Hoards of feral youths have spent their weekend running riot on the streets of London. Despite goading and assaulting our police forces and crippling our local economies, we are still bombarded with words like “disenfranchised”, “disaffected” and “criminalised”. These are the words of two generations of British citizens in denial of the fact that they have raised an anarchistic underclass that has no respect of anyone or for anything. This has little to do with poverty and disenfranchisement. I have worked with young people from some of the poorest communities in the country, where iPhones, Nike trainers and
three square meals a day are things of aspiration – these young people bore little resemblance to the ignorant yobs on the streets of London this weekend, most of whom already had all those things and more.

Instead of hiding our heads in the sand, we need to tackle the problem head on. As a nation, we have embraced a liberal agenda that has taken away respect. Parents, schoolteachers, police and even our military have become nothing more than minor anachronistic inconveniences to a youth element that has no respect, aspiration or morality. They can take on the police because their parents and grandparents have effectively neutered the force. We deployed them to stand behind riot shields and be pelted with bricks and petrol bombs, able to do little more than protect themselves from the onslaught. They (and the citizens they serve) were the only people “disenfranchised” during these riots. The police need to be able to bring to bear the necessary force in these
situations, without fear of reprimand when one or two of the thugs they are facing end up with a minor fracture or bloodied nose. If you disrespect our society, don’t expect society to sympathise when you suffer.

And what of our erstwhile politicians? Nothing more than an insipid statement from a junior Home Office minister, whilst the three most senior members of our Government sun themselves abroad. Ignore, for a moment, the lunacy of having our Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor on holiday at the same time as the World financial markets are again at breaking point. It has taken three days before any one of them has broken cover and made a statement on the matter. It does appear that the only people running this country, at the moment, are the yobs.