Bbc How Clean Is Your House

England riots: Are brooms the symbol of the resistance?

In the wake of the riots in English cities, law-abiding citizens have been picking up brooms and brushes and joining the clean-up. Is the broom the symbol of the resistance to the riots?

After the rioting every night this week, the news headlines told a bleak story of communities under attack. But hours later locals wearing wellies and washing up gloves were reclaiming the streets with brooms, bin bags and dustpans.

The fightback has been co-ordinated by the Twitter campaign #riotcleanup, launched by Dan Thompson and Sophie Collard, two strangers who were united by a shared sense of outrage at the scenes of devastation.

"The most shocking thing was the TV footage of fires spreading across London," says Thompson, an artist in Worthing. "The pictures of the furniture warehouse in Croydon burning was like something out of the Blitz."

The response to the Twitter campaign was dramatic. By the following morning crowds of people had gathered in riot-affected areas like Clapham Junction and Hackney.

When London Mayor Boris Johnson went to inspect the damage in Clapham Junction, the crowd chanted "where's your broom" and one was soon pushed into his hand.

He raised it aloft to cheers that seemed to recognise the new symbol of the fightback.

Most of those involved in the clean-up brought along their own gear. But Homebase in Battersea gave away a number of brooms, dustbin bags and dustpans and brushes, and also sold some items half price to those taking part in the clean-up.

Nicole Wevers waited patiently with hundreds of other residents while police forensics experts combed the streets around the looted Debenhams in Clapham Junction.

"It was the most hilarious scene with everyone wearing marigolds and children holding mini brooms." There was a Mexican broom wave and spontaneous applause for the police and fire brigade, she says.

When the police cordons finally came down it only took 10 minutes to leave St John's Road spotless such was the turnout. "I was so upset in the morning about the riots," Wevers says. "But it was the most amazing day with a real spirit of togetherness."

The main problem was broken glass from shopfronts but not all the shops had been targeted. While the looters had cleared out the stock of Currys, Claire's Accessories and Phones4U, nearby Waterstone's had been left "without a scratch", she says.

Sappy Songs on a Sunday « The Oreo Experience

Next on my list of ways to procrastinate instead of just writing the pages that I’m supposed to hand over to people tomorrow (sorry, M and J!) is to make a playlist of songs that I love…but that also make me cry a little bit.

I’ve already exhausted watching episodes of the BBC hit “How Clean is Your House,” making my own bathroom cleanser from scratch, annoying my cats and convincing myself not to go to the Cicada Club tonight (is anyone going to the Cicada Club tonight?). So this iTunes journey seems like the next best thing.

Here’s what I have so far! These are some of the songs that will cause me to show up for 8:30 a.m. production meetings with smudged mascara because I couldn’t just had to listen to them as I pulled into the parking lot at work.

Tom Waits – San Diego Serenad e. This song gets five out of five tear stains. Just so lovely and evocative and simply lyriced.

Elaborate Lives from Aida . I know, there’s a black person in this video. But she’s dating a white dude, so it’s all good. Also, she’s Heather Headley who is hands down amazing. And she GETS TO KISS ADAM PASCAL. I would probably give every thing that I’ve ever owned or will to re-make this video with Adam. He did touch my shoulder once. I know he thought it was as special as I did. There are 46,000 views of this video. I’m pretty sure that 45,900 are mine .

Foreign and Commonwealth Office annual report 2007-08, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence

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