August, as every journalist knows, is silly season: the news is all cats stuck up trees, neighbours’ vendettas, daft surveys and shallow, media-hyped disputes. Well, not this year. In many fields, dramatic events are putting the civil service under enormous pressure – and at a time when thousands of staff are on a summer break. The European and US debt crises are stretching the Treasury, and diverting the Foreign Office’s attention away from the pressing demands of Syria, Libya and Afghanistan. Meanwhile the Department of Health is still wrapping up its response to the collapse of care provider Southern Cross (see p7 for our feature on ‘continuity regimes’), and the phone-hacking scandal has not gone away; it’s merely been temporarily submerged by this wave of drama. Then there’s the riots.

The violence and looting that has erupted across the UK is a challenge to the government’s most fundamental task: that of maintaining order and keeping control of the streets. Equipped only with smartphones and an amoral desire to steal, the rioters are rapidly undermining people’s faith in the state’s ability to protect them; across the country, residents in the affected areas are becoming uncomfortably aware of just how thin is the rule of law.

Liberal commentators have, of course, pointed out why these people are so angry and aggressive: unemployment, poverty, poor housing, dysfunctional families and heavy-handed policing have all played a role. But the rioting can only make these problems worse: many jobs have already been lost in burnt-out shops; many fathers and brothers will now be spending time behind bars; and many of those who’d been considering an investment in these places will now be having second thoughts. In short: the people hurt most by these riots are not the police or government, but the hard-working, low-paid and law-abiding majority in these poor areas who will now find it still harder to make a living.

Despite the bloodthirsty calls for vengeance from the right wing, the government should judge its response carefully: too aggressive a reaction might add fuel to the flames. But people will expect the most criminal rioters to be brought to book, and the authorities must quickly get a grip on the streets, protecting local communities, local economies – and, above all, people’s faith in their government’s ability to protect them.

Written by Matt Ross, CSW