UK riots : Scotland doesn't : Pray for Rain

As Scotland watches in horror along with the rest of the UK, we grapple to connect and empathise with our neighbours as the riots continue to unfold and spread South of the Border. Apart from the arrest of a couple of numbskull teenagers in Glasgow and Dundee for trying to set up 'Riot' groups on Facebook, there have been no signs of unrest in Scotland - yet.

Scotland remains on high alert, as copycat riots and looting spread from London to Bristol, Birmingham, Nottingham, Liverpool and Manchester. Why not Scotland? Scotland has areas of some of the greatest deprivation in the UK. We're disillusioned, we're broke, why aren't we rioting? Have we handled our austerity cuts better? Are we better behaved? Better governed? Or better policed? Or are we simply just more scared of the authorities ? Is it stricter parenting? Scotland shouldn't feel complacent, this could so easily be happening here - but it isn't. Dig beyond the wickedness, the violence and opportunist thieving, there was a reason this started; that's a big one, for another day, when the fires are out. "We're not all gathering together for a cause, we're running down Foot Locker.". Zoe Williams nailed the difficulty in attempting to untangle the warped psychology of the opportunist looters in today's Guardian. But for now let's simply ask - why isn't it happening here?

Social commentators and politicians start to queue to expound their North/South theories; Stuart Waiton, sociology lecturer from the University of Abertay, cites a 'less post-modern' Scottish society and a Welfare State System that is less inclined to interfere in working-class society and 'molly-coddle' it's youngsters. Waiton also acknowledges that whatever may have originally sparked the riots, this is not race rioting as we may have seen in the past - but he does controversially draw attention to the fact that Scotland has a much lower ethnic mix. This is difficult territory and his own personal comment, not mine; it's also the kind of territory politicians dread to examine. Certainly Scottish politicians seem so far less inclined to analyse and more keen to distance Scotland from the trouble; First Minister Alex Salmond today voiced his great exception to a media talking of 'UK' riots when, in his opinion, these are 'English' riots. Lest he appears too callous, I should point out that he did agree to loan out Scottish Police officers to beef up numbers in England. His immediate concern would appear to be the damage to Scotland's reputation when lumped in with the UK as a whole; the global perception of what is happening, and subtle distinctions as to where is of course a significant commercial concern for Scotland, so reliant on tourism, particularly at this time of year. Mr Salmond sees the potentially disastrous implications already for the London Olympics and is trying to put some clear blue water between himself and what he wishes to have perceived as problems 'down South'.

Personally, I have just simply been worried sick for friends in London with young families, who have horrified me with tales of rioting half a mile from their doorsteps. I'm struggling to take in the pictures I see of people looting and burning their own neighbourhoods. Above all, though, I am still haunted by three simple words I saw quoted and posted on Twitter on Monday evening, after the first night of rioting in London where an unknown (to me) Londoner simply said - 'Pray for Rain'. Three short words that expressed so concisely the anxiety and lack of control in an almost biblical plea for nature to come and wash away the badness. It pierced me to the heart and I felt a moment of direct human connection. This wasn't about geography, your problem, not mine, this was a moment of human solidarity. And what's more, it made me stop and think - could something simple as bad weather have kept the teenage rioters indoors? Really. Without being flippant, maybe our national weather here has put a damper on the summer that has so shockingly overheated elsewhere in the UK. If it puts an end to the fires and damps down the anger and violence, whoever your god, then do please Pray for Rain. Pray for Scottish weather. Pray for Peace - everywhere.