Mindless violence

Just went to the Post Office. The son of the Asian postmaster was standing outside the shop, gazing down the street, and all the goods normally displayed outside had been brought in. "We've had a tip-off from our relatives in Southall that there's a mob on its way," he told me. "They're planning to do these shops, then do Uxbridge."

Just now, I looked out of the window to see a young yob, not more than 13, pick up a bottle from the gutter and smash the top off it against the kerb. I feel too unsettled to get down to any work. I'm nervous, I'm angry, my guts are churning. I was supposed to be seeing my homeopath in central London but she has cancelled as she's too scared to travel, being a mum with young children.

In previous eras of history, young, bored, testosterone-fuelled youths would pick a fight with a neighbouring tribe and limp home bearing their scars, or go out dinosaur-bashing. They would run away to sea, or join the army, who would accept just about anyone then, without the need to pass stringent tests. But why turn on their own environment? This is an easy country to survive in, which is why so many people from other nations want to come here. You can get paid for doing nothing. But if you do want to get up off your arse and start a business, or get a job, there are schemes to help you.

These mindless yobs are missing the point. They haven't got a genuine grievance. These riots are not race-related. It's just bored youths looking for trouble. So I would bring back press-ganging, round them up and shift them off to a genuine trouble-spot where they can use their violent energies to fight a real enemy, rather than destroying the homes and livelihoods of people just like them - not big businesses, but the Turkish kebab-shop owner, the Asian grocer, the Nigerian bar-owner and those poor, poor families who live above the shops and have seen their homes and all their belongings go up in flames.