Twenty-five years after the notorious Toxteth riots, Tony Barrett asks how much things have really changed?
IN THE wake of the Toxteth riots Lord Scarman published his report from the official inquiry into the disturbances.
Among his findings was the following: "The riots were essentially an outburst of anger and resentment by young black people against the police. (But) the police do not create social deprivation; while good policing cannot remove the causes of social stress."
In clear language, Lord Scarman was telling the world that social injustice was the root cause of Toxteth's problems and the riots were aviolent reaction against the state.
The question is, 25 years on from the popular uprising, have the problems which caused the riots now been removed?
As far is the statistical and anecdotal evidence goes they most certainly have not.
Atrawl through census records and awhole raft of national reports into poverty suggests one thing - Toxteth is still being crushed under the weight of socio-economic inequality.
When it comes to unemployment, deprivation, health and education the area is always towards the bottom of the pile.
And, perhaps most importantly, those who live in Toxteth feel left behind and are still waiting for promises made aquarter of a century ago to be fulfilled.
Community leader Pauline Davis, from the Granby Residents Association, is among those who believe not enough has been done to improve Toxteth since the riots.
"You have to look at the business side and we still have no supermarkets, no banks and not enough jobs,"she says.
"There is no proper infrastructure, no proper planning and it has to be said that there have been few changes for the better in Toxteth over the last 25 years.
"You get tired of hearing promises that are never kept. The decline is continuing because there are too many basic things that have been overlooked.
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"Unemployment is far too high. I'm unemployed myself and I received aletter from the job centre the other day telling me about ajob that might have been suitable for me at the Women's Hospital.
"I rang up about it but they were no longer taking applications because they had had so many.
"People want to work but the opportunities just don't exist.
"And this has an impact on everything, even people's health. Heart attacks and stress related conditions are rampant around here."
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