In London today, as I think in Moscow in 2010 and Paris in 2005, you might also identify a degree of incompetence by the police – either that they were slow to respond or too repressive or too passive, which had the effect of spurring further violence. Social networking obviously makes it much easier for individuals to mobilise a crowd and move from place to place more nimbly than the police.

       The first night of rioting began after a crowd held a vigil outside a police station in the poor London suburb of Tottenham, in memory of a resident - and suspected gangster - who had been shot dead by police the day before. The rumours were that he had threatened the police with a gun, but his friends and family said that was impossible. They tried to get someone to give an explanation at the police station, but got nothing after five hours, except a statement that the death was being investigated. Their dissatisfaction precipitated the first, local, riot in Tottenham.

       The family of the dead man said that they did not condone the violence, but it seems that a lot of people had been summoned by mobile phone, text message and especially by Blackberry messaging, and local violence escalated into trashing and looting goods from the local high street. When the police seemed unable to control or stop this, it spread to other districts of London, and the following evening to more districts of London, and the day after to other cities, including Manchester, Salford and Liverpool.

       This is the factual account of how it all began, but of course now everyone is looking at deeper roots: social deprivation, poverty, the gap between rich and poor in Britain's big cities, liberal education and social policies that mean there is little social stigma attached to having children outside marriage or playing truant from school.

       Despite some external similarities there is a profound division between the current events in Britain and the demonstration of nationalists in Moscow in December, 2010 because today there does not seem to have been a racist or nationalist aspect. Although Tottenham and some of the other London districts affected have big black populations, the violence was not limited to black areas, and people from many different ethnic groups can be seen among the rioters.

       Some broad similarities might be that the authorities were taken by surprise and were not well prepared, so they were slow to respond and the riots looked out of control for a while. One cause was probably the dissatisfaction of especially younger and poorer people with inequality and envy of goods they cannot buy. And a small nationalist element emerged later. In response to the first outbreak of violence in Tottenham, some community groups formed - also via social networking - to clean up and protect their districts, because they felt the police had left them helpless. In one part of London, some of those mobilising the community in defence of their neighborhoods were said to be from a far-right group, the English Defence League.

       On the other hand, the lack of racist slogans doesn’t mean that the multiculturalism policy has been a success. There is evidence that it has caused resentment among some parts of the white population and among earlier immigrant groups. However, I don't think it is relevant to the issue of the recent riots.

       During the last decade urban riots and civil unrests can be seen throughout the world. Usually they seem to be triggered by a particular event, treated clumsily by the authorities, which then gets out of hand. But, of course, there have to be grievances and a mood of dissatisfaction with aspects of the status quo – standard of living, some government policies, etc – for the first outbreak of violence to escalate. In London today, as I think in Moscow in 2010 and Paris in 2005, you might also identify a degree of incompetence by the police – either that they were slow to respond or too repressive or too passive, which had the effect of spurring further violence. Social networking obviously makes it much easier for individuals to mobilise a crowd and move from place to place more nimbly than the police.

       A lighter, but perhaps important aspect, is also the weather. People generally don't turn out to riot if it is pouring with rain, though Russians may be tougher about protesting in the cold!

       Views expressed are of individual Members and Contributors, rather than the Club's, unless explicitly stated otherwise.