If you're poor and you get in a gang, pick a fight, endanger several people's lives, set a few things on fire, destroy a few businesses, take away a few people's livelihoods or steal a lot of gear that doesn't belong to you, you get arrested and go to prison. Good - this how it should be. Nobody forced you to act like a dick

However, if you're rich and you get in a gang, pick fights with other countries, endanger millions of lives, set entire neighbourhoods on fire with bombs, destroy thousands of homes and businesses, take away millions of livelihoods, collapse entire economies or steal trillions of pounds-worth of oil, resources and pension funds that don't belong to you, you get a big fat bonus, a well-paid directorship or a seat in the House of Lords.

"Hello Mr. Kettle, I'm Mr. Pot, and you're black."

I'm not disgusted by the rioters - I'm saddened and disappointed. I reserve my disgust for those whose wealth and power means that they can do vastly more damage.

Riot Act text on Wiki:

The insidious flourishing of anti-establishment attitudes is paradoxically helped by the establishment. It grows when a child is dragged by their mother to social services screaming for help and security guards remove both; or in the shiny academies which, quietly, rid themselves of the most disturbed kids. Walk into the mental hospitals and there is nothing for the patients to do except peel the wallpaper. Go to the youth centre and you will find the staff have locked themselves up in the office because disturbed young men are dominating the space with their violent dogs. Walk on the estate stairwells with your baby in a buggy manoeuvring past the condoms, the needles, into the lift where the best outcome is that you will survive the urine stench and the worst is that you will be raped. The border police arrive at the neighbour's door to grab an "over-stayer" and his kids are screaming. British children with no legal papers have mothers surviving through prostitution and still there's not enough food on the table.

It's not one occasional attack on dignity, it's a repeated humiliation, being continuously dispossessed in a society rich with possession. Young, intelligent citizens of the ghetto seek an explanation for why they are at the receiving end of bleak Britain, condemned to a darkness where their humanity is not even valued enough to be helped. Savagery is a possibility within us all. Some of us have been lucky enough not to have to call upon it for survival; others, exhausted from failure, can justify resorting to it.

If only they had some sort of establishment they could attend that would give them the skills they require for making something of their lives.

Instead, they get to fight their way through schools that resemble battle zones in order to gain qualifications that are worthless.

If only they had some sort of establishment they could attend that would give them the skills they require for making something of their lives.

Which qualifications are those?

Probably reference to GSCE's now that degrees are the minimum requirement for some jobs. Even A levels are not as useful for job leavers.

I don't think going to a rough school, living in lower class areas, or getting meaningless qualifications is an excuse. Not that anyone has said it is.

I went to what's considered one of the roughest schools in my area, I studied to get GCSE's which have indeed proved useless, I dropped out of my A-Levels half way through and I've turned out alright. (Well I haven't felt the need to rob anyone or set fire to anything yet, but I'm still fairly young, give me time.) I had the support of my parents, which most of these people probably dont have, but there are other ways.

Although I understand some of these people have it very tough, this clearly isn't the answer.

My time at university was a total waste of money as far as getting a job was concerned. None of the skills I require for work were ever part of any curriculum. Quite frankly, if I'd left school at 12 I'd have been fine - provided I could get the same apprenticeship I eventually did when I was about 24. You know, the way it used to be in the olden days...

Wouldn't have missed it for the world though - great fun.