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It&039;s past ten o&039;clock before we know it The children are finally settled and asleep and the flat is silent The television has been off all evening but now the living room is too quiet so I switch it on just so that we have soround noise Liz is subdued and preoccupied and we&039;ve hardly talked It&039;s getting late It won&039;t be long before we go to bed Before we know it I&039;ll be up again and back into the grind So at a different speed to the rest of the world I feel like I&039;o flat out just to keep up

I go to the kitchen and h to her

&039;Drink&039;

She looks up and smiles and takes the cup from me

&039;You okay?&039; I ask

&039;Of course I a me if I&039;m okay?&039;

&039;Just want to be sure you&039;re all right You&039;ve had a shitty day&039;

&039;I have but I&039;y and tense

&039;Fine,&039; I gru, &039;sorry I asked&039;

&039;Oh come on, don&039;t be like that&039;

&039;Be like what? I only asked if you were okay, that&039;s all&039;

I sit down next to her She stretches out her arently rub my back

&039;Sorry&039;

&039;Doesn&039;t matter&039;

Same old rubbish on TV I pick up the reh the channels The coht and the dra seems to suit the mood I head for the news I want to find outthe odd snippet of information at work today this is the first chance I&039;ve had all day to catch up What we see is more ofyesterday - et is any explanation Each individual report seems to follow a pretty standard format - one or more incidents take place in a particular area and they report how people react to the fall-out This is insane I keep hearing phrases like &039;copycat violence&039; and &039;revenge attacks&039; being banded around Are people really as stupid as Harry tried to suggest yesterday? Would anyone really want to start trouble just because they&039;ve seen others doing it?

&039;Look at that,&039; Lizzie says as we stare at the headlines together, &039;they&039;re even giving the to help?&039;

She&039;s right I heard the word used a fewof it Thethe trouble have been branded &039;Haters&039; It came fro and it&039;s quickly stuck It seems appropriate because there&039;s still nofor any cause or reason Hate see theive them a name,&039; I mumble &039;It ive them a name&039;

Lizzie shakes her head in disbelief

&039;I don&039;t understand any of this&039;

&039;Norabout it like it&039;s an epidemic How can it be? It&039;s not a disease, for Christ&039;s sake&039;

&039;It ht be&039;

&039;I doubt it But there has to be a reason for all of it, doesn&039;t there?&039;

She&039;s right, but like everyone else I have no idea what that reasonthe newsain until all of this sudden violence and disruption has stopped I instinctively start trying to come up with an explanation to try andelse

&039;Maybe it&039;s not as bad as they&039;re est

&039;What?&039;

&039;They always exaggerate things on the TV, don&039;t they? They&039;ve just been saying so about an increase in the nu reported, but that doesn&039;t necessarily mean there&039;s been any increase in the nu place, does it?&039;

&039;Not necessarily,&039; she says, sounding unsure

&039;There hts as last week, but they weren&039;t neorthy then Proble like this on&039;

&039;What are you saying?&039;

&039;Maybe this whole situation is so the TV and newspapers have created,&039; I say I&039;

&039;It can&039;t be So out there There are too many coincidences for&039;

&039;Okay,&039; I interrupt, &039;but if they haven&039;t created the proble it worse&039;

&039;What about what happened at the concert on Friday? And in the pub? And whatever was going on with that car last night and what happened at school this s would have happened anyway? Do you think we&039;re reading more into them just because of e&039;ve seen on TV?&039;

&039;I don&039;t know There&039;s no way of telling, is there? All I&039;et out of control before&039;

&039;Have we?&039;

&039;Of course we have It happens all the time Someone somewhere broadcasts a story, then a brain-dead section of the audience copy just to try and get thees of the papers&039;

Now I think I&039;ve really lost her I can tell from the expression on her face that she doesn&039;t understand Either that or she doesn&039;t believe me I&039;m not entirely sure about this et you&039;

&039;Res?&039; I ask She shakes her head and screws up her face again &039;A few years back a kid round here got attacked by their neighbour&039;s pet Rottweiler, reot allput down&039;

&039;So? What&039;s that got to do hat&039;s happening now?&039;

&039;Point is until that story broke hardly anyone had heard anything about dogs attacking kids, had they? But as soon as it made the papers there were suddenly stories about the sa all over the place There was a bloody epide kids Now you only hear about it happening once in a blue ain&039;

&039;What&039;s your point? Are you saying that those kids didn&039;t get attacked?&039;

&039;No, nothing like that I guess what I&039;s like that must happen all the time but no-one&039;s interested As soon as it h, people start to report it and before you know it you&039;ve got dogs biting kids on every street corner&039;

&039;Not sure if I agree with you,&039; she says quietly &039;Still not even sure I knohat you&039;re talking about There&039;s never been anything on this scale before&039;

&039;I think that these idiots,&039; I explain, pointing at the TV, &039;are doingthe whatever it is that&039;s happening and blowing it out of all proportion People are seeing the violence and the glory and rebellion on TV and they&039;re thinking, I&039;ll have some of that&039;

&039;Bullshit You&039;re starting to sound like Dad&039;

&039;It&039;s not bullshit Re to think of another exahtof race-motivated disturbances in a few major cities, ours included Lizzie nods her head

&039;What about theain Someone started a little bit of trouble out of the way in soot hold of it and the problem was made to look a hundred times worse than it ever was It was the way they reported it thatnow There&039;s a genuine probleets reported and before you know it you&039;ve gotwhatever it was that caused the very first fight to kick off as an excuse to get involved&039;