Before I started writing this blog post, I looked out of the window. I saw a bright blue sky, and a hot afternoon sun beating down onto a lemon tree in the back garden. I’m clearly not home in England. No, I’m in sunny California, soaking up the sun on a family holiday. Some things here have changed, most things are the same. Either way, it’s good to be back in the US. Indeed, the immigration officer at Philly Airport even said “Welcome Home” to me, before correcting himself to “Welcome Back”.

If I were at home, and looked out of the window, I might see burning streets. Youths running rampant. The riots that have erupted in the UK, first in London and now spreading North to Manchester are quite simply disgraceful. There is no rhyme nor reason behind it; thugs out to cause as much damage and violence as they possibly can, inciting fear, looting shops, and challenging police to a showdown.

There are some in the media who have tried to pass this off as a bigger issue- disaffected young people, struggling in society. But there is absolutely no excuse for their actions, the vast majority of which are simply opportunistic; copycat violence, hearing of disturbances and jumping at the chance to hit the street and cause destruction. Indeed in Manchester, there were reports of organised thugs, with leaders shouting at younger kids what to do, where to throw bricks, which cars to flip over etc. etc. That they set fire to a Miss Selfridge shop in Market Street, the most unlikely target for anything other than wanton violence, shows the true nature of their crimes.

The police and fire-fighters appear to have done an incredible job, risking their lives through bravery and dedication in an attempt to bring the chaos under control. But when they are vastly outnumbered, even fully clad in riot gear, there is only so much they can do. Talks of rubber bullets, and even bringing the army in, will hopefully come to nothing, but I don’t think they should be ruled out. It might be a necessity. As I hope you all know, I am a big believer in absolute human rights, but when the police fear bringing rioters under control because of complaints commissions and law suits, instead forced to stand idly by having debris thrown at them, something is amiss.

Fortunately for me, I’m not in Manchester. I can worry about the destruction of my home from afar, and not worry about going out for a shopping excursion. We’ll certainly be doing lots of those, visiting local malls a long standing tradition in my family’s American holidays.

I haven’t been very good at posting lately. Being on holiday here in California probably isn’t going to change that either, although I am sure there will be plenty of things to blog about, so who knows.

One final thing, today saw voting in Wisconsin once again, this time in the Senate recall elections, as Democrats try to win back the State Senate, and thus put up a much needed road block to Gov. Walker’s draconian political plans for the Dairy State. If you’re reading this, and you’re in Wisconsin, in a Senate district that has a recall election, and you’ve haven’t voted yet, what are you still doing reading? GO VOTE!

Hopefully I’ll post more on the Senate election results later. If you’re desperate to keep up now, then check out this site here.