Hello.

It's just like living the 80s all over again, isn't it? Usually when a decade is revived, it's restricted to fashion and music styles. And there's plenty of that to go around at the moment as it is. But now the 80s revival has hit politics too with a mass of riots.

I've got a friend who lives in Croydon. His home is right near where there was a big fire last night (Monday 8 August). He and his family have had to move to his mum's house because it's too dangerous.

Stories like that help solidify the thought this stuff is happening to real people - not just characters on a telly programme that just won't go away.

The response from commentators seems to be going one of two ways. People on the right (like Eric Pickles) will happily blame greed. Oh, the irony.

Meanwhile hand-wringing liberals (and I regularly count myself among them) will blame social problems lurking in the background.

To those who blame greed, I ask 'Why now?' We will always have the greedy among us. That easily explains the economic mess we're in at the moment. But there were no riots or looting of shops after the death of Damilola Taylor or Stephen Lawrence just as there now following the death of Mark Duggan.

Something has changed.

Politicians are quick to condemn the riots and are equally quick to dismiss the root causes being down to social problems: lack of services, lack of education, lack of job prospects, lack of hope. Because if they said that, then they'd have to do something about it.

For this government, it's all about cuts. Cut cut cut. Because of the mess the last lot got us into. But they don't offer any message of hope. Things are just tough and we have to get on with it. We're all in this together, they say from their Tuscan and Californian holiday homes.

And so it's little wonder people at the bottom feel there's no hope. We'll always have the greedy among us, but we'll also always have the poor among us. And their number is growing.

Recently, there's been no end of scandal: of people supposedly responsible for the good order of society being caught with their pants down: bankers and their bonuses, MPs and their expenses, newspapers hacking murder victims phones, police taking bribes, governments in the pockets of media moguls.

And in amongst it all, it's the worst off in society who get hit the hardest. Benefits cut, jobs cut, hopes of a decent education cut. It's not really surprising something has happened really.

Of course, the rioters won't be expressing themselves in quite that way. All they see is a quick chance to let off some steam and maybe get some free stuff out of it too. But those reasons are there. And it's what's causing the situation at the moment.

If those reasons weren't there, there would be no riots.

And of course - of course of course of course - that doesn't mean I support anything the rioters are doing. I want to see these thugs and criminals brought to justice as much as everyone else.

The mistake Pickles and his like make when they hear us whinging lefties blather on is to assume we are somehow excusing the behaviour of these people.

To find a reason for something, though, is not to justify it.

But it will help to prevent similar riots in the future. Jack Straw had many failings, but his mantra of "tough on crime; tough on the causes of crime" is a good one.

Pickles, Cameron, Johnson and anyone who reads the Daily Mail may be besotted with the idea of the first part of that phrase. But it's not until everyone understands and does something about the causes, that the threat of riots will stop.

And no, Mr. Griffin or Mrs. Daily Express reader, the causes are not immigrants.

I think it starts with hope.

Give us hope things will change Mr. Cameron. We don't want platitudes of being in this together. We want answers. We want to know there is a way out.

Because at the moment, all any of us are being told is that things are crap, someone else is to blame, and we've got to sit it out.

And that's not good enough anymore.

For a slightly more eloquent view from someone in the thick of it, read Penny Red's blog. A more musically themed front page service will resume shortly.