Too many questions

I don't know what to feel over the growing outbreaks of violence across the country. It seems clear to everyone speaking on the news that this is no longer related to the shooting of a man in Tottenham. Early on, the news referred to the people on the street as protesters. No, these were rioters, protesters have banners, have a plan, they don't head down to Currys waiting for the window to blow to pick up 3 iPads to sell on eBay. The attitude of the rioters you see in YouTube snippets and Twitter videos shows youths, unaffected by the consequence of their actions, exhibiting an entitlement to 'take back their taxes'.

How many of the kids you see with their faces covered have actually had the opportunity to work and pay tax?

Do some people even know what their tax is used for?

Is it the change from a manufacturing base?

The successive government attempts to deal with poverty by alternately throwing money at it and then taking it away?

There are arguments on the left and the right, but we're all to blame. Social disengagement is a slow cancer that has been eating away at this country for many years. I think back to my study of the history of WW2 when I see London buildings gutted by raging fires, when just over 70 years ago the same thing was happening for different reason. How has the culture of this country self destructed for so many?

I have more questions in my head than ever, and feel that many are already putting their point across in much better ways than I.

Some of my friends across the country have already been affected personally by the violence, though no-one I know working in public services has been injured or attacked, though I know this has happened already. I'm left with a personal feeling of sorrow, with the Olympics next year, what does an escalating level of rioting mean for our immediate future?