Further on those explanations and excuses: Shaun Bailey, parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives at the last election, identifies as among the factors at work in the looting and rioting apologetics coming from the left. They're characterized by him so:
[S]ome on the left may have even encouraged our young people to riot. The liberal intelligentsia encouraged posh kids to protest and riot over student fees – and now poorer kids have joined in and we are all appalled. How can you complain when you supported such activism only a few months ago?
That this conflation between protesting, on the one hand, and riot or civil disorder, on the other, has been evident from some of liberal or leftist outlook doesn't mean it's any better coming from Bailey himself. People who defend the right to protest peacefully are in no way responsible for the goings-on of the last few days.