No this is not a reference to Southampton Football Club or the transfer of yet another player of talent from the South Coast to London. This blog is about the saints that are sent to save us.
Well maybe not saints I guess but there were calls for them to be brought into the field of battle, along with the army, the police, the vigilantes and the Women's Institute. I think I heard all of that on twitter last night as the hysteria got worse and the rumour mill heightened.
People were and are scared. I am among them as my daughter lives just outside Ealing and my son just down from Grove Street and Upper Parliament Street in Liverpool. But the hysteria that is surrounding all of this is merely sharpening the swords of the extremists. And I'm not talking about disaffected groups I'm talking about the extremists in power.
A few years ago I watched a double episode of Spooks, and an interactive TV programme about dealing with national emergencies. They say fact is stranger than fiction but what if? The more hysteria that is generated means that out of fear we naturally move to what seems like good solutions in the heat of the moment but in reality and the cold hard light of day it just plays into the extremists hands.
World War 2 came about because Germany under massive pressure economically and politically was allowed by honest decent Germans to become an experiment in fascism. Stalin was allowed to rule for so long because ordinary decent Russians were fooled into thinking that his idea of Communism would deliver them from the evils of the capitalist West. Are we going to allow that to happen here in Britain.
Putting the Army on the streets turns us immediately into Syria, or Egypt or Libya, all places that we condemn for their use of violence against their own people. People did not die in defence of this country to allow this to happen. We didn't do it when 7/7 took place, we didn't do it in the 80's or during the G8 demonstrations, the miners strike, the Poll Tax riots or the student demonstrations so we should not do it now.
If the Police can't handle 3 or 400 kids throwing stones then you have to ask why?
And that is the real debate here. Policing ain't what it used to be. Is that the fault of the Police? No, it is the fault of the policy makers of my generation and the last 40 years who have slowly but steadily turned the Police into tools of the state and political pawns to show that they are tougher on crime than previous generations.
Once upon a time the police lived within our communities, they were known by name, they knew you by name. Now they are led by savage political animals who are interested in power and politics not the streets on which we live. Inspectors are fast tracked, political correctness takes precedent over real policing, and those bullied at school join up to hide behind a uniform so that they can bully back even if ever so subtly at times.
Real policing would have stopped this before it all started, they would know their communities so well that they would be able to identify the ringleaders and the trouble stirrers and could cut off the head before the body could trundle behind flattening everyone.
The police are not to blame for that is like blaming the dog for wagging it's tail, the real culprits are my peers who have allowed this occur. We took apprenticeships out of manufacturing and our manufacturing industry failed, we did the same with the Police and we have civil unrest.
It is time for parents to stand up and take responsibility for their children's actions. It is the time for calm heads not knee jerk reactions. It is the time for people to say what can I do to make this better not worse.
For if this does not happen then for some people St Peter probably will be waiting and that is a thought that is too scary to contemplate.
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