>> union bank has put its financial strength to work for a wide range of companies. what can we do for you? >> and now, bbc "newsnight." >> they took to the streets. who were the rioters in england? >> i did not care about that. i just wanted a chance for revenge. >> is already too late for the currency? we discussed whether the breakup is inevitable and ask a leading economic writer if the euro can survive. >> can you keep a currency union together for very long if significant numbers of players say it is not working for us? ♪ >> this year's rise in england were the biggest shock to the country in a generation. who were these people willing to attack the police and burned down parts of their own neighborhood? the british government said they were criminals and that writing was incited on facebook. now the london school of economics and "the guardian" newspaper have talked to 270 of the writers and discovered another picture. paul lewis reports. ♪ >> the england riots were the worst bout of civil unrest in a generation. thousands took to the streets. the fires, looting, and clashes with police give the impression of a country at war with itself. the disturbances resulted in five people dead and more than 4000 arrested. across england, homes, shops, and streets were left unrecognizable. why did it happen? this was not political protest or a riot about politics. it was common thieving and looting. we do not need an inquiry to tell us that. >> the decision not to hold an inquiry left unanswered questions. after four months, no one seemed to know exactly why they began here and spread across england. there have been no attempts to speak to large numbers of people who took part in the disorder. our team of researchers have interviewed 270 people who rioted in london, birmingham, liverpool, and rochester. their testimony has undergone rigorous analysis giving insight into why people took to their streets. you are about to hear their stories, in their words. >> i was standing outside having a cigarette wonder why the crowd was gathering. i found out it was a protest about him being shot. >> mark dugan had been shot dead by police two days earlier. there were rumors he had been assassinated. at 5:00 p.m., friends and relatives gathered at the local police station. >> that was the first time we heard he was shot. another injustice in london, another killing by the police. it was peaceful. everyone was demonstrating. >> the family waited outside the police station for a senior officer who never arrived. after three hours, patience ran out. >> two police cars, they pushed the car on the road and set it alight. the police car go up in flames. i was standing there talking to people. they shoved the other car and set a light to the black bentley. we stood back and watched the car go up. it was an opportunity. i had never set fire to a police car before. it was a police car. i know what they stand for. >> alex, the man who torched a police car was a white man in his 30's from south london. within minutes, the image of the blazing car began circulating on mobile phones in the internet. >> it was people from all backgrounds. young, old, little kids were there. i was talking to people. people were being nice and friendly, attracting. -- chatting. nothing was bizarre. the police car was like a bonfire. >> the party atmosphere did not last long. ♪ people from surrounding burroughs poured in. fires raged. the police came under heavy attack. shops were ransacked. the police have lost control. >> police are calling for calm in north london. >> the pictures on the news, they were destroying cars. they were within 10 feet of offices, vandalizing vehicles. the police were not doing nothing. it looked like we could have the run of the city. ♪ >> it was a chain reaction. it started at one end. shops were already getting broken into. >> everyone was coming out of the shadows. ♪ >> i thought i wanted some money. ♪ >> i went into a shop. he was already broken into. this is a jacket i do not have. i decided to take it. >> people openly admitted they were opportunists. this was their chance, in their words, to get free stuff. >> it felt like christmas had come early. you could take all the nice things you wanted. when you get a chance. your hands on things like that, you feel good. -- when you get a chance to put your hands on things like that, you feel good. >> the lawlessness spread across london. the impression emerged of a city gripped by lifting -- looting. the government blamed social media. the writers we spoke to were not using facebook and twitter. what barry phones -- the rioters we spoke to were not using facebook and twitter. they were using blackberry phones and not only in the u.k. >> people were sending broadcasts. a couple of my friends were pinging me telling me what was happening. >> the message is reaching daniel included images of the police cars burning in scotland and rallying cars for police to take revenge for theeath of mark dugan. they gave a list of places to meet and win. >> i was happy. i wanted to be there. i wanted to burn the cars. the police to cause tell for me in my life. -- the police have caused hell for me in my life. i have always thought to myself when i was on holiday, the students may never come again. i saw it as much opportunity. now was the opportunity to get revenge. -- i saw it as my opportunity. now was the opportunity to get revenge. it was not just the police. it was the government. they make it hard for us to get jobs. even when we do get benefits, they cut it down. some people want to change their lives and go to university. they are raising the prices. people