I spent most of yesterday evening watching the riots unfold on the telly. Although they had a bad night in Manchester, and other cities saw sporadic violence, it looks like things are starting to calm down a bit.
A riot such as this one was never destined to last all that long. It was never about politics, it was never about anger at the system and is was never about fighting for change. It was simply organised violence, arson and theft by groups of young people who have been brought up to believe that action's do not have consequences.
Brought up to believe... They've never had any discipline in their lives, they've never been taught right from wrong and they know no respect for property of others.
If you constantly tell people that they are deprived, that they are living in poverty and that they are victims of racism they will believe it.
None of these people are poor
None of these people have nothing to do
None of these people are victims
Even so, these reasons are not excuses for arson, violence and theft.
When the anti cuts protesters descended on London they were kettled by the police. When I went to watch the EDL demo in Blackburn, 2000 people were corralled into a small T-junction for an hour.
What I saw on the news last night was small groups of riot police standing by while small groups of a hundred or so rioters caused mayhem. Where are the consequences there?
I think it was Dick Puddlecote that linked to an audio conversation between a reporter and two feral skanks that went something like this:
Reporter: Why are you targeting local people?
Feral skank: It's rich people innit. People with businesses. We are telling the rich people that we can do what we want.
Total lack of any understanding. Local business people are not rich, they make a living providing goods and services that the local people want. Not that rich people have done anything wrong, they just provide the same on a bigger scale.
There was another 'interview' I saw on Sky, I think:
Reporter: Why are you doing this?
Feral skank: The yoof are fighting back because nobody respects us. You show us some respect and we will show you some.
Of course no body respects you, you don't deserve an ounce of it. Respect is not something that can be traded off with others; you respect me and I'll respect you. Respect is earned through actions on an individual basis.
Setting fire to local businesses after you have looted them dry will not get you respect.
Where are the consequences here?
All I saw last night was coppers in riot gear, standing back and letting it all happen. I did see a Greater Manchester cop getting stuck in on this mornings news but that's the heaviest police action I've seen so far.
Apparently a few hundred people have been arrested, although none of them made it onto the telly.
Earlier in the year, a guy at work who lives in Burnley directed me to a Youtube video of some locals kicking off outside a pub during the Burnley riots. The police were standing back and just containing it, but doing little else.
As a local, he was able to tell me that the police arrested the whole lot of them a couple of months later and they all got stiff prison sentences.
That tactic will not work in this situation. Everybody involved was given the impression that the police will let them get away with it. That, given national news coverage, just tells all the little scroats that they can go down, join in, have a right old laugh and nothing will happen to them.
What we need to see on the news is the police protecting homes and businesses with the stiff end of a baton.
I'm not personally a fan of the police. They spend too much time arresting people for singing Kung Fu Fighting or confiscating my car because of a database error. This time however, they had a clear job to do and would have had my backing if they did it. They didn't.
What are they frightened of? Probably being sued or branded as racist or some such nonsense, and that's probably a justifiable fear in today's climate.
So what now? When this has finally died down, the 'questions that need to be answered' will all be about what excuses we can give to these feral rats for their behaviour.
The questions that really needs to be answered is why did we let it get this far and what can be done to put a stop to it right now. Society needs a huge shift in a different direction.
We need to stop telling people that they are deprived, poor victims. We need to stop telling people that their actions have no consequences and show them that this is true every time it is challenged.
We need to get rid of this crazy notion that every child can be educated to degree level and start educating the thicker kids in more manual areas of work.
We need to do away with the benefits culture that rewards people for having children they have no intention of bringing up to be responsible adults. The culture that rewards people for being lazy and feckless, sometimes with bigger rewards than hard working people get.
We need to demonstrate to people that their choices and actions are what makes their lives. That they are solely responsible for how those lives turn out, and we need to hit them hard when they step outside of the law.
And amongst many other things we need to do, we need to get rid of our 'one size fits all' society, now and forever.
And in the short term? All these people that have apparently been arrested need to be brought before the courts and given 8-15 year prison terms. It doesn't matter what their involvement in the riots was. Invoke the Joint Enterprise laws and prosecute them all for vandalism, theft and arson.
Throw the key at 'em.
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