THE BRITISH RIOTS

It's impossible to know why this week's riots in the U.K. spread in the way they did. A brief look at the press "analysis" merely reveals lots of theories that essentially reflect the individual paper's own prejudices. Social exclusion, absent fathers, spending cuts, welfare dependency, weak policing, racism, gangsta culture, consumerism, opportunism; take your pick.

It is however easier to see why the initial spark came from the Tottenham part of London, after police shot dead a young black man they were trying to arrest. On 6 October 1985 there was a major riot on the area's Broadwater Farm Estate, during which a policeman was brutally hacked to death. Three black men (the "Tottenham Three") were convicted in 1987 of his murder; but their convictions were subsequently quashed by the Court of Appeal in late 1991 after scientific tests suggested that their confessions had been fabricated by the police. That sort of case is hard for locals to forget.

Relations between the black community and the Metropolitan Police in London have long been fraught, not least because the force has a history of institutionalised racism. Independent investigations and inquiries have made recommendations for change, and it is generally accepted that the Met is better than it was. Nevertheless, a police shooting - thankfully, a rare occurrence in Britain - in that particular geographical location was always going to produce tension, however justified it may have been. When a 300-strong group, which included the deceased's family, marched on the local police station two days later to seek "justice", the demonstration quickly got out of hand.

Some of the other areas where rioting followed (eg Brixton) have large black populations; but others do not. As I say, the reasons for its spreading nationwide are unclear, and almost certainly complex. Though that won't prevent politicians and others from giving their simplistic twopenn'th.

Walter Blotscher