And so the chatter from the chattering classes goes on.  I just wonder how much of it is to do with examining the causes and the search for solutions to the riotous events of the past week and how much of it is simply the desire on the part of most `commentators` just to have their voices heard.

A prime example of what I mean was the exchange on BBC 2`s Newsnight programme the other evening when Dr. David Starkey came up against the formidable Emily Maitlis and two of her other `guests` - Owen Jones and Dreda Say Mitchell, both  apparently `authors and broadcasters.`   Starkey was asked what he thought the causes of the problems might be and he began his reply by suggesting that one of them might have its roots in the gangsta youth culture in our inner cities, where (and I paraphrase) `respect` is earned by the white youths invoking actions and attitudes of their black counterparts by, amongst other things, resorting to speaking in a kind of patois more akin to Kingston, Jamaica, than Kingston upon Thames.   To that extent, the white youths have become black.......

Well, you can imagine the outcry from Maitlis and the other guests, since when we have had howls of derision aimed at Starkey by such leading figures in the Twitterati as Piers Morgan and Robert Peston and a whole welter of condemnation heaped on him by those with instant opinions, even if they - like most people given Newsnight`s audience ratings -didn`t actually see the programme.

Having watched the programme myself, however, what struck me was the fact that he was never allowed to complete a sentence, so swift was the outcry from those in the studio with him.   And that`s a pity, because he was beginning to develop a thoughtful, studied analysis in response to the question he was asked.   It may have been controversial and yet it may have contained more than a grain of truth that we were sadly prevented from considering thanks to the instant screeches of derision.  

My suspicion remains that those who are so quick to condemn are either frightened to face up to the truth or simply being unthinkingly politically correct, neither of which helps the debate we need to have in the wake of last week`s events.   And that debate will also not be helped if words are not allowed in edgeways from those whose opinions might just make us think a little more honestly.