cannot afford university. they go back to selling drugs. that arrest them. they say they do not understand why young people are acting like this. there are reasons why we are the way we are. we get to england and we do a lot of damage to the point whert off, there would have to pay 20 times worse than that. it was our way of getting revenge. >> we thought, ok, you want to financially hurt us. we will financially hurt you by burning down buildings. then it was completely set alit. i felt good. >> many of the people we spoke to travelled to more than one location. they were searching for the disorder, sometimes crossing the city. >> when we first got there, we saw the police. they have their shields up, running. we thought they were on the defensive. we started picking up bricks and throwing them out them. -- at them. it felt good. it made me feel cold when i was doing it. i knew it was somebody's mom or dad. i did not care about it. it is a chance to get revenge. i took it with both hands. it was a war. for the first time, we were in control. we have the police scared. there was no more of us being scared of the police. we actually have the choice of letting officers of the or injuring them. -- often hof the hook or injurig them. i was not there for the robbing. i was there for revenge. i will always remember the day we. for once, they felt like we felt. they felt threatened by us. that was the best three days of my life. ♪ >> as the riots spread across england, the tv pictures gave the impression of mindless criminality. the findings of our story suggests the pictureas more complex. wherever the disturbances took place, those involved said they felt they were taking place in anti-police riots. >> when we came across a police car, we thought we hit the jackpot. we smashed it. we wanted to violate them the way they violate us. they arrest people for no reason. they stopped and checked us for no reason. we fought to get our end back. we enjoyed it. i felt no guilt, nothing. just seeing their faces. >> obviously, the rioters may seek to justify their actions after the event. many things kept rising and prompted by our researchers. they expressed frustration about daily interactions with police. they felt hassled, bullied, unable to walk down the street without being stopped and searched. >> me and my mom were walking home with my younger brother. a few of his friends who have been in trouble with the police for a while, but they were not doing anything. they literally met us in front of my mom spot -- mom's flat. the police questioned my brother. my mother asked why they needed to talk to him. they were so disrespectful to my mom. imam was polite. -- my mom was polite. they pushed her aside. they pushed me aside. they took him into the van. they beat him up and broke his nose. some may say he is a trouble maker. he is not. >> i have seen my friends get beaten up by a police officer. what can you do? you can send off a letter but you never get a reply. nothing ever gets done about it. >> time and again, the rioters were interviewed complained the police did not treat them as equals. they said the officers were rude and disrespectful. it did not matter whether they were in liverpool or birmingham, they felt it was their chance to get their own back. >> everybody wanted to fight the police. it was civil war. shops were getting smashed up. people get battered by the police. they want to pay them back. >> the police may of been the main targets, but the complaints did not end there. >> the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance, the focus of protest last year, was repeatedly mentioned. it was part of a bigger picture. people we interviewed felt they were getting a raw deal. they spoke of youth service closures, rising unemployment, and cuts to benefits. almost half for an education. some had taken part in the student protests. >> the protest did not achieve anything. they are going to make it harder for people to get anywhere in life. >> i think my sister paid 1000 in tuition fees. she is six years older than me. i pay 3000. they want 9000 now. york triple that once and then tripled again. you expect everyone to sit back and take it on the chin. >> they cut away ema, learning grants. it makes people resort to that. >> i hate the people that run it. they have never experienced a day on the streets or been jobless. >> at the time, the consensus was people were riding without a cause. those we spoke to make this clear. the riots did not happen in a political vacuum. >> of course there was a reason behind it. it would not kick off for no reason. ♪ >> four nights a sustained rioting destroyed suburbs. one of 4000 people were arrested. they would face a harsher than usual sentences. the government response has been what they have called a war on gangs. at the heart of the violence since the issue of street gangs. our research has found no evidence to suggest that gangs organized the rights. if anything, the small proportion of gang members present behaved in a typical manner. -- an atypical manner. the gang membership's resolve for what was effectively a four- day truce. >> everyone was working together, they put their problems away for that week. they were able to get along. we have one thing in common. that was to hurt the government and police. >> it was not game-related. -- it was not a gang-related. everyone united. we have the common feeling and we expressed it. >> for those whose lives were ruined by the riots, that sense of unity will be hard to fathom. rioters told us they regretted that parts of their own communities had been destroyed. >> i have got enough taxes as