"No doubt our right-wing friends will find a way of denigrating and belittling these people as well."

Well I'm anything but RW Leveller, as I'm sure Don will cheerfully attest, given the spats he and I have had in the past, but I have to say that, IMHO, he is absolutely right in his summation of what's gone on.

It is simply not good enough to take the line that, because people are having a hard time, they can be given carte-blanche to burn, loot and riot. My grand-parents and parents had absolutely fuck-all, they lived through the 30's Depression and a World War, lived their entire lives in council houses, no money, no car, no holidays, no electronic gadgetry, just a life of hard fucking work for peanuts-wages. But what they did have was dignity, morals, the work-ethic, respect for other people and other peoples' property, respect for the law, and a firm belief in education, and they made sure that, unlike many of the parents of the criminal animals we've been watching this past few days, they passed their standards on to their children.

There used to be a saying when I was a kid in the 50's - "You don't have to be rich to be clean". And you don't have to be rich to live like a decent human being either. Those feral scrotes need teaching that one.