It wasn’t the morning for the bloke next to me on the train not to have a ticket. He was challenged by the guard who asked for money. Predictably, the miscreant didn’t have any. Having been up until 1.30 AM watching the flames on TV, I’d had enough. ‘That’s what I pay two thousand quid a year for,’ I said to the guard, ‘so you can let people like him get a free ride.’ I should have kept my mouth shut.

There are an awful lot of very angry people around in London this morning. And in Birmingham, and Bristol. Indeed I’d say that those of us who watched what happened or were unlucky enough to get caught up in it are actually a lot angrier than those who were doing the looting and pillaging. (And if your business has been trashed while you looked on and waited hours for the police to arrive then you’d be angrier still). Most of them looked pretty happy that they’d scored a new pair of Reeboks or a microwave. Those that got a Smythson notebook in Notting Hill must have been grinning from ear to ear. Anyone who kids themselves that any of this has one iota to do with the man who was shot by the police in Tottenham is either deluded or politically manipulative beyond belief. It’s a wild, opportunistic smash and grab.

One thing is for sure if the police are unable to get a grip tonight and prevent a reoccurrence of this savagery then the credibility of the government is on the line. A riot is not something that our predecessors took lightly and there was a reason for this. Riots don’t occur in civilised societies and citizens have a right to expect the government and police to protect them from this sort of thing, if not they will do it themselves. Already last night up in Stoke Newington the local Turks and Kurdish shop owners were sorting things out themselves with baseball bats and iron bars.

This couldn’t have happened at a worse time. With morale low as austerity bites, people are now fearful and angry. Except those in the baseball bat and glazing games.