Generational conflict is back. After years of relative silence, and mutual ignorance, the young and old are once more at war. With youth unemployment high on the political agenda, the fortunes of the "jobless generation" are being contrasted with those of the "golden generation" of baby boomers, but is one generation really…

Rioting usually achieves nothing in itself, but it can tell the people a lot about their society. For anyone interested in adult learning, the experience of the public debate has been salutary, with any attempt to explain the events being dismissed as "condoning" the looters. While it would be arrogant to assume that everyone now knows…