Mal Fletcher comments

It is a reaffirming of the fact that most of society, for all its liberal language, still values a fairly conservative (small 'c') approach, especially when it comes to children, families, property and the basic issues of right and wrong.

Leaders will also need to direct. You can't lead from behind, or from within the pack. In the midst of societal house cleaning, people want and demand more than opportunistic, sound byte demagoguery.

They're looking for leaders who can stand up for proven values and, yes, do the right thing, whatever the short-term cost to themselves or their positions.

If that type of leadership does not emerge at this crucial time, we may find an increase in peaceful civil disobedience, which can carry powerful implications economically as well as socially.

The post-riot clean-up brigades, armed with their brooms, pointed to a growing desire for community ownership, a willingness to take responsibility for the community. This is a very welcome development in an era when so much human interaction seems to take place in the cyber-world rather than the real world.

Yet, if there is no positive and pragmatic response to this from institutional leaders, no channelling of this energy or recognition of people's efforts, grass-roots initiatives can also become a precursor to civil disobedience.

Regulations seem much easier to break for those who feel the law doesn't represent their best interests. This is true not only for the marginalised, but for the mainstream.

If civil disobedience then fails, if citizens feel the system is still ignoring their concerns, they may wish to take matters into their own hands in a more proactive rather than a merely reactive way. In that event, vigilantism of one form or another may not be far away.

As part of the leadership we need, the government must define where its 'Big Society' starts and ends. How much of a community's prosperity and wellbeing needs to be initiated within the community itself? How will government and other institutional bodies contribute? How much of a community's security is to be entrusted into its hands - where is the line between community ownership and things like vigilantism?

In the end, damaged public trust will only be restored when leaders in each of our key institutions begin to replace short-sighted self-interest with a visible drive for the common good.

Unless the currency of public trust is boosted, Britain will remain a far poorer country even after its economy is fully restored.