EXCUSE ME WHILE I HAVE MY SAY..

I think if anything the organised opportunistic recreational criminality currrently blighting the streets of our cities is yet another a wake up call for our declining and falling society.   Now, I`m in no position, living as I do in a quiet semi-rural backwater, to begin to speculate on why this is happening.   I`ll leave that to the `opinion formers,` the politicians, the social worker industry and the self-appointed commentators like the bizarre spectacle that is Camilla Batmanghelidjh who, like so many others, has been quick to profer an opinion but seldom a solution.

And in a sense that`s part of the problem.   With the daunting array of `social networks` available, the opportunity not only to organise destructive flash mobs but also to provide instant commentary is there to be taken.  Twitters are tweeting, Faces are booking, e-mailers are e-mailing and the world is full of relentless interaction and communication across a myriad of `platforms.`   So much so that it is left only to the more discerning to discover what is actually being said and to decide whether it amounts to anything of substance.    

I`m doing it now, of course - blogging away - but in the certain knowledge that only a handful of others will bother to read what I am essentially writing for my own consumption.   It`s therapeutic, if a little sad, that I find some kind of `release` in writing  these literary gems, although it does at least have the merit of keeping my opinions largely to myself.

And so what do I make of  our current problems, which seem to have overtaken the financial crises,  already seen the cancellation of some of tonight`s Carling Cup matches  and even threatened tomorrow`s England international against Holland along with the third Test Match at Edgbaston - now that is serious.   Charlton`s game against Reading has been cancelled on the advice of the police, who are clearly concerned that repeats of Waggy and his Brick might spark riots of themselves.

Well, I`m a parent and a Grandfather.   Our sons are all in their forties but it doesn`t matter how old your kids are, you never stop being a parent.   You`re concerned for them, you need to know they`re alright and even now I like to know where they are and what they`re doing.   It`s not being intrusive - just caring and just being a parent.   So I was genuinely surprised to hear a plaintive cry from the acting head of the Met asking parents in London, in the heat of the night`s rioting, to find out where their children were.   Kids as young as ten were involved in the rioting, looting and general lawlessness, so if I despair at the parents, I despair more for the children who are allowed, if not encouraged, to get in on the act.

I worry about our overstretched, demoralised  Police - their ineffectiveness brought on by bureaucratic strangulation, their fear of retribution if they infringe those twin perils that are `human rights` and `health and safety.`   I worry about a lost generation, who seem to have little hope or knowledge beyond how to survive in our deprived, anti-social, drug-fuelled, benefits claiming, multicultural ghettos.   But I worry too about the willingness, the ability, the courage of the nation`s leadership to see where we have arrived, how and why we have got where we are and what might be done to bring us back to any form of social cohesion and sense of community. 

We`ll see....but I have a feeling I`m going to be disappointed once more.   I quite expect a stream of the usual guff about `underlying causes,` `lessons will be learned,` `no simple solutions` and the rest of the repetitive establishment mantra, but by far the most disappointing will be if our political leaders join in the opportunism to make cheap political capital out of a situation that demands better.   Time for some home truths, the courage to tell them and the determination to do something about it.