Tottenham smoulders

London has become used to protest recently, but there was still something terrible and unexpected in the images emerging from Tottenham last night. Here we had firebombs, missiles, riot police, burning vehicles, smashed-in shops, looting and other criminality — and it has left eight policemen injured, as well as others in hospital. The cause of the rioting was, apparently, the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by police on Thursday. The effect was scenes reminiscent of Brixton or Broadwater Farm in the 1980s.

There will be fresh attention paid to Tottenham — one of the poorest areas of one of London’s poorest boroughs — by politicians now, and rightly so. But some of the attempts to build political capital out of last night’s events have been incredibly disheartening. Iain Dale highlights the Twitter feed of Labour’s MP for Derby North, Chris Williamson, which lays responsibility for the riots at the feet of the Tories. “Why is it the Tories never take responsibility for the consequences of their party’s disastrous policies,” he asked suggestively, having retweeted someone else’s barb, “Riots. Protests. Cuts. Unemployment. Disaffected Youth. Strikes. Recession.Police Brutality. Yep, the Tories are back alright. #tottenham”

I’d say that Tottenham’s local (Labour) MP David Lammy got some way closer to the truth in his statement last night:

“The scenes currently taking place in our community are not representative of the vast majority of people in Tottenham. Those who remember the destructive conflicts of the past will be determined not to go back to them. We already have one grieving family in our community and further violence will not heal that pain. True justice can only follow a thorough investigation of the facts. The Tottenham community and Mark Duggan’s family and friends need to understand what happened on Thursday evening when Mark lost his life. To understand those facts, we must have calm.”

As, in a blunter fashion, did David Cameron this morning:

“The rioting in Tottenham last night was utterly unacceptable. There is no justification for the aggression the police and the public faced, or for the damage to property. There is now a police investigation into the rioting and we should let that process happen.”

The smoke over Tottenham now appears to be dissipating, although there is still a heavy police presence on the streets. These riots may take the area years to fully recover from, both economically and psychologically. Yet there is one thing to be thankful for this morning: that no-one one was killed during last night’s destruction.