Wrong Answers in Britain - NYTimes.com
►http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/opinion/wrong-answers-in-britain.html?_r=2&emc=eta1
Mr. Cameron, a product of Britain’s upper classes and schools, has blamed the looting and burning on a compound of national moral decline, bad parenting and perverse inner-city subcultures.
Would he find similar blame — this time in the culture of the well housed and well off — for Britain’s recent tabloid phone hacking scandals or the egregious abuse of expense accounts by members of Parliament?
Crimes are crimes whoever commits them. And the duty of government is to protect the law-abiding, not to engage in simplistic and divisive moralizing that fails to distinguish between criminals, victims and helpless relatives and bystanders.
Fair play is one traditional British value we have always admired. And one we fear is increasingly at risk.