I've no doubt that this will bring out the usual crop of polarised opinions, most of which will bear little relation to the reality of the situation.

I suspect that it will be next to impossible to sort out exactly why these riots took hold (as it has been with similar occurrences that have taken place in the past in my own area of Yorkshire). It was probably a combination of people who feel that they have a real grievance about the policing in the area, brought to a head by the shooting of Mark Duggan, others who are feeling more generally aggrieved about their social and economic situation, and those who just want the excitement of creating mayhem and being able to do a bit of looting on the back of it.

I have an awful feeling that we haven't seen the last of this kind of situation, especially as there is an ever-increasing number of people who have an ever-growing sense of alienation brought about by the ever-widening gap between rich and poor which has been happening for the last 30 years, aided and abetted by successive governments, plus the demonising as scroungers and wasters of anyone who, for whatever reason, is obliged to seek state benefits. The result of this has been to create an underclass which believes, not least because they have are constantly told so by the right-wing rags like the Daily Mail, that they are not part of society. Why, then, should they behave in a civilised manner?

What is certain is that the real losers are those people who have to live in the devastated communities and try to pick up the pieces of their lives, and the police officers and innocent bystanders who end up in hospital.