London

I'm going to take a risk this evening.

A phenomenon as serious as the riots in London merits serious thought. This is a time for level and clear heads. Anger is not a worthless or illegitimate emotion, but it should never be the platform on which policies are built.

Yet I want to record NOW my response to coming back to this London after a weekend away. What I am about to set down for cyber-posterity will be honest, even it has not been considered following a good night's sleep and calm reflection.

I increasingly find it useful when faced with complex and daunting political matters to start with what I feel sure of, in the hope that stating the obvious and outlining my premises / confessing my prejudices will shed some light on those areas that are not currently illuminated for me.

This, then, is what I believe:

What's happening is not remotely OK.

Of course there are worse things happening in the world tonight - and worse things have happened to London in recent years. But it is far from trivial that so many of us are feeling unsafe on the streets. I had to walk through a gang tonight. They weren't rioting and there were lots of police around, but it was not a pleasant experience.

And obviously it's gone a lot further than intimidation. These are dreadful, appalling days for London and it is having a scarring effect on the city.

Every politician's primary responsibility is keeping citizens safe.

I don't want to hear about bicycles, bendy buses or climate change for a bit. I want to know how politicians are going to enable and force the police to do what they should be doing, how the right to protest can be balanced against the fact that large groups of angry people are inherently intimidating and cause businesses to lose earnings, what the Justice Secretary is actually going to do about prisons and penal policy and what is going to be done to make the thought of going for a stroll in Brixton in the evening anything other than a ludicrous fantasy.

We are not at peace with ourselves or each other.

Certainly the rioters make up a tiny minority of the population of London. But there can be no serious doubt that it speaks of wider ills. It should distress and disturb everyone that anyone wants to behave in this way. It is fatuous, offensive and wrong to blame it on a moderate slowing of the rate of increase in public spending, which slowdown hasn't even yet begun in earnest. And it's a cop-out.

We all need to ask ourselves why so many teenage boys in London are so divorced from the morals, mores and values to which anyone civilised subscribes.

I came back from Amsterdam today. It may have a notorious red light district and stink of cannabis, yet there is also a little playground wherever you turn and people can sit outside drinking beer while their children sit with them without people vomiting, fighting or seeking out loveless, unprotected sex with a stranger.

It is high time we dispensed with the solecisms that have dominated public policymaking. Some people really are community leaders. Lots of those who call themselves such are unrepresentative, have no genuine authority, and do more harm than good. We should stop talking about 'communities' unless we mean 'localities'. There is no such thing as the black community, only black people.

Language matters because it does so much to shape our premises. Black people do not have a collective guilt for what is going on tonight, and they would not do so even if every rioter were a black person. Middle-class people (of whatever colour) don't have a collective guilt for it either and nor do teenagers. It is horrifying that it should be necessary to point out that this is a matter of individual responsibility.

There isn't time to consult sociologists.

We can't solve these endemic problems overnight. And some people will always remain beyond our reach. So unsentimental thought has to be given to how to dissuade people from rioting. It seems to me that the police have to be trusted to make strategic and tactical decisions. It also seems to me that the most potent deterrent is not public condemnation, being arrested or rational argument.

In the immediate term, the best deterrent is the threat of physical pain. I cannot even begin to imagine sympathising with a rioter or mugger who gets dinged by a plastic bullet or knocked off their feet by a water cannon.

When arrests are made and verdicts passed, there must be no place for empathy, caveats or equivocation. I do believe it is unjust to make an example of someone. I also think that rather than setting up commissions and promising new legislation, our leaders should focus on utilising the full force of the (existing) law. Damage to persons and property alike should, and does in theory, carry a severe penalty.

We can make this right.

Getting through this and reducing over the short, medium and long term the chances of it happening again will not be easy, but it is possible. The best place to start is from a place of honesty. We need to know why a man was shot by the police. We need to understand why some people are so divorced from normal and decent human conduct. And we should look at what does work as well as what doesn't.

Stimulating schools, responsible and loving parents, housing that is pleasant and well-lit, opportunities for hormone-fuelled adolescents to channel their aggression safely, visible, effective policing and community (in the proper sense of the word) groups which bring the neighbourhood together are some of the factors that encourage harmony to prevail. Let's focus on those.

Stay safe.