What does it say about our society when a man asleep in a doorway of the capital city's premier shopping street is set alight by two other people and left to burn, as the culprits must have planned, to his death? In the event, swift action by two milkmen who doused the flames and called an ambulance probably saved the man's life. Yesterday, he was recovering in hospital with severe burns to his feet, ankles and shins.
This was, as the Simon Community noted yesterday, an horrific and grotesque attack. It matters not one jot that the man was not a member of that flotsam of homeless people that shame the rest of us but a so-called ordinary member of society who perhaps over-indulged himself and was the worse for wear. What is truly shocking is that two other human beings, laughing according to witnesses who saw them make good their escape, were so apparently devoid of a sense of right and wrong that they could pour inflammable liquid on another person, who was incapable of understanding what was being done, and then set fire to him.
From whence did these two people come? What values, if any, did their parents teach them? Do they have friends and workmates who know of, or perhaps share, their evident lack of morality?
More importantly, are there connections between their behaviour and anything else happening in society? It is now an exceptional weekend that does not pass without frightful carnage on the roads, frequently three and four hours after midnight, and more often than not involving one car only, driven by someone under 25 years of age. Boorish behaviour, whether by shop assistants, customers or individuals out for an evening's enjoyment, is for some not a source of shame when challenged but a right to be defended robustly. It is no longer exceptional for the Children's Court to be presented with cases involving underage youths accused of inflicting shocking violence on others. Teachers who attempt to enforce discipline can find themselves receiving solicitors' letters for their troubles.
There is no simple explanation for this disturbing and multi-faceted deterioration in standards. It is more than over-indulgence in alcohol, more than the collapse of religious observance. But it is something that as a society we need to start talking about - a lot.