Worrying questions over police and riots

The Tottenham riots were a grim reminder, if any were needed, of the level of anarchy that exists barely below the surface in some of our worst urban estates. Thursday’s shooting by the police of an alleged drugs dealer, Mark Duggan, in what are increasingly murky circumstances, was the occasion for street protests, then for riots, then for opportunistic looting and random violence, all of it ratcheted up by users of social networking sites.

The effect of the riots has been to expose to public view the real nature of the estates in Tottenham – and, make no mistake, they are replicated elsewhere in Britain – where crime and drug-dealing are rife, where gang ‘elders’ hold sway over their followers and where young people are all too easily incited to violence because it exists all around them.

Up in flames: Events in Tottenham rapidly span out of control

The existence of this disaffected, poorly educated underclass is an indictment of the failure of successive governments. Yet nothing – nothing – can justify or excuse this chilling orgy of random destruction.

The brave police officers who risked their lives on the streets deserve nothing but our praise. But what of their commanding officers?

Deeply worrying doubts are now emerging about the police’s initial account of how Mr Duggan died.

Bravery: Although the police deserve praise, there are questions for commanding officers to answer

And with memories of the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots still horrifyingly vivid, why were events allowed to spin so swiftly out of control? Especially when senior officers were apparently warned of the risk of a backlash.

Above all, where was the area’s head of police while all this was going on?

On holiday. It seems extraordinary that, given the febrile atmosphere in Tottenham, police chief Sandra Looby saw fit to go on vacation in Florida just hours before the mayhem erupted.

Aid for terrorists

Barely a week goes by without new evidence that much of Britain’s bloated overseas aid budget is ending up in the wrong hands.

It is simply unacceptable that money that Britain sends to the Palestinian Authority – £86million a year until 2015 –  may be going to terrorists and the families of suicide bombers.

Palestinians in Israeli prisons, many of whom are terrorists, have been placed by the Palestinian Authority on its official payroll as civil servants – and the longer their sentence, the bigger their salary. It also makes payments to the relatives of ‘martyrs’ killed fighting Israel, including suicide bombers.

At a time of austerity, as this paper has strongly argued, the Government’s spendthrift attitude to our aid budget is beyond comprehension. It may be right that we should support the Palestinian government. But only if every penny of our aid is monitored to ensure it does not end up in the wrong hands.

A-grade shambles

The number of prestigious universities requiring star A-grades for entry has more than doubled this year, and most of those grades go to students  from private schools.

At the same time, a task force led by Carol Vorderman on teaching mathematics in schools reports that 317,000 pupils a year fail to achieve a C grade at GCSE in maths and even those who do are often incapable of working out fractions and percentages.

As a result many universities and employers  have to resort to catch-up numeracy classes for recruits. Is it any wonder that private school pupils often trump state school leavers for places at the best universities when our education system underperforms so badly on the basics?