Most of London is intact, but you wouldn't know it from the TV coverage

 Apparently pulling in cops from around the country was sufficient deterrerent to the opportunist looting in London from the past few days, but other cities suffered.

In our area of London, angry shopkeepers were preparing to defend themselves, not trusting the cops to show up. The market was mostly boarded up and closed early; Robert spoke to our favourite grocer, who was planning to stay nearby and keep an eye on his shop.

Now the wailing and knashing of teeth starts about police not being faster to respond, or allowing looting to continue. 

It's all the fault of (take your pick): bad parents, budget cuts, single parents, a culture of entitlement, social media, immigrants coming and taking British jobs, political correctness hampering the police response, being soft on crime, fatherless families (apparently mobs of fatherless boys circulate on my local high street. I want to know how the author of the article knew they were all fatherless - he'd interviewed all of them?), the welfare state...

Ozbeg's found this bizarre indie site, that has a long list of whose fault it is: Reasons Why The London Riots Happened: From Mark Duggan To Blackberry An Arab Spring And Polar Bears (safe for work, but with cheeky pics on links)

I've not heard anyone yet mention: whole nations unable to pay for their loans; greedy bankers; MPs who feel entitled to taxpayers paying for their houses; corporations dodging tax; or any other example of greed on a much more powerful, efficient but more discreet scale. Maybe Private Eye will come through.

And the looters are at fault for wanting stuff for free, and taking what they can while they can?

This is not me endorsing the looting - it's still illegal. I'm rather sad that so many people think that such destruction is such a laugh - and frankly, that stupid stuff like clothes and mobiles and TVs were so attractive.

I just find the venom directed at the 'feral youth' ragingly hypocritical, and the quick judgements about their origins and motivations, and the simple solutions (jail, rubber bullets, more CCTV) pretty laughable.

I'm also astonished, in the footage, of the number of spectators. The spectators far outnumber both the police, and the looters. If even a handful of them had lifted a finger, argued with the looters, told them to stop - done anything to show that smash and grab wasn't acceptable, and that what they were doing was wrong - it might have broken the spell much faster.

But whipping out your mobile to record an event seems more important than making a contribution.

ETA: one exception about the stupidity of the commentary - Nina Power (at risk of sounding like a Guardianista...)