London’s Big Society Is On Fire.

Boris has cut short his holiday because of the riots. This shit just got real!

As ineffectual politician after ineffectual politician fill up our TV screens bleating about how the riots in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester last night were started by ‘opportunistic common thieves and thugs‘, and have absolutely nothing to do with far deeper and darker problems in our society, flick them the fingers and blow a large raspberry at them all…and then change the channel because Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has probably just started.

As much as David Cameron and his sitcom live-in life partner Nick Clegg will tell you otherwise, (see the Tory’s election flagship policy the ‘Big Society‘), British society has been crumbling for some time and just like a large puss filled wart on the end of your genitalia it was ignored in the hope that it would just fix itself. We are not condoning what has happened over the last couple of days but to solve a problem you need to try and establish what the problem is, and this malfunction goes far deeper than the shooting of a 29 year-old father of four by police in Tottenham.

Pretty much everyone we contacted yesterday online knew in advance that trouble was coming. On Twitter yesterday we found this:

…a picture taken by someone living in the Tottenham area who found these fliers around High Street basically advising people who may be worried that they had been filmed by police looting and rioting to change their appearance. This in itself could merit a fantastic new reality TV show: Extreme Makeover: Anarchy Edition:

‘Will is worried that the police may have filmed him looting JD Sports the night of the riots and has become a recluse, refusing to leave the house for fear of being arrested. So we’ve sent over a crack team of our top urban stylists to give Will a make over, so he can venture outside and stride the streets of Tottenham with the confidence he once had. Say bye-bye face scarf and skip hat, say hello comedy glasses, fake nose and eye patch.’

The media are reporting that those responsible for the civil unrest are ‘kids’ and predominately Black or Asian. Here’s a link to a video showing a man being assaulted and mugged in broad daylight on the streets of London yesterday. His assailants aren’t ‘kids‘ and they certainly aren’t all Black or Asian. Another video below shot by a Sky News camera crew shows the looting of a sporting goods shop in Tottenham by various people of all ages, sex and ethnicity.

These rioters are well organised, mobile and after the events of last night, pretty much in control.