The last 10 days have been a difficult time for many of us in a number of ways. Not everyone has the certainty of a regular holiday, so sympathy for Boris and Dave who under some duress (particularly on the part of the Mayor) returned from their foreign trips in order to see for themselves London’s Streets ablaze may not be great. It was clear to me that some form of civic leadership was needed at the time and sadly I saw little competence being shown by the senior politicians who have not yet been away. Even the Police seemed a bit flat-footed till Hugh Orde saddled up and took on the role that until a month ago Paul Stephenson would have filled on our screens. I stand by my view that we needed visible and credible leadership and to his credit Dave (to a lesser extent Boris with his green brush, and fatuous comments on Radio 4 about school discipline causing the problems) provided this by what they said and by being there. I think if Boris had a sensible deputy (see my blog about Richard Barnes) and Dave and Nick were bright enough to go away at different times both could have avoided the need to book early flights home.

However calling for the Army to reinforce the police was poor judgement (even if it had been logistically possible). It would have been incredibly damaging from a PR and political point of view Internationally, let alone the chaos and loss of morale that would have been caused at home. I also felt that Dave’s judgment to recall Parliament, particularly after Nick had just told us this was not going to happen was an error. If as was reported, the taxpayer will pick up the tab for the MPs to return from their family holidays then this will be a definite own goal. Having glanced at Hansard for the debate in both Houses I am still not sure that we got good value for our investment in their changed plans in most of the 160 or so brief comments that they made. It might have been more fitting for some of them to return from holidays to reassure people in their constituencies, rather than speaking en-masse to the nation from a chamber which was so well protected from any risk of damage.

The disrupted Summer has had only a marginal impact on the lives of these high-profile folk. Equally for the Millions of us who were either impervious to the events or perhaps simply felt a little unsettled, the impact has been slight. We paid for a few 100 MPs to return to work in the holidays, and all of us will pay for this Summer madness through the impact on the economy. However apart from this our Summer was largely unaffected. Contrast this with the many who have been left feeling it was the Summer from Hell.

The events that began in Tottenham with the shooting of Mark Duggan and disaster for his family may end with as many as 3000 people being charged with criminal offences, many for the first time in their lives. Irrespective of their social backgrounds, for many this will be a much greater wake up call than for many of the students who attended riots earlier this Summer, MPs who claimed for second homes or journalists who used dishonest means for no good reason. Far less the bankers with their huge bonuses, in effect funded from the public purse and a few future Ministers who will have smashed up restaurants this Summer as part of their rites of passage in the Bullingdon club and its equivalents in other seats of ‘learning’.  For many the week will have left a deep scar for years to come.

• There are a few who like Mark Duggan’s family have relatives or friends who have lost lives. An old man in Ealing, three young people in the West Midlands.
• The many unidentified individuals who have been injured (beaten) such as the driver of the Greggs lorry who was hospitalised, but is due to return to work on Monday or the Police Officers who for the first time faced people who had lost control of what we might describe as normal behaviour.
• Those who have lost their homes as a result of fire damage or will do so due to the new aggression being meted out by social landlords (or parents).
• The many whose businesses have been badly affected or who will lose their jobs.

These are people who it is reasonably easy to measure or count, but there will also be a deep impact on communities which were already impacted by deep divisions between the haves and have-nots that may have incited some to riot in the first place. There was a fascinating interview on Today on Friday with Grant Cornwell, CEO of Tottenham Hotspur foundation. After explaining about the work of the foundation with the young men and women in the area where this all began he was challenged to justify the income levels of the players in the club. His inability to articulate any form of apologetic or rationale (no matter how pathetic) for such a clear social injustice was disturbing. Most reasonable people do not think that the riots are as a result of inequalities, but recognise that in a context of inequalities such events become more likely. The same programme reported on estimates of £50,000 debt by our graduates on leaving Universities.

For me the best analysis so far of the inequalities faced in our communities this Summer is this piece by Peter Oborne http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100100708/the-moral-decay-of-our-society-is-as-bad-at-the-top-as-the-bottom/