it is. it does not make a difference. i completely disagree with destroying small businesses. >> there were houses with babies. that made me stop. i did not want to hurt the innocent. that was good. as soon as i stopped breaking houses, a went straight to police cars and police officers. >> even when writers expressed regret, they showed little remorse for their attacks on police. -- even when the rioters expressed regret, they showed little remorse for their attacks on the police. >> i would do it again. >> why should i respect them if they do not respect me? i would do it again. i would probably do it to two police cars if i had the opportunity. >> do you have any regrets? >> that i did not do more damage. i wanted to burn down a police station. >> eurean leaders met in brussels this week as the ongoing fight to bring an end to eurozone debt crisis continues. many economists now predict it is too late to save the single currency. sooner or later, they say some will choose to leave or be forced out. there are a the remodeling the consequences of the breakup. -- they are already remodeling the consequences of the break up. >> apparently, there's a lot of this modeling going on. what are they planning for? >> i suspect they are not planning for these sorts of disasters. they may be planning for an exit. in the eurozone, i think they're planning for the thing to continue. they are trying to setup a situation where the european central bank engages. there have been indications in the last week that is what will happen. they think they will get through with it. i do not think they are seriously planning for a break up. >> we've come to the point of whether it will work or not. the companies you advise, they are presumably strategizing. what are you telling them? >> we're getting a lot of questions on my side of the pond about the likelihood of an actual eurozone break up. it is thinkable. a war between israel and iran is thinkable. that does not mean we think it is a likely scenario. the breakup of the eurozone seems unlikely for the times and they are considering. -- for the time frame they are considering, over the next year. muddle through is clearly the most likely outcome. >> what is your prognosis? >> i think they have the resources and the will. they have a central bank. there is no doubt people will hold the euro. if the recipient -- if the european central bank is brought in to purchase debt, the public debt of most of the country's rolls over slowly. italy can continue to pay high interest rates for a long time. as long as the political processes in the affected countries are reasonably stable, they can keep this going for quite awhile. >> i am not worried about break up for a year are so -- or so. >> default is possible. it does not have to break up. there is a tremendous investment. in britain, we tend to assume it will be over sooner. >> i think the willingness of the germans to alternately backstop the eurozone is different from the willingness of the germans who say they will do that but the ecb should be the bank of last resort taking away moral hazard. when you are playing chicken, the fact you have not swerved does say anything about your propensity to swerve overtime. angela merkel has moved to let's not do the bonds now. >> they are doing enough to make it survive. we cannot give a precise bank of -- date of when that will fail. they are not beginning to do enough to make it work well. the question is whether you can keep the currency union together for very long if significant numbers of players think it is not working for them. i think it is likely a lot of countries will feel that. the problem with acting on its is that reading is an absolute -- the problem with acting on that is that leaving is an absolute disaster. the eurozone does not work well. it does not grow. the adjustments do not occur. some countries are permanently in recession. at the same time, they do not have the nerve to leave. this becomes a miserable marriage. but miserable marriages can go on for a very long time. >> they have a pool where a 78% of greeks say they are in favor of the eurozone. there is no popular support among the peripheral countries to move away from the eurozone. that will not happen anytime soon. >> it strikes me as a prerequisite for making progress. democracy is essentially suspended in most of these places. >> democracy is suspended to agree when you create a currency to begin with. the question is how much democracy you gave up. i believe part of the problem in the eurozone is not a lack of the fiscal union. it is the lack of the children's table. when i was a job, you did not give me sharp utensils. over time, that changes. in europe, that has not been the case. there will be changes in the symmetry of europe whatever we do. >> is it ever going to work well? probably not. there are gigantic problems inherent in putting countries together. they have competitiveness problems. we think it will be difficult to resolve. they find government imposed upon them that they have not chosen. they did not like the democratic governments they had before. when you went into the currency union, you gave up a lot of sovereignty. they're just discovering that they are losing more. countries can operate. it is not democratic the way we think about it. >> that is it for this week. from all of us, goodbye. ♪ >> makes sense of international news. >> funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. .ewman's own foundaon and union bank. >> union bank has put its global expertise to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? >> "bbc newsnight" was presented by kcet, los