The Lesson of Black Friday.

We in Britain used to think that Black Friday mayhem was just a curious American phenomenon. We used to shake our heads; we used to think that we were above a crazed addiction to acquisitiveness and material values so entrenched that it could penetrate the veneer of civilised behaviour in minutes, just because a TV was on offer at half price. We were wrong.

Britain got the Black Friday bug today, and the result has been the same kind of chaos. Security guards have been busy; fights have been breaking out; there are stories of hospitalisations.

Can you wonder that I distance myself from the modern version of civilisation, based as it is on the modern version of free market forces? And can you wonder that it troubles me to see how easily the veneer of responsible and peaceable behaviour can be wiped away?

One director of a retail chain said that people are ‘responding well’ to Black Friday, so can you wonder that I think the wrong people are running the show?