Cameron condemns 'criminals'

Brendan Trembath reported this story on Friday, August 12, 2011 12:34:00 Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes) Alternate WMA version | MP3 download BRENDAN TREMBATH: In an emergency recall of Britain's parliament, the prime minister David Cameron has condemned rioters and announced new security measures meant to expose them. Face masks won't be tolerated and the Government will look at whether it's right to stop people using social media if its known illegal acts are being plotted. DAVID CAMERON: Free flow of information can be used for good but it can also be used for ill, so we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence disorder and criminality. BRENDAN TREMBATH: In this parliamentary session there was none of the usual political point scoring. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband. ED MILIBAND: Whatever we disagree on week-by-week, month-by-month, today as a House of Commons, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, united against the vandalism and violence we have seen on our streets. There can be no excuses. No justification. This behaviour has disgusted us all. It cannot be allowed to stand. We will not allow it to stand. BRENDAN TREMBATH: MPs universally praised the bravery of police officers but did criticise what appeared to be a slow response to trouble. Earlier I spoke to Professor Mathew Flinders from the University of Sheffield and asked him what has become of the earlier commitment to cut police numbers. MATHEW FLINDERS: At the moment the Coalition is very strong that the cuts will go ahead and that actually there will be no reduction in the availability of front line police officers. Now whether that is actually true, whether that can be delivered is a real major issue that a lot of people are concerned about. BRENDAN TREMBATH: What about social services? Are those still going to be cut back?

MATHEW FLINDERS: It is really interesting. All those things are still going to happen. In many ways they have to happen. And actually there's been a lot of sociological explanations that have tried to label the rioters as the victims themselves. While society, the British public, are not accepting that, most of the people are not affected by many of the cutbacks. They are not taxpayers. They are not in work. They are not being made redundant. A lot of them are even, they're still at school. BRENDAN TREMBATH: Well, let's look at measures which it is hoped will stop this sort of thing happening again, a crackdown on the use of face coverings. Will that make any difference? MATHEW FLINDERS: Yes, I think it will make a major difference. If you go into the city centre wearing a hood and with a balaclava over your face on an August evening in Britain, you are really there only for one thing - and so yes, making the use of scarves and facial coverings, making them accessible for CCTV so they can be captured afterwards, could make a real difference. I mean, a lot of these people were just cowards. As soon as the police intervened, they would run, scatter, claim they were just watching, regroup at the other end of the street and smash another shop window. So yes, I think it sounds silly but take away scarves, balaclavas, the hoodies. This is a debate that has gone on for some time in the UK. A number of large, big leisure centres have banned young people wearing hoodies because generally there is an association between criminality and people that are wearing them. Because it is not to keep warm. It is purely to protect their identity because they are up to something. BRENDAN TREMBATH: The rioters and looters appear to have been organising themselves through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, the blackberry device. The prime minister is suggesting that the government look at dealing with these companies to prevent the use of social media in these circumstances. Is that really possible? MATHEW FLINDERS: Whether anything can be done about that, I probably doubt it, but it is a new challenge for policing to try and monitor and follow the throughput of this information. And I mean, what was interesting was that once the police were able to start hooking into some of these online networks, then they were able to practically deploy the police - and even members of the public were able to organise themselves - where certain rioters had called for people to meet. And the most important thing from, to stress really is that the British public have really come out massively in support of strong action against this sort of behaviour.

It was less than 1000 people doing this across the whole of Britain - 60 million people and the British public are now standing up and saying 'No! We are not going to accept this behaviour. We are going to work with the police and stop it'. And that is what is happening and that is the really most positive aspect of what has happened over the last four or five days. BRENDAN TREMBATH: With that sort of public reaction, where does the opposition stand? How do they gain some sort of political capital out of this whole thing? MATHEW FLINDERS: There is no opposition. There is no political capital to be gained. That was one of the clearest signs that came out of Westminster today. You have 658 MPs called back from their summer holidays to the House of Commons. They all stood there. They all stood in unison behind the prime minister, all in complete agreement. This cannot be allowed to continue and nobody dared to try and turn this into a partisan political issue. BRENDAN TREMBATH: Professor Mathew Flinders from the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield.