Martin Hannan: I predict a riot - Scottish style

In September last year I wrote in this column: “I fear the reduction in police and social work numbers, especially in inner cities, will prove too much, and we could see a return to the Toxteth-style riots of the 1980s . . . we are heading for the iceberg and the lunatics have locked themselves on the bridge of Titanic UK.”

I wish my racing forecasts were so accurate. It was plain to me that the reduction in frontline policing in London and elsewhere, accompanied by the squeezing of benefits and devastating reduction in social and charity services down south – a vastly under-reported phenomenon as it doesn’t suit the English tabloid agenda – would encourage potential troublemakers to think they could act with impunity.

Add a humid summer, billions going on the Olympic circus while people are starved of bread, an apparent failure in the supply of drugs to keep hotheads calm, a combustible racial mix – what one London-based friend of mine called “black on brown” violence – and a perception, false or not, on the part of many people that society had abandoned them, and riots were inevitable.

In such situations, language and not truth is the first casualty. Any sensible person seeking reasons for this carnage was accused of making excuses by the hang ’em and flog ’em brigade, led by right-wing newspapers.

One paper’s website showed clips of the fires and mob violence, incongruously preceded by an advertisement for a Range Rover that would leave you no change out of £50k. That juxtaposition spoke volumes for the situation down south. The haves and have-nots sit cheek by jowl in London in particular, and I feel that envy was the main driver of the mob.

First Minister Alex Salmond was accused of “gloating” over the violence. What a complete travesty of the facts.

Here’s what my party’s leader actually said: “Until such time as we do have a riot in Scotland, then what we have seen are riots in London and in English cities. And it is actually unhelpful to see them inaccurately presented, because one of the dangers we face in Scotland is copycat action.

“It is important that we try and make the distinction. One of the bright spots in the economy right now is the surge in tourist numbers round Scotland.

“We don’t want anything to damage that, so it is really important that we remain vigilant both in terms of our policing and our government, and that we see things properly presented, otherwise we will be caught up economically and socially in the backwash of what’s happening south of the Border.”

What sane Scot could argue with that? Yet the Three Dodgy Amigos – Iain Gray, David Mundell and Willie “Ranter” Rennie – and their unionist lackeys weighed in with feigned shock that Salmond should actually stand up for Scotland.

Rennie in particular is ever more odious, accusing Salmond of making political capital out of his legitimate defence of Scottish interests – and what, pray tell, have Cameron, Clegg and Ed Miliband and a hundred other English politicians of their three main parties been doing in recent days?

I’ve heard even staunch unionists saying the numpty trio got it wrong again by attacking Salmond as he sent 250 police south to help. It was yet another miscalculation by three of the worst politicians in the history of Scottish party politics.

If I was Labour, Tory or Lib Dem I would be echoing Cromwell and saying “in the name of God, go! Right now!” Thankfully, I’m in the SNP, which is led by a man who defends Scotland.

It was legitimate to point out, as this paper did, that many people abroad do not see the UK as made up of separate nations, but to me that is only eloquent evidence that Scotland should be pushing its case for independence, so that the rest of the world realises that we are a different people, a nation being dragged down and held back by our union with a larger neighbour which clearly has massive internal problems to solve.

Yet it would be remiss of me not to record my fears that we are heading for mob violence in certain parts of Scotland. It won’t be racist in nature, nor will it be the greed-driven looting that we saw down south.

No, it will be peculiarly Scottish in nature. Next month will bring the first real test of the Scottish Government’s crackdown on sectarianism.

I would not like to be in Glasgow on the weekend of the Old Firm match on September 18 when the police and security teams – armed with camcorders – will take the long overdue action of arresting the vile chanters for the offence of spewing their bile.

The knock-on effects of the crackdown could be very serious for parts of central Scotland. Unless, of course, it rains another monsoon – one reason why we didn’t have copycat riots in Scotland last week.

England has riots and looters. Scotland has its shame too. Both must be tackled, because both are wrong. Let us just hope innocent people are spared any more grief.