I’ve just finished watching Newsnight which, for the umpteenth time, seems to talk with words of revolution from the comfort of the luxury BBC studio.

Tonight’s offering, once again, is about gun crime and bad boys and yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah… If I’m not watching ex-Eastenders masquerading as moral arbiters in urban communities, it is people who are paid to spout fancy words about an issue they are so far detached from they may as well be talking about Afghanistan.

And as per usual they have got ‘the guy from the community’ with his suitably ghetto moniker who is ‘down with the kids’, the right wing nationalist who thinks the issue is self perpetrated and so should be dealt with as such and the smugly smiling liberal who sits with their leg crossed over their bodies and a pungent air of self-satisfaction that could choke the camera crew.

Listening to them throwing up buzz words and clichés like football commentators highlighted to me the crux of the problem. As long as the issues are glossed over to sell newspapers and pay the salaries of journalists and civil servants there will be no resolutions. In fact, every single day that passes is like the further spread of a deadly epidemic which affects people younger and younger everyday.

I often wonder what credentials are required to get on such shows. Judging by the lame duck answers and attitudes of people from within our own community, I would speculate that it is hip-hop credibility over sense and reason.

Tonight I go to sleep with a lot on my mind. Hopefully tomorrow will bring sunnier horizons.

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