Summary
15 August 2011
David Cameron is promising a "social fightback" in response to the rioting and looting in England last week.
The prime minister says he's determined to take on long-standing social problems.
Reporter:
Ben Geoghegan
Youths looting a shop in London
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The prime minister will say the riots are the results of social problems which have "festered for decades and which have now exploded in our face."
He'll add that in parts of the country there has been a slow motion moral collapse and he'll blame the state and its agencies for sometimes encouraging the worst aspects of human nature.
Mr Cameron will point to the riots as a reason to renew his campaign to fix what he's referred to before as "Britain's broken society" so there is to be a review of a whole range of policy areas, including schools, parenting and welfare in order to find solutions.
The Labour leader, however, will warn against what he says are knee-jerk gimmicks which haven't been properly thought through.
He'll accuse the prime minister of taking a simplistic view of the riots, by seeing them as a problem of culture alone without considering the impact of lack of opportunity and deprivation.
Ben Geoghegan, 大象传媒 News
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Vocabulary
- festered
become worse because they have not been dealt with
- decades
tens of years
- moral collapse
dramatic fall in good standards of behaviour
- agencies
government organisations
- renew
start again
- welfare
services provided by the state especially to people who can't afford them
- knee-jerk gimmicks
measures which are not properly thought out and designed to get an immediate positive reaction
- simplistic
uncomplicated
- lack of opportunity
having no chance to improve your social situation
- deprivation
not having things you need for a basic level of life
