No Time for Britain to Be Squeamish

Of course, Londoners can come back from this, and the badminton championships and yesterday’s successful cycling trials confirm that we can lay on a superb Olympic Games. We can rebuild every part of the city that has been damaged; we can repair every shop; we can make sure that everyone understands the compensation to which they are entitled; and we will shortly be bringing forward specific economic action plans for some of the worst affected areas. This disastrous episode has exposed so much that is good in London, from the broom-wielders of Clapham to the people of Tottenham who are now making a point of supporting the worst-hit businesses. But whatever happens in the weeks ahead, we must never minimise the tragedy of these riots or the lessons that they hold. In order to understand how to respond, we must decide what went wrong.