Violence review must be independent and look for solutions, says academic

AN ACADEMIC who led an independent inquiry into the riots in the north of England more than 20 years ago has urged the Leicester review to look for solutions rather than aportion blame, writes Barnie Choudhury.

Professor Ted Cantle, chair of the new charity the Cohesion and Integration Network, delivered a report for the Tony Blair government after investigating the causes of the summer of disturbances in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford in 2001.

He told Eastern Eye the outcome of the Leicester review will depend on what those commissioning it are trying to find out.

“The idea of my inquiry really was to focus on what do we do next,” Cantle said. “It was to have an analysis of the whole policy framework and try to come up with new approaches.

“I was chosen because, essentially, I had worked in local government, and I was independent of any political party and so were my team.

“We did have two politicians – one Labour, one Conservative – and trade unionists; and we had lots of people representing different community organisations and communities.

“Trying to understand some of the forces involved, or some of the things that happened, rather than, did the police do this at the right time, or what was said on social media, is a

pretty fruitless task.

“It may be helpful in terms of the context, but it’s not really helpful in deciding what to do next, and how to respond to it.”

Cantle suggested those on the review panel must be independent and independently minded.

“We were not a government inquiry, we were an independent inquiry, and everybody on it was fully independent, independently minded.

“At no point did anybody from the civil service or any politician say, ‘could you say this? Could you not say that?’

“At no point were we pressured to come up with a particular point of view, or not to come up with a particular point of view.

“So, I think we felt that we could base our opinions and proposals entirely on what we saw.”

The Cantle team followed the evidence, he said, and it looked at other towns and cities, not just those where there had been riots.

“We went to umpteen towns and cities around the country and asked, ‘What’s gone right? What’s the difference?’

“So, in this case, what are the particular factors that might have influenced Leicester compared with those elsewhere? Why didn’t it happen elsewhere?

“A lot of the same things did happen, but it just happened that Bradford, Burnley and Oldham were the three areas that had that particular spark which exploded into action.

“In many other cases, they had sparks, they had the embers burning, but they never reached the same proportion, just because of luck and circumstance.

“This meant those other towns and cities where they actually had small disturbances or riots were actually put down very quickly.

“So, I think the point is, really to look at Leicester, but look more generally at some of the pressures which triggers to violence.”

Another important piece of advice he offered to the Leicester review team was for them to demonstrate that they were not judging communities.

“We tried to emphasise when we went round to towns and cities that we weren’t there to judge them.

“Lots of the teams were from similar communities. We were trying to do it with them rather than to them.

“There is a real danger the communities feel they have to respond in a particular way, so they might be positive or they might be negative over a particular point.

“I think we could genuinely say, ‘we’re from similar backgrounds and understanding as you, and we can talk on the same terms’.

“In that context, it’s having people who were empathetic – that they were trying to understand, and they were not trying to score points – was really quite important to the process.”

Cantle believed it was acceptable to have ideas and hypotheses about the cause of the disturbances, but he warned that those theories had to be tested.

He also confirmed his inquiry could concentrate and test the causes of tensions which were truly local.

Now, 21 years after the summer riots, things have changed, he said.

“That’s very different from Leicester where social media is playing a huge part. It’s playing a huge part in many, many other communities.

“If you’re a member of x or y community, you’re getting information that you’re not necessarily getting from your neighbour, certainly not from the local press of media, but through social media.

“I think you’ve got to look at the whole context of social media now because social media is acting like an echo chamber, in which extremist views become more extreme.

“They can come from other parts of the world, the influence of the Indian subcontinent for example, whether it’s extremist Hindus or Muslim extremists.

“I would start with the assumption that social media has played a part, and obviously try to put that to the test.

“Because it plays a part in every local circumstance now far more than it ever did before.

“Communities, I think, are particularly vulnerable to that sort of heightened activity.”