Fiona Melville

9th Aug 2011

I spent hours last night watching Sky News, completely tranfixed by the damage, and utterly taken aback by how casually it is being excused by some commentators. Whether you agree that the “cause” is cuts, unemployment and deprivation or not (I happen to disagree; there are many more people who have very little but who do not go on a rampage of consumerist rioting), we all need to think about why it happened – and more importantly now, how to put a stop to it.

As Max Wind-Cowie sensibly said yesterday, the rioters are looting and rampaging because they refuse to accept policing. In any civilised society, there is a contract between citizens and the state, with an understanding on both sides of both rights and responsibilities.

As Phillip Blond sensibly said yesterday, these rioters have lapped up the idea of their rights (to an extraordinary degree – how is it a right to have brand new trainers or a giant telly?), but have rejected the notion that they have any responsibilities.

And as Hugo Rifkind sensibly said last night as well, this is when liberal principles really count. It is possible – in fact, I think it is imperative – to have a criminal justice system and an approach to policing which is both tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, and which serves our wider society better than a mindless lock ’em up, forget about them for a while, and release them to reoffend mentality.

Watching last night’s footage, I am all for the most aggressive policing we can achieve to deal with these riots. These criminals have utterly abandoned any sense of community, and clearly have little or no sense of responsibility to anyone but themselves. I do not think that there are any excuses for how they have been behaving.

At the same time, we need to understand why they are behaving like this. We do need renewal in society; people need to feel part of something bigger than themselves and that others are on their side.

This is somewhat trite, but that is exactly why the Big Society is important. We’re already seeing the great work of Riot Clean Up. Afterwards, we’ll be needing Society Clean Up as well.