Cameron sets out his stall

David Cameron’s statement to the House of Commons was clear about the circumstances that led to these riots. ‘This is not about poverty, it’s about culture. A culture that glorifies violence, shows disrespect to authority, and says everything about rights but nothing about responsibilities.’ Later in the session, he said ‘you don’t hit moral failure with a wall of money.’ On this, Cameron is surely right.

In a respectful atmosphere in the House of Commons, Cameron set out the government’s proposed response to the riots. The major legislative action he set out was a change to the law to allow the police to force people who they suspect of being involved in criminal activity to remove face coverings. There’ll also be a review of whether social networks should be shut down when they are being used to plan crimes.

In terms of the police, Cameron praised their bravery while criticising their tactics on the first few nights of the riots. Cameron quoted approvingly a police chief who had told him that the forces concerned needed to ‘tear up the manual about public order.’

The Prime Minister also made clear that he’ll be seeking advice on dealing with gangs from Bill Bratton, the former New York and LA police chief. This will add to the talk that Number 10 is keen to see Bratton brought in to run the Met.