Way back in about 1944 I had a reliable and very tough friend in the street where I lived in London called Pamela, who was a year older and came originally from Halifax. One day she proposed that we cycle to Croydon from Sutton where we lived - a distance of some five miles along a trolleybus route. My bicycle was an ancient 'fairy cycle' with 10 inch diameter wheels, solid tyres, and a single plunger brake acting on the front wheel! The bicycle was probably of 1920's vintage!!

Anyway, we went, and even managed the notorious Ringstead Road gradient without dismounting. It must have seemed a long journey to me then, passing the old Croydon Aerodrome on the way, but eventually, with much cajoling and coaxing from Pamela, we reached the North West approach to Croydon, past the ancient parish church - a truly cathedral-like structure - and managed to get as far as a trolley junction which - as I later found out - overlay a buried set of tram points, and we found ourselves at Reeves Corner, named after a furniture store of some years standing.

Croydon High Street c.1950

That was as far as we got, for I was tired out. Pamela agreed that we should turn back, and we reached Croydon Aerodrome again before I stopped altogether, exhausted. Pamela, though, ever resourceful, took off her coat belt, which must have been rather long and insisted on towing me all the way back from there! I am not sure if I told my parents though about our exhausting adventure!!

Was something familiar-sounding about the destination? You may have remembered that Reeves Furniture Store was burned down in the recent riots, and came to be symbolic of the damage done more widely in London and beyond.

Why did it all happen?

Now, I am a firm believer in the principle that events tend to have a multiple causes, acting together rather like the multiple levers in a lock. I am sure that there were several causes of the riots, of which the original supposed pretext (the shooting of an armed criminal by the police) was but one.

Multiple causes of summer's riots

I list the ones that occur to me, with only brief comments:

(a) Go with the flow. In other words, the tendency to follow the crowd.

(b) Twitter, etc, and ready and quick cyber and mobile phone communication. This must magnify and exacerbate what happens on the ground.

(c) Materialistic greed. This is incomprehensible to me. But I have to believe that there are people out there who feel that they cannot live without the latest state-of-the-art consumer goods. Does this fulfill their lives?

(d) Lack of conscience. Whatever conscience is, this must surely be an important element. Surely conscience is a vital aspect of humanity, but it seems that so often it is missing, undeveloped, or has been overridden.

(e) Envy, and resentment of "Them", who have everything or control the supply of these material goodies. Envy is an exceptionally destructive human trait, and is doubtless widespread in our current cultural situation.

(f) A lack of strong identification with 'British' society and its 'British' values. Although the rioters were allegedly of all ethnic communities, this factor would help to explain the many cases where the rioters were from certain minority groups.

(g) Deculturalisation - the progressive loss of all traits which go to make up a specific human culture. This is my 'favourite' explanation, and may explain the English rioters especially, that is if they even knew or cared that they were English! That is open to doubt in places like Croydon now!!

(h) A spiritual vacuum. Whatever the religion, I am prepared to believe that all the main historical religions would have put a brake on rioting, including the ancient gods of heathendom. From my own experience, I would find it hard to face a venerable bearded religious elder and confess to the Almighty in his presence that I had been nicking computer hardware from a smashed-up shop because everybody else was doing it and I wanted the stuff! At the same time, those whose lives seem to be founded on a deep conviction of atheism likewise seem to be persons of high moral conviction. Even so, while true religion and morality are not the same thing, there is a connection somewhere along the line.

(i) Organised crime. Some commentators have adduced evidence that "Organised Crime" was involved in the riots and that 'Big men' were waiting in powerful cars while runners were entering shops and helping to fill their vehicles. This may be so, but if this was the case, then these criminals must have been astonishingly quick off the mark. Perhaps the existence of Twitter, etc, and like phenomena would help to explain the rapidity of organised (as opposed to opportunistic) criminal involvement.

The safest thing, perhaps, is to asume that all these causes, and perhaps others too, were present in some degree.

Regardless, it seems to me that the past is another country now!