The riots, one month on

A month has passed since the riots, and it still feels as if nobody has grasped what really happened. The media debate has been limited, to say the least: lots of self-appointed community leaders and youth experts talking about giving kids a “voice” or “stake” in society, or calling the likes of David Starkey racist. The BBC “riots debate” last night, featuring Dame Claire Tickell, Liam Nolan, Shaun Bailey and former gang member Sheldon Thomas was particularly frustrating. Every time somebody came close to making a good point – Bailey, for instance, issued strong remarks about the commercialisation and sexualisation of children – someone else would drown it in bien-pensant blather.

It’s a shame that David Goodhart’s brilliant Prospect article on rap and the yoof – which explores race issues in a thoughtful and sensitive way – did not make a greater impression on the rest of the press. It seems to have been dismissed by the left – who regard Goodhart as a traitor anyway – and ignored on the right.