This week has changed some of the cities in England forever. Fear has forced people off of the streets at night. Shops are closed, restaurants are empty, pubs are bare and an eerie silence has engulfed the streets of London. One important fact emerging is that it was not just young people involved. The biggest newspaper of the land, The Sun has its front page plastered with these words: “Riots: meet the accused – lifeguard, postman, hairdresser, teacher, millionaire’s daughter, chef… and schoolboy aged 11”.

David Cameron announced his fight back when the rioters had already ripped out the soul of the land. His explanation describes the sickness of some parts of society which I suppose dissolves responsibility for him to do anything constructive in this situation. He failed to take action when things flared up in Tottenham on Saturday night, maybe because it was only happening in a deprived part of London. When that sickness started to spread, he never saw what was happening as the people around him where all on their holidays. It is funny as I wonder how many of those sick society members had the chance to go on holiday?

So now things are back in order. At the last count, the figures for the number of arrests made are: Met (London) – 888, GMP (Manchester) – 145, West Mids – 330, Nottinghamshire – 97, Merseyside – 74, Gloucester -18. The courts have been working throughout the night to process the offenders; some have gone to jail whilst others have been released. The courts do not have the power to serve the public anger and the politicians are having a debate after the event has happened. Why weren’t those admitting to the chaos remanded until proper sentences could be given? Is it due to the fact that the actual crimes being committed are minor which result in minor sentences? Of course murder and arson are serious crimes but commercial burglary, theft and civil disobedience do not carry the type of sentences that the public deserve.

These sad state of affairs are forcing me to question why society always resorts to more violence to deal with violence, more force to stamp out badness, more retribution for crimes being committed. When all is said and done, will we understand a little more or will we condemn these people even more when they come back out of prison before Christmas?

Our solution is to strip these people of their social benefits. Let’s take away their council houses and not re-house them. Let’s take away their benefits. Let’s make them feel the pain that they have let us feel. We should realise that these are only empty words as if someone goes to prison; they automatically loose all of those things anyway. The politicians are only placating the public rather than dealing with the problem.

The sickness in our society needs some loving care, not more sickness. The prisons in this country turn out more violent offenders. The prisons are already full and the influx of more people will create another tipping point like in the prison riots of the 90s. Lastly what happens when these people come out? We should probably keep calm before carrying on.

The sickness has been attributed to the European Court of Human Rights, lack of discipline in schools, teenage pregnancy, parents, grandparents, drugs and alcohol abuse, gangs, and not the breakdown of society, the recession, foreign wars, MPs expenses, police chiefs resigning, rising food cost, unemployment, rise in tuition fees, public sector cuts, withdrawing the education maintenance allowance, salary freezes, rise in fuel costs, the closure of positive activities for society to engage with.

Any person actually paying attention to society would have known that things could not continue to go on the way they have. People have been making peaceful political protests which receive no support from the media and politicians walk pass like it’s another day at the office. It is a real shame that political education is not taught to those at the bottom of our society, otherwise people may have organised a different form of expression.

As a rational free thinking individual, even though I know society needs to change I do not have the tools yet to change things. If I was irrational, I would just act without thinking, which is exactly what has happened. We are quick to condemn the rioters and rightly so but should not fall into the same trap of acting without thinking about the long term affects of the decisions we are making today.

The whole of society has to become responsible, not just the rioters. Instead of running away from the problem, let us deal with the cause. Our focus should be on the people who stole money by accident and only repaid back half the amounts at a later date. They are out of touch with the people of this land and we need things to change.