The London riots

On Monday night, we were catching the train home from seeing Les Miserables on the West End to where we're staying in Horley, south of London.

We arrived at Victoria Station at 11:30 and looked at the departures board to find out what train to catch. A number of services were cancelled. After checking Twitter, I discovered that the riots which previously were only in the North of London had spread to the southern suburbs of Clapham and Croydon.

We looked at the list of stopping points for our train. First stop: Clapham Junction, then East Croydon.

There was a tense atmosphere at the station. People whose trains through Ealing, central Clapham, Tottenham and Enfield had been cancelled searched the board for alternative services, and we nervously boarded our train.

As we approached Clapham Junction, the loudspeaker announced that some streets in Clapham and some exits of East Croydon station had been closed by police.

As we approached East Croydon station the train stopped. It was a frightening moment. I assured myself everything was ok, but the images I'd seen on TV made my heart feel like my car had lost power in the middle of Jurassic Park (we'd been to the Natural History Museum the day before). We were stuck on a train in a foreign city with rioting in front and behind us.

Nothing happened. After stopping for a few minutes the train proceeded to the station. People got off the train at East Croydon and strode confidently off into the night. They would wake the following morning to find shops and homes looted and the iconic local furniture store burned to the ground.

The experience made me wonder what would happen if this happened at home. If riots broke out in Sydney, would they spread to Newcastle, Melbourne and Brisbane like these ones spread to Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool?

Would Australians smash the windows on their local high street, rob JB Hi Fi and Rebel Sport and burn Bunnings to the ground?

British politicians and media commentators hypothesise that it's an underprivileged lower class, angry at the establishment, with a lack of respect and discipline that caused these riots.

Magistrates are under pressure to give tough punishments to the rioters while politicians are revoking benefits for their families. Whether punishment solves the problem remains to be seen, but it's unlikely to work in the long term. If something isn't done to fix the problem then more than likely the children of these rioters will riot again in 15 or 20 years.

Personally I don't think Aussie thugs have it in them. I think that our society leaves less people behind than are required to do some real damage. I wouldn't bet my home or my business on it though.

I hope I don't have a train trip like that again. I especially hope I never have one like that in Australia.

I hope we have the sense to show our young people the respect they need, so they can reciprocate it, and I hope the hand that feeds continues feeding everyone enough.

If you want to read a really interesting opinion on the London riots, read Russell Brands piece in The Guardian: http://m.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/11/london-riots-davidcameron?cat=uk&type=articlep