Should we treat rioters like football hooligans?

Images of thugs causing mayhem on Britain’s streets has brought back painful memories of the football hooligans of the 1970s and 1980s. Back then, ‘firms’ of shaven-headed white men regularly went on the rampage, in and around railway stations, town centres and football grounds. Shops were looted, police officers and their horses were pelted with beer cans, and highly organised gangs did battle. Many of those involved did not even bother to attend the football matches.

We’ve seen something similar in the days since the murder of three children at a Taylor Swift dance class in Southport last week. Groups of mostly white men, uncannily similar in their appearance, clothing and tattoos to the firm members of the 1970s and 1980s, have taken to the streets in droves, all over the country, to attack perceived Muslim and immigrant targets and to do battle with the police. The police have struggled to maintain control. The authorities’ experience of tackling football hooliganism will prove crucial in the fight to restore law and order – and bring those thugs responsible for the violence to book.