“Cameron’s reference to “sick” parts of society has been confined to the rioting youths. Yet an atmosphere of impunity has been fostered from the top. Two weeks before the riots I signed up to a statement by the Compass pressure group calling for Britain’s “feral elite” – bankers, media phone hackers and MPs on the take – to be held to account. If any “clampdown” is to be carried out, it should not be confined to the so-called underclass.”
“As for blocking instant messaging and other forms of technology, I am told that when this was first raised at the Cobra emergency group, police chiefs, security officials and cabinet ministers made it clear this was unenforceable. Entire mobile networks would have to be taken down. William Hague, the foreign secretary, said this was the sort of the thing the government protested about when tried (unsuccessfully) by the Egyptian and Tunisian regimes. In situations such as these, the gulf between self-professed civil libertarians and authoritarians is narrowed.”
