Long term solutions not blame

The recent riots in London and elsewhere have, rightly, attracted enormous condemnation of those concerned in the looting, arson, theft and other forms criminality. Whatever challenges, real or imagined, the participants face there can be no conceivable excuse for their actions and I for one hope that the courts treat those that come before them in an exemplary fashion. The indiscriminate and unprovoked attacks on people in their homes, and while working in their businesses, has been truly sickening.
Apart from having to witness a variety of atrocious occurrences I guess the next thing we will be forced to endure will be the in-fighting amongst politicians of all parties whose horizons do not go beyond the next election. It didn’t take long to start and, no doubt, the bickering will grow in intensity during the coming weeks and months. So and so didn’t come back from their holidays soon enough; the cuts and withdrawal of benefits/EMA/community support were bound to result in these poor disenfranchised souls feeling the need to steal the latest 55” TV/i-pad/i-pod or whatever else took their fancy. Before any attempt is made to find solutions the game will largely be about ensuring that no blame attaches to them and, wherever possible, as much mud as possible is slung at the other side. The truth is that these examples of appalling behaviour were not caused by politicians of any party the responsibility lies fairly and squarely upon the shoulders of those who took part.
Despite recognising that politicians are not directly to blame it is clear that they do have a role in developing strategies that will make it less likely that these riots recur. The job to be done is enormous and will not be concluded following the uncovering of some form of miraculous ‘silver bullet’ nor, in my view, will solutions be found in committing the police to attending yet more community meetings.
My Grandmother was fond of reminding me that ‘the devil makes work for idle hands’ so maybe the starting point should be to find these people work. The flaw in that idea, though, is that most seem to be unemployable, unable or unwilling to speak in understandable English and largely of the view that the world owes them a living. On the latter point the world owes them nothing they are not prepared to work for and it is most certainly not incumbent on employers to conform to their strange twisted view of life.
Are they lost causes? Some may be but hopefully most can be redeemed, although this won’t happen if we excuse their every misdemeanour. In the meantime we desperately need to be working on those who are likely to follow them to ensure that they develop respect for themselves and others.
In the short term we need the government to do all it can to support all the businesses affected to get back on their feet and their staff back into work, more profound solutions will take a great deal longer.