If a riot has a hundred causes then it’s caused by everything and anything and any all-purpose, universal explanation for it is bound to be implausible. When a 31 year old teacher is among the first people charged in the aftermath of the worst of the violence you can put away your handy explanations about youthful alienation and all the rest of it.
Of course that’s doubtless a factor but it doesn’t explain why the majority of those who might be thought most likely to take to the streets did not in fact do so. Indeed, as I suggest in passing in a piece for the Daily Beast, if these disturbances remind one of anything much it’s the riots that convulsed France back in 2005.
Back then, of course, hysterical commentators declared that this was the beginning of a “French intifada” and a harbinger of the creeping Islamicisation of western europe. Poppycock and plainly such even at the time; ridiculous now. Similarly, all the grievances in all the world don’t explain this present unrest. Is it news that teenagers feel “alienated”? Golly! Moreover, unless you shut down a riot quickly it will spread like, well, like a wildfire. Then it becomes a matter of containment, corralling it and letting it burn itself out eventually. That happened in France and it will happen in Britain too.
That’s not terribly satisfactory either but there you have it. Tories should not be surprised by these riots. Human nature being what it is the appeal of the mob – and, of course, for mob rule – remains a constant. True, the institutions that defend society against these kinds of outbreak – family, police, parliament and so on – may be thought weaker than in the past. Nevertheless they remain strong enough that, actually, British society is not, in the main, “broken”. Pockets of terrible problems remain of course but when was it ever otherwise?
So, no, Tories should be capable of taking the long view, appreciating that material progress should not be confused with human perfectability and that, in all societies, the line between order and disorder is a pretty damn thin one. If it’s rubbed out once every generation then that too should not surprise a proper Tory.
This does not mean Tories should greet these disturbances with nothing more than a world-weary shrug or, alternatively, the suggestion that birching might form a large part of the answer. But it does mean Tories should not be surprised that young men – for it is still mainly, mostly men – will smash things up when given half a chance to do so. Crooked timber and all that, you know?
UPDATE: See Matt d’Ancona’s Evening Standard column for more on this.
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