Riots in summertime

Silly season has been cancelled this summer.

News rooms dread summertime. For four weeks of the year everything seems to shut down. No one can be contacted, no announcements are made and nothing appears to happen.

Not this year, unfortunately.

The  deafening silence that usually accompanies August has been replaced by the sound of smashing glass, police sirens and jeering  mass gangs intent on  shoplifting and arson. It's difficult to know whether to be angry or depressed with people who are prepared to burn and destroy communities for a a of new  pair of trainers and flat screen telly.

Optical practices across the country were caught up in this madness and our sympathies ago out to them.

The most effective solution I can see ( apart from the return to fashion of social responsibility) to this mess is the early recall of schools and the cancellation of the long hot summer break during which the devil finds work for idle hands.