Fighting back against mobs

Since returning from his summer holiday, however, Mr Cameron has begun to say and do the right things. Today’s recall of Parliament is an inevitable response to this unfolding crisis and it is only to be hoped that MPs do not demean themselves by attempting to make cheap political capital out of the situation and concentrate instead on the task of resolving it.

Certainly there will be public backing for the Prime Minister’s attempt to strengthen the police’s hand by allowing the use of water cannon on the British mainland for the first time and for his assurance that the Government will do “whatever is necessary”, which must also include the use of baton rounds.

The previous hesitancy in this regard – embodied by Home Secretary Theresa May earlier in the week – is, frankly, unfathomable. This is an unprecedented situation and unprecedented measures are called for. Images of the police standing by impotently while shops and businesses are torched and looted and innocent citizens attacked have gone around the world and are making this country a laughing stock.

At a time when the full blame for the violence engulfing city streets lies squarely with the criminal mobs responsible, no one wants to point fingers at the police. But it is clear that years in which the building of community relations has taken precedence over the maintenance of law and order have left officers struggling to understand what the right response should be even when confronted with flagrant violence and intimidation.

Indeed, this is one of the key differences between the present riots and those of the 1980s. The progress the police have made in establishing community ties means that there is none of the fear and mistrust which contributed to the violence of 30 years ago. On the contrary, fear of the police has largely vanished and, with it, much of the respect in which they were held.

If the violence is to be defeated, however, this respect has to be re-established. For, as the student fee riots indicated last year, a new force is abroad in society in the form of a shockingly substantial number of people who are prepared to turn to criminality at a moment’s notice and to hijack any legitimate protest to foment violence and looting.

If Mr Cameron is to get to grips with this frightening trend, and re-establish his own authority in the process, he has to ensure that his dictum of “whatever is necessary” applies to the courts as well as the police.

For only the toughest possible punishments will fit these appalling crimes while also deterring those who are tempted to repeat them.