The looting and rioting over the last few days have been committed by a very small proportion of this nation's young people. They have shown us – the "grownups" – what can happen when a minority decide to take things that do not belong them, using violence as an intimidation tactic. But let's get this straight at the outset: these events have not been motivated by a single, unifying cause. Let's not crudely simplify this week's violence – for if we do so, we will fail to learn the lessons that really need to be learned.
I believe there are four main aspects to the riots: young people being opportunistic; young people wanting to show those in authority who is boss; a general anger and angst among young people; and politicians jumping on the bandwagon to forward their own beliefs.
Word up, kids – smashing up your neighbour's business or setting fire to someone's home is pure criminality. As is throwing bricks at the police. It is not OK. Yet opportunism – the thrill of being part of the crowd – is, I believe, why and how most young people have got involved.
How do I know this? The riots have sprung up in seemingly random places and certain brands have been targeted. Young people have been looting the shops they like: JD Sports and mobile phone shops have been hit, yet Waterstone's has been left alone. These young people like trainers and iPhones; they are less interested in books. This is criminality in a raw form, not politics. And rioters with a political message would, in any case, have been jeered by the baying crowds in their newest Adidas attire.
It is a perennial pastime of young people, almost a rite of passage, to balk at authority figures. Any teachers or parents reading this will agree. The police represent the ultimate authority figures – and, for some young people, the ultimate enemy too. Fighting them, especially when they are not able to retaliate, is always a chance for a big jolly. Young rioters, for a while, must have thought they were winning the war.
Some politicians have been reiterating the point that young people are angry about the changes currently taking place in our society, that the riots have resulted from feelings of uncertainty about their future. But people were trying to say that when I was a teenager, too. To argue that the riots are a direct result of cuts to the police or public spending is simply untrue. This is much bigger than politics – let's not diminish what is really going on.
Politicians trying to score points from these events should feel ashamed of themselves. They are simply using the riots to confirm previously held beliefs about young people. Comparing these events to the riots of the 1980s is similarly tenuous. Financially the country may be worse off than 25 years ago, but socially we are in a far stronger position.
For me, the deepest issue at play here is one of responsibility. Who is responsible for law and order in our nation? Who is responsible for the behaviour of our young people? Can we blame the state when parents have been allowed to abdicate responsibility for the behaviour of their children?
The biggest problem our country has faced over the last two decades is that everyone thinks the government should do everything. Personal responsibility and community responsibility have been replaced by state responsibility. If the riots have shown us anything, it is that this approach does not work.
Politicians have been part of this process, and some on the left may have even encouraged our young people to riot. The liberal intelligentsia encouraged posh kids to protest and riot over student fees – and now poorer kids have joined in and we are all appalled. How can you complain when you supported such activism only a few months ago?
In a way, we are all responsible for the riots, whether directly or indirectly. We watched the previous government talk up rights for young people but with no mention of responsibilities. We have allowed our welfare system to prop up immoral lifestyles. We have not taught all our young people that an entitlement culture is morally wrong. And we have paid the price for this liberalism. Now we need to collectively grow up and take responsibility for responsibility.
Shaun Bailey, a parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives at the last election.