THE RULE OF LAW...WHO TRUSTS IT?

The trouble with having a police force which is believed to be corrupt, incompetent and systemically racist, is that no matter what anyone (including the local MP and the Mayor of London) says about the rule of law, no one believes a word of it.

The troubles in Tottenham in the English capital last night were sparked off by a gun incident allegedly involving a minicab and the police. The jist of the story is that an officer’s radio was hit by a bullet and that fire was returned. A man in the mini cab was killed.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission was called in to investigate, but the problem is that no one believes that they are independent. And because the people of Tottenham don’t believe that they will get anything like a fair hearing, they took to the streets.

I suppose that the difference between a peaceful protest and a violent one can be small. A tiny incident, a perceived slight, or the arrival of thugs looking for an excuse to do battle with the police, can spark the violence.

As of yet it’s not clear what it was that turned the protest into riot, but this morning there are burnt out buildings, cars and buses in the streets of Tottenham.

And no one will believe anything that anyone says.

Over the past few years people have endured a series of stories marking out MPs and members of the so-called “Upper” House of parliament as cheats, and furthermore cheats who got off with it. Even those who were supposedly punished were allowed out of prison after serving a quarter of their sentences. No one was supposed to notice.

The press bribed the police either financially or by means of blackmail... and far worse the police, have spurned their duty in favour of money and free meals with the proprietor of at least one group of newspapers.

And, despite being warned off, members of government have enjoyed cosy friendly personal relationships with these crooks including employing them at public expense in the service of England and the UK.

But no one imagines for a second that any of the criminal blame, whether deserved or not, will fall at the feet of Michael Gove, English Education Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, English Culture Secretary or George Osborne, Finance Secretary. No one expects to see David Cameron arrested because he was discussing sensitive information on government bids with his friends, who happened to be named Murdoch.

People thought that Vince Cable got off lightly when he foolishly bragged to some giggly “young girls” that he was going to thwart Murdoch. To sack him, they surmised, would be to unravel the coalition and thereby David Cameron’s tenure as PM. Not a bit of it. It was because everyone in government circles knew how close Cameron was to the situation.

And recently Fergie was caught selling access to the duke of York. Was she punished? Prince Charles, renamed Price Charles, was swapping an invitation to the wedding for free plane rides to America, and it was revealed that William’s house (and Highgrove)has been done out in expensive tiling by some Spanish magnate in return for his place in the Abbey.

Not only that but the famous £100,000 Islamic-style garden at Highgrove (pictured), which won a silver medal at the Chelsea Flower Show, was donated by the same man.

When people are pretty certain that they can’t trust anyone to give them justice, because people with that kind of power are only interested in themselves and money, why wouldn't they turn to rioting?

Quad erat demonstrandum.