I didn't expect to see something like this happen so fast in England. I remember that there were riots in the 80s, like in Brixton, but I was a kid so I don't know if this is comparable. Plus that was a while ago, and I always thought the social tensions and the potential for violence weren't as bad as in France. I don't even know what to say.

I can't get a clear idea from the media -- is this happening in localised areas of big cities or is it more widespread? I'm asking because a few years ago, the "Paris" riots didn't take place in Paris proper, "just" in some localised poor suburbs (it was bad enough, though), which meant that if you lived and worked in Paris intra-muros, you wouldn't have thought anything was happening. This looks worse, if only because they've burned buildings