Like most people with a brain in their head, I was incensed to see the events in London unfold over the weekend. Looting has to be one of the most despicable of crimes and to see it happen on English streets leaves me disgusted.

Inevitably, the do-gooders have been quick to climb out from under their rocks and indulge in the typically anti-authority tirades they use to apportion blame to anyone but those actually responsible. However, this time even they are starting to realise that there are no excuses for this kind of behaviour and none are going to be accepted. The people who thought it ok to smash their way through windows and steal in pure daylight are vermin, pure and simple.

The interesting thing of course, is what happens next. I know North London , it’s where my family originated, and I have seen how the gangs have all but taken over the streets and brought fear and terror to the area. Yet the stark truth is that this is not as the community leaders will have you believe, the fault of the police, it is instead the fault of the community as a whole because they are the ones who have allowed this cancer to grow from within.

For it is a fact that every gang member is a son, brother, sister, friend or neighbour so why have they not done more to stop this culture developing under their noses? They after all, are the ones most directly affected as we have tragically seen over the weekend.

Instead, they have for years abdicated responsibility which is ironic given that the people they have abdicated it to are the same ones they are currently busy trying to blame for it all going horribly wrong.

Only by individuals facing up to their responsibility as either citizens or parents can the people of North London ever hope to rebuild trust and develop genuinely a safe and caring communities. It’s also the only way that those who live outside the borough of Tottenham will ever come to regard the people who live their with any degree of respect. 

Because have no doubt, unless they are seen to act, that will be the long term consequence of what happened at the weekend. The lessons of Broadwater Farm should have shown them that.