Good on the police for remembering who they serve! Who is this Cameron, anyway? He sounds like the worst kind of empty suit, with his corporate catchphrases. Is he an American lapdog like Tony Blair?

If the police had followed politicians' 'hard line' with everyone, this would have spread to every city in England.

Davey, Boris et. al. were on fancy holidays and tried to phone it in. They don't comprehend that there are multiple causes that require careful consideration of a blended solution.  Politicians are painting this simply as a failure of middle/lower class parenting and respect for 'law and order' (ignoring the rich kids involved) with roots in the failure to enforce basic order in classrooms for 20 years, worthless court sentences like ASBOs for multiple offenses (the rich aren't affected by most crime so 'it's not their problem') and a subsequent feeling of no accountability for actions.

All classes admit there are clearly two standards of justice:  the poor get joke sentences as long as they confine their crimes to their own areas.  Rich folks or their kids can commit murder, financial crimes (RBS, eg) or file huge fraudulent expenses without any serious accountability. The obscenely rich and powerful even have a special new court, to maintain their 'privacy' for a cost of only £150K or so (even better if that gagging order prevents discussion of why RBS failed; pols don't want the rich blamed for the financial mess.)

The police are in the trenches everyday; if you're going to listen to someone who knows the various groups and their moods, understand there were those with legitimate grudges, mindless disconnected vandals, and highly organized and motivated looters (who were followed by more mindless, disconnected youth.)  They know that 'hard line' will cause widespread disorder, and the police have to be on the side of the working man.

Politicians now realize their own political necks are on the lines from those pesky 'lower classes' (who inconsiderately ruined their vacations with riots and photo ops with heckling) and the obscenely rich, who are terrified this could spread into 'their' lives.  UK government has to see the economic writing on the wall:  when income disparity reaches a certain point (Russia, 1917; Arab spring countries, 2010), politicians and sometimes entire governments fall.  More police to keep order, which means that budget-cutting is out the window.  The working man won't accept more taxes or cuts when his daily decision is now 'do I eat or pay the utilities/buy petrol.'  Politicians understand the fiercely accelerating financial decline of the middle and lower classes, but not that they simply can't/won't take anymore.  Raising taxes on the obscenely rich/corporations will kill their personal golden goose, and they're praying this law-and-order stand will do the trick. 


If the police don't follow the hard line, the Territorial Army won't either.  This could be an "English Summer."