"Voters look at the mobs and just know that these are not people who are gutted at the closure of the local library or youth centre"

Trouble is, many things that people "just know" turn out to be wrong.

I think that the wider public now see a Deceitful, Dishonest, Hypocritical, incompetent Government thats foundations are built on lies and spin.

These riots were more than one man being shoot by the Police. That was the spark to a deeper and painful reason why people are protesting by rioting. This was rage, anger and pain.

These Tories should wake up and have a reality check because they are part of the problem. Big Time !

Interesting article, but appraisal of Gove Harman interview not reflecting general opinion I think. I had a spontaneous discussion with colleagues at work today - all who'd watched Newsnight and all who were disgusted with Gove's personal attack on Harman.

Gove had basically lost his cool, lost his manners and actually made Harman look serene in comparison.

Well done Harriet for posing questions about the causes of the riots which surely everyone is asking.

There are additional traps which Labour are likely to fall into. Firstly to be seen as trying to gain political advantage while the riots continue. Livingstone was cerainly guilty of this with his early intervention and Harman slightly less so in her spat with Gove. While the political followers may see relevance in the outcome of Newsnight debates and extrapolate this to the world at large, I can assure them that the remaining 99% of the electorate could not care a toss and see it as irrelevant noise coming from the metropolitan elite - be it left or right.

But the biggest trap, and one that Labour doesn't not have an answer to the question - Social disharmony and breakdown has not occured overnight (i.e since the last election). You were in power for the 13 previous years and failed to address it effectively. The 'posh rich, out of touch' approach that you advocate will not wash. It was tried before and failed, and people now are more concerned with disassociation from the types who have directly inflicted the damage of recent days.

"If Britain is broken and if kids are angry, it is because Labour broke it during its 13 years of wasted governance."
No, it was broken during the previous 18 years of Tory Govt, the govt that deliberately created unemployment - "if it isn't hurting, it's not working" So said John Major, as chancellor of the Exchequer, when he was talking about the harsh effects of Conservative economic policies in the late 80s/early 90s.
The tragedy for Labour was that we panicked and elected Blair as leader who accepted the Thatcher legacy.

I agree with all the posters above who did not think that Gove had floored Harriet. Gove didn't argue with what HH was saying, but called it "fatuous", and "demeaning" that HH should even mention it. In the face of someone being so rude, I would have been unable to remain so calm.
It is not the only contrast on video news today. The clip of Ed Miliband in Peckham shows him listening attentively – straining to do so at one point – strikingly different from the Tory leaders making speeches.
On the point of whether or not it would be good strategy for Labour to link the riots to the cuts, it is certainly a difficult point to make. The cuts may contribute to the political atmosphere, but the fact that ‘they haven’t happened yet’ makes the point a awkward one to argue.
With respect to traps, I mean this facetiously but I think the trap that yawns most temptingly would be for Ed Miliband to defer to the Prime Minister on the motivations for wanton destruction as, unlike members of the Bullingdon Club, he has no personal experience of it.

No community wish to see Police numbers fall. Police numbers need to increase substantially. It's always nice to see the police rounding up these criminal gangs and left-wing thugs.

I've read David Blanchflower's column and it says nothing whatsoever about the state of the economy that the Tories took over, which was unarguably bankrupt. It simply takes issue with the way the Tories have dealt with it. Given that Labour got us there in the first place, I dread to think how they would have handled it. Note how Obama in the US is being pilloried for having taken the opposite approach to the austere Tories.

"Given that Labour got us there in the first place"

Remind me Jamie - what were Cameron and Osborne arguing should have been done when the Northern Rock crisis arose? And, perhaps you could go on to explain what the consequences would have been if their proposals had been followed.

"David Mills was a special adviser at the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury from 2009-10"

..when the Brown governments public relations effort marched seamlessly from one victory to the next.

Broken Pledges
Bankers bonus
Politicians expenses
Phone hacking
Police corruption..

The problem Is the Kids dont respect authority....I wonder why

David Wearing: Fair point - though if I might get all Hegelian for a moment, the owl of Minerva only takes flight as the dusk begins to fall.

And sure, Gove was rude, and patronising - that's what he does best. But HH opened up a flank that didn't need to be opened. She had more than enough to put Gove in a corner, but clearly wanted to take the EMA fight to Gove because he's Education Secretary. It just muddied the waters and allowed him to get on his high horse (furiously mixing my metaphors), whereas he should have been pressed on the three strong points that I outline above.

I watched the Newsnight debate and I was struck by how rattled and genuinely angry Gove was. Like you, I felt he was disturbed by Harriet's reference to the cuts in police numbers and budgets. He seized on her comments on the effects of the cuts and frankly "went off on one." Harriet may have been wrong to make the connection between the austerity measures and the riots, but Gove was clearly losing his temper. He did not look like a man in control.

Good article David. Mostly spot on but I must disagree with you on Newsnight.

Harriet got exactly what he wanted. Gove ranting, very unbecoming of a member of the government.

Harriet Harmen was clear about what she was saying and kept cool. She also understands that politics is a large and complex business.

There is a mismatch for me between how she was reported and what actually happened (not just here). 'Floored' is a little overblown I think.

4 of us - I thought Gove was out of control, over personal and as Lady J says ranting. Are we all women?