There has been a vivid discussion of what should happen to those who have been starring on the nightly news this week. Some think that rioters should be hanged, some that they should be flogged. Strict disciplinarians are of the opinion that they should hanged and flogged but not in that order, while others let it be known that rather than be sent to jail, the perpetrators should be cut up into small pieces, stuffed into envelopes and posted to jail. They believe that is the only kind of language these people understand.
Throwing them out of their council homes is also a vote winner at the moment. There is the case of a single mother (boo) and the nylon bedecked 18 year old (booo!) who is accused of n'er do wellery while being knowingly related to her by birth. He is her son and has been apprehended by the law, so the baying mob want the whole family out of their council accommodation. Two things: how on earth can a mother be held responsible for the actions of an 18 year old man - old enough to be in the Army - even if she did raise him; and what of the eight year old daughter who will also shortly be finding herself homeless? What has she done to deserve that?
While the wilding of the last week was, in part, a mad reaction to a perceived suspension of the normal rules of the street, so has been the response form an unhinged horde for a call for an ever escalating cocktail of retribution to be served on those that did it. Is it possible, that those that are yelling the loudest for the death penalty for kids who stole a bottle of water or some trackies, are the same sort of people they are fulminating against? Do they by their furious response contribute to the destruction of our society just as much, in the long term? Reading that, you may want to call me a soft, wet, liberal, cardigan wearing beardie, which I object to most strongly - I do NOT own a cardigan.