How Rishi Sunak should react to the Ely riot

‘There’s a lot of societal issues in Ely,’ said an anonymous caller to BBC Radio Wales the morning after the recent riots in that Cardiff suburb. ‘Motorbikes going up and down constantly. Open drug-dealing going on in broad daylight, that the police are aware of, and nothing gets done about it. Children in Ely – dare I say it? – probably don’t have aspirations. They only see what’s around them. There are young children going to school wearing Rolexes and rolling around on £6,000 e-bikes that their parents haven’t bought for them. So where’s the money coming from? There’s so many things at play that it’s shocking… things will start coming to the surface that would make a lot of people on both sides of the fence hang their heads in shame.’

It takes a riot for us to show much interest in a place such as Ely. It’s one of the many parts of the country that politicians of all parties prefer to ignore.