WEB EXCLUSIVE: These rioters are Tony Blair’s children

Nihilism and disorder have been fostered by the state

On the third day of the London riots I received a telephone call from Mash, a member of a Brixton gang who I befriended three years ago. He was standing outside an electronics shop in Clapham, watching the looting. I could hear shouts, glass breaking but never a police siren. I urged him to go home. ‘Harri man,’ he remonstrated, his voice hoarse with emotion, “You don’t get to do this every day. You do your thing, and you don’t get arrested. It’s wild and exciting. These few days, it’s our time.”

The riots engulfing areas of London and other cities this week are not about poverty or race. They are about young men like Mash who are barely literate, unemployed, with no future and nothing to lose. For them it is suddenly a dream come true. Their favourite video games have become a reality. They have got what they never had before – power, a sense of achievement and lots of goodies. Most of us want the same thing. The difference is we can get them without setting London ablaze.

I met Mash three years ago, when I interviewed black Caribbean and white working class boys around the country – the very boys who recently took charge of our streets – for a think-tank report on why these boys are failing. During my investigations, I got to know one south London gang in particular. Am I surprised these riots have taken place? Not at all. I am only surprised they did not happen sooner. In fact so convinced was I of the danger that I stocked up on tinned food, fixed my old fashioned, wooden shutters and bought a baseball bat. I am glad I did. Last night a gang carrying machetes were on patrol only two streets away.