In the very midst of the August riots a youth worker posted us a response from the streets, in which she noted,

I met a group of young people I know on my way home tonight. They said the police had it coming, that the riots were overdue, that people have been angry for a long time and now the police have killed someone it’s no surprise there are riots. They said young people from rival postcodes were united last night against the police. They said they are angry that they are not listened to, there are no jobs and the police treat them badly. One of them said, ‘they call us violent but the prime minister has a button to set off a whole load of nuclear weapons that would kill everyone, that’s violence’.

This perspective was ridiculed by Cameron and Company, who preferred to talk of ‘mindless thugs’ and the centrality of gang culture.

Three months later the Guardian and the London School of Economics are publishing the findings of their study, Reading the Riots, in a range of articles.