Could this summer see a repeat of the 2011 riots?

The heatwave is on and reports of London’s crime wave are widespread, with crime up dramatically in the last year: could a repeat of the 2011 riots be on the cards? Predicting riots is tricky but sometimes there are clues: the weather plays a part; and so too does the economy, community cohesion, social morals and other factors that can combine to lead to outbreaks of widespread disorder, just as they did seven years ago on the streets of the capital.

Of course, 2011 wasn’t the only time people intent on violence have taken to the streets of Britain in recent years. The 1958 race riots, the ‘summer of 1968’, further race riots in 1976 and ’77, Brixton in 1981, Broadwater Farm in 1985, Poll Tax riots in 1990, Brixton again in 1995, anti-capitalist riots in 2000 and the Bradford riots in 2001: each were sparked by different reasons, but what they demonstrate is that riots in Britain are actually relatively frequent.