David Cameron announced today that MPs will be recalled on Thursday from their Summer holidays. Whilst Liam Quinn can only speculate what will be discussed, he thinks bringing the Army in to keep the peace must be high on the agenda.
“People should be in no doubt that we will do everything necessary to restore order to Britain’s streets and make them safe for the law-abiding,” – David Cameron today.
But in reality the measures announced today may be futile. The number of police officers in London tonight will increase from 10,000 to 16,000. However, their numbers will be made up with PCSO’s who are not trained for the scenes that we have witnessed in the past few days. Furthermore, it will be bolstered by police officers from different regions – if the rioting spreads to their regions, then what happens? We saw in Tottenham that looting occurred away from the original riots when looters realised that the police were pre-occupied.
Scotland Yard announced that it had received over 200,000 police phone calls in the last 24 hours, up a staggering 400%. The police do not have the numbers to deal with the problems that they are facing.
Yet, the crux of the problem isn’t police numbers. It most definitely isn’t the response time of the police (continuously being bleated on about by the BBC) or the tactics they are using. It is that there is simply no respect for the police any more. The poster below is indicative of the viewpoint towards the police in Britain today – these mindless thugs think they can get away with their crimes.
By supporting introducing the Army to the fray I am not suggesting we bring in live bullets, or any extra force. (Unlike one idiot Tory MP) Simply put, we should be bolstering the law enforcement and the physical presence they have on the streets whilst these morons continue to destroy our cities and towns.
People will think bringing the Army in is draconian, or straight out the pages of the Daily Mail – but it fulfils a basic liberal principle:
“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” – On Liberty, J.S. Mill.
And I stress: “Harm to others.” We have seen this harm on a grand scale, homes burned, livelihood’s destroyed, looting and gratuitous violence.
If the riots continue tonight we could see deaths on the streets of England. If you think otherwise, you are sadly mistaken. (I have just read that a man shot in Croydon last night has died of his injuries). The reasons for this are two fold; firstly the police are stretched to breaking point, they have been stories breaking today of people defending their own premises or communities. Whilst this is a brave approach, it won’t be long until things turn ugly between rioters and civil defenders. Secondly, there are racial tensions in London, not helped by idiots like Nick Griffin spouting his bile on Twitter. Despite the fact that the aforementioned civil defenders have been Turks, Asians and Polish citizens.
The UK needs ordered restored – and I feel the swiftest and most effective way to do that is to deploy the Army, the more bodies we have on the streets keeping the peace the better. These are men trained to keep the peace in some of the most hostile environments in the world, in times such as these we should call upon them to protect our people.
Finally, I would like to say I fully respect the police officers who are doing their best to protect our great country.
Political Promise 
I’d support the armies involvement if it was strictly limited to support, things such as enabling the fire brigade to reach blazes which they were unable to last night, or to provide comms back-up. I don’t think soldiers, who are not trained in police tactics, on the streets of London is the solution.
They are trained in peacekeeping, but a very different kind of peacekeeping. The police can deal with this, provided they are given the necessary manpower, something which was woefully lacking last night.
I do agree with Chris that having trained soldiers marching the streets of London is nothing but bad news, but having them as support would be very beneficial in helping the police and fire brigade.
I believe that the day a government has to bring the army in to control its population, its the day a government has lost control over its populace.