EDITORIAL - When Britain burns

IF DAVID Cameron, Britain's Tory prime minister, is right, he has a far greater problem on his hands than the several days of burning and looting across the United Kingdom suggest.

But more worrying for Mr Cameron and his ruling coalition is that he appears not to have a grasp of any of the probable deeper triggers for the disturbances. In the circumstances, therefore, he is unlikely to be able to lead, beyond the immediate and necessary policing initiatives, a credible response to them.

Our position is shaped by remarks by the prime minister in Birmingham on Tuesday, where three young Asian men were mowed down by a hit-and-run driver while they guarded a business premises against looters.

Said the British leader: "What we have seen on the streets in recent days - it isn't protest, it isn't some sort of half-justified attack on this idea or that idea. It has simply been criminal damage and looting."

That, even from this distance, seems to us hardly a full analysis of the issues, and that the situation will demand deeper thought during less stressful times if Britain is to maintain itself as a stable and socially cohesive democracy. The latter is not sustainable in the absence of the former, which, of course, is not to suggest Britain faces any near-term threat to its tolerant and robustly plural politics. But, as Mr Cameron ought to be well aware, festering untended social and economic sores can be a corrosively destabilising power.

The proximate cause of this week's riot was the police shooting in the Tottenham area of the London borough of Haringey of Mark Duggan, a young black man of Jamaican decent. The police's clumsy handling of information about the matter, in circumstances where they enjoy low levels of trust in the black community, fuelled suspicions about the intent of Scotland.

Indeed, similar resentment towards the British police, and concerns about their treatment of black Britons, helped to trigger riots in Toxteth, Liverpool and Brixton, London, in 1981. Four years later, there were again eruptions in Brixton, the Handsworth area of Birmingham as well as the Broadwater Farm area of Tottenham.

Not a black affair

What is different about this week's riots is that while black resentment may have been the trigger, the looting and burning has not, at least in London, remained a black affair.

For instance, a Guardian newspaper account of looting in the north London area of Chalk Farm noted that the streets "contained people of all backgrounds".

"It can't be said that they are largely from one racial group. Both men and women have joined in."

Which brings us back to to Mr Cameron's suggestion of a lack of rhyme or reason for the disturbances. While we understand and support the need for robust action to cauterise criminality and restore social order, we suspect that Prime Minister Cameron may be mistaking the absence of a specific or declared ideological context to the riots for a lack of deep grievances.

If Mr Cameron scratches the surface hard enough, we expect it will reveal serious disenchantment in Britain among young people - and not just those who live in Toxtexth, Handsworth, Lewisham, Brixton, Broadwater Farm and other traditionally black neighbourhoods.

The big and really difficult question that confronts Mr Cameron is: Why?

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.