happening in Bristol. In amongst the earliest reports of police vans and a bonfire was a link to this article, explaining the background to the disturbance – twin actions, a squat – 'Telepathic Heights' - due for eviction and an anti-Tesco protest. My heart sank.
I've only visited Bristol once around 5 years ago, and noticed it was a city with both a large middle class, bohemian population and a partly neglected city centre with downmarket shops. It turns out it wasn't the clientèle of Poundworld or Farm Foods that were up in arms tonight at a government who is withdrawing their income and selling off their rights while playing expensive war games in Libya. As @GuyAitchison tweeted: “#stokescroft is a lively independent area with plenty of decent local shops. It doesn't need Tesco.”
Well, fuck.
I'm no supporter of big, megalomaniacal corporations myself, especially ones with conspicuously unethical tax practices such as Tesco. In the short time I was away from Liverpool, a store popped up seemingly on every city centre street, including smack-bang opposite a popular fruit & veg stall and a failed attempt to open next to the beautiful, listed Philharmonic pub. But tonight's riots (initially it seems sparked by the eviction) lacked any hallmarks of a class war. I can't help but worry that the gap year travellers and organic grocer quoted in the thisisbristol.co.uk piece are motivated in some way by snobbery. There, I said it.
Here in Litherland on the outskirts of Liverpool, there has been a large Tesco for about two years. Before that, there was a vast expanse of derelict land for as long as I can remember. It had been known for some years that Tesco were planning to build there, and it became knowledge to me because of the, it seems, inevitable protests – in this case local people were worried about the impact on the traffic on an already busy dual carriageway serving the docks. However, I also remember people writing to the Deputy Prime Minister (Prezza himself) to ask when the hell was our Tesco going to be built. The reply was that local issues had to be taken into account... as a new Tesco tended to generate income into an area and central government wanted to make sure this knock on effect was felt in the right areas. The loathsome 'trickle down' effect of capitalism was taking a long time to trickle its way to Litherland.
And now our Tesco is here, I can only say I've seen an improvement in the immediate area – though there is still a long way to go. There is also a new business park, new housing and even the canal is now used by boaters for the first time in decades. It's hard for me to say what the effect has been on small independent shops in the area, many of them have been boarded up my entire life, opening and closing briefly as video shops, blind fitters and tanning salons as the years go by. However except for the Co-op which is now a betting shop, and a pub that is being turned into flats, all ten or so shops at the end of my street, a couple of hundred metres from the new Tesco, have remained open since I was small.
But they don't sell organic hummus, fair trade clothing or chic objets d'art. There's never been that much call for that sort of thing around here. Search for a Waitrose or even Sainsburys with an L postcode and see how little the goats cheese and acai berries market has penetrated Liverpool. We get Tesco, like it or lump it, and the same often applies to our career prospects too. That's not to say we're all knuckle-dragging, uneducated neanderthals who don't know any better, but that's not far off how we're treated, by government and big business alike. Capitalism keeps us in our place.
It goes against all my natural instincts not to show solidarity with essentially anti-capitalist, anti-globalisation protesters, especially when many of them will find themselves on the receiving end of a police baton for peacefully exercising their democratic rights. But I can't help but feel that these well educated, privileged southerners have more avenues available to express themselves and so I question their motives and actions. Why aren't we rioting about this: the gross inequality in Britain, in particular between the North and South, between London and the rest of the country? Tesco isn't innocent, but in a market-driven society like ours it's bound to exist and prosper. Rally against it all you like, the government and the police are on their side (another classic sign of a middle class 'riot' – the mass outpouring of utter shock and bewilderment that police actually resort to using violence on innocent people... give me a break).
There's more distasteful things in life than blue and white carrier bags.
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