London's burning: any clues?

Having not followed any news over the weekend or yesterday, I discovered today that there have been three days of rioting in London (and now elsewhere in England), with one man dead and over five hundred arrested and perhaps £100 million worth of property damage, including widespread arson. The discussion boards are alight with people calling for water canons and baton rounds (a.k.a. rubber or plastic bullets), curfews and the deployment of the army, none of which have been used on the mainland UK in living memory. Last time I was in London a couple of months ago, I stayed in Hackney, not far from the area where the trouble started.

Has anyone come across any good analysis or does anyone have any personal insight into this situation? Please include links in the comments.

Time and tide on the Thames

The always high-quality Skeptical Science (with its excellent collection of scientific answers to climate change sceptics) has a very thoughtful piece on the relationship of London to the river Thames in a dialogue between Samuel Pepys (17thC MP, naval administrator and diarist) and sea level rise from climate change. This is an interesting case study of a major city and the challenges it faces from one aspect of an increasingly uncertain future.