Shaun Bailey bests Red Ken on Newsnight

Just been watching Newsnight and Shaun Bailey on the whole Tottenham Riots story. I have to say, having seen him at Party Conference and on various TV shows I have been more and more impressed with him and it is a shame he didn't make it at the last election.

He approached the subject head on and bang on - it wasn't a party political broadcast he was giving, unlike Red Ken Livingstone - and he was right to have him on it. Ken was using the issue for his own election next year. To blame it on government cuts is political opportunism and plain wrong.

Politicians won't solve the problem - it is families and communities. DC can come back from Tuscany, walk up Tottenham high street and talk to people, which is all well and good. But in the here and now it is the operational decisions that matter, and they are made by the police and not politicians.

The rioters are damaging their own communities, and now there are reports of different sections of the community squaring up to one another. If they are trying to protect their livelihoods then I can certainly appreciate it. But they are stealing BlackBerry's and Adidas trainers, and communicating via BlackBerry. Why don't they put that phone to use, which wouldn't have been cheap and go hunting for jobs.

It seems to me, and many other people that I talk to, that there are people who seem to think that the world - The State, i.e. the taxpayer - owes them a living. They think they can live off the state, and that is plain wrong. The state is there to help you when you are genuinely in need and fall on rough times as a hand-up, not as a handout as a way of life.

They say that its tough finding a job. Then make yourself competitive. Go out there and work to make yourself more outstanding then the other person applying for that job - not just expect it.

Part of the problem is, as Shaun Bailey said, a lack of role models and in particular, father figures. The Government is absolutely right to make fathers pay up and do the decent and right thing and stick by their kids and provide for them.

Shaun Bailey has been out there and worked with these people and so I have respect for him. Red Ken showed how opportunistic and desperate he is to get the Mayoralty back.