the RESPECT party

I have already written here that our old Etonian government of white-tied Bullingdon Club multi-millionaires would set the country on fire while they fiddled and now they have.

Tottenham, like many parts of the country, is a toxic pyre of seething resentment against racist policing, bigotry, institutionalised discrimination, savage cuts in public services, mass unemployment and hopelessness. No meaningful political leadership exists in such places; no constructive channel exists for such rage to be heard. But everybody has heard them now.

Without leaders, the youth of Tottenham have cried out from beyond the political graveyard and said, "We exist. And you will listen to us."



The last time Tottenham rose up, in 1985, a friend of mine, Bernie Grant, was the political dynamo on the streets there. New Labour's face is that of David Lammy MP.

His identification with most of those rioting on Saturday night and those who suffered the damage begins and ends with the colour of his skin.

Bernie and his widow Sharon lived among their people. They felt their pain. Lammy is more likely to be found in The Hamptons than up the High Road in Tottenham.

It's going to be a long, hot summer in Boris Johnson's London and in David Cameron's Britain.

It's a long way from the high life to the High Road. But however uncertainly, the people have begun to move.