British Prime Minister David Cameron has recalled Parliament to an emergency debate on the riots rocking many of England's inner cities, and the national government has a duty to give a lead. But this has to be picked up by community leaders who have a huge responsibility to go out to their people and seek to calm them, and make an effort to pull England back from the brink of a major national disaster.
The police forces have failed to control events as three days of rioting in the London area of Tottenham, has been followed by trouble in Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Bristol. The riots started after a fatal police shooting of a 29-year-old man in Tottenham, and the police seem determined to continue their low-key approach to the riots and destruction of property.
But it is clear that this is not working as rioters and looters have decided to take advantage of the lack of law and order on the streets. Gangs of youth of all ethnic groups have been seen breaking into stores and looting them, starting fires, and challenging the police.
But police action is not the whole answer. These riots can only come from people who feel that society has failed them, and the grim effects of the recession are biting deep into the structure of society. This is where Cameron's coalition government will need to find a new way to energise the inner cities, and set them back on the path to prosperity.
The prime minister's simple threat that rioters "will feel the full force of the law", and Home Secretary Theresa May's dismissal of the events as "unacceptable criminality, thuggery, looting, and theft", is a very small part of the complete answer.
The community leaders have a larger duty to calm their angry populations, but they can only do this with a clear lead from the government or local authorities offering a more hopeful path for the depressed inner cities. But whatever strategy they come up with, burning England's cities is not the answer.
