Yesterday, Parliament was recalled to debate the unprecedented violence scarring our cities.
The sense of shock – that this could happen in our country, in our time - is palpable.
I’m sure we are all reminded of grim science fiction.
But the footage is only too real.
The sheer barbarism of the murders this week has left us all stunned.
The orgy of destruction, with lifetimes of endeavour going up in flames has been terrible to see.
And we must reclaim our streets, now.
I believe that the police force deserves all the support we can give them.
They are the thin blue line - all that has stood between us and anarchy for 180 years.
Yet, for 20 years at least, successive reviews and inquiries have tied their hands, effectively neutralising them.
We have cut their funding and their numbers.
We demand that they show superhuman levels of restraint and sensitivity.
This week, they are criticized for standing by, yet one false move by a police officer could ignite a conflagration no one could put out.
We are told that the rioters are a lost generation, excluded and angry.
I view them as criminals, pure and simple.
The feral yobs, who have torched their neighbourhoods and looted businesses, clearly care nothing for their communities.
They’re only out for what they can get.
Nor are they all underprivileged.
Early news from the courts suggests that many of those arrested had other, ‘respectable’ lives.
They just wanted to create havoc, through ‘recreational rioting’.
But we can’t say we weren’t warned.
They hijacked the student fees’ protest, which ended in the same, mindless mayhem.
It’s time to get young people off our streets and into busy, productive lives.
Let’s start by debating whether we need to introduce some form of national service for those who cannot – for all kinds of reasons – take responsibility for themselves.
Something which instills some form of discipline, respect for others and aspiration could make all the difference.
The riots show there is plenty of energy out there.
We just need to redirect it.