The Riots Part 2

Following from my initial post other points that keep cropping up are "Rioting isn't the answer*" and "They're not listening to us".

To deal with the first the follow-up seems to be along the lines that we have a democracy and the voice of the people should come via the ballot box. Excellent I couldn't agree more so let's hold an election right now! Let's elect our MP, our councillor; let's hold a referendum right now! Oh wait we can't we only get to do that when the people currently in power allow us to. Sure there are rules that mean they have to hold one every so often; but we the people never got a say in that and we still don't.

From the other side of the argument is the 'not listening'. Really? Have you tried to make your voice heard? When was the last time you attended a PACT meeting? It's difficult, if not impossible, to justify a case that the authorities aren't listening if you don't attend the meetings set up so they can hear you.

Okay in that latter case I would accept the argument that they'd never heard of these meetings. In our case the notices seem to be buried in the 'and local' section of the newspaper or at the most get a thumb's worth of space amongst the 'real' news. If you didn't already know they existed there's little to tell you they do.
 
Locally the PACT information for Stourport can be found here which includes the timetable and meeting point. At least they're not being held during weekday afternoons; weekday early evenings when some people may have just got back in from work, but at least not the afternoons.

*I quoted this before, but it's worth doing it again -
"Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?"
"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?" [...] "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard,  more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."