Keep CALM and CLEAN UP!

A lot has been written online about the London riots which occured at the start of the week, and sadly spread to other parts of the country in the days that followed. I don't want to dwell too much on the senseless violence, but instead highlight something which made me smile in the face of such mindless destruction.

On Monday night, gangs of around 100-200 people were gathering in cities across London, destroying property, looting shops, and setting fire to vehicles and buildings. As I sat at home watching the footage on the news, and hearing the police sirens outside the window, the situation really did feel quite helpless...

And then the next day there was news of groups of more than 400-600 people turning up at the sights of the previous nights riots, with brooms and bin bags in hand, ready to help with the clean up!


Seeing this reaffirmed my love for the city of London and the people who live here and made me feel that everything would be alright in the end. Suddenly the rioting gangs were shown for what they really were: a small minority, something it was easy to lose sight of when watching endless footage of the rioting on Monday night. The majority of people in London did not decide to go out and loot and riot. Instead they chose to come out and do something positive to help to clean up the mess others had created!

After a surreal few days, I wanted to get back to drawing again, and to create an image which somehow reflected on recent events. While it is important that we don't loose sight of what happened on Monday night, I think it is more important to remain positive and to focus on how the city responded the next day, and how I hope the whole country will respond in the days and weeks to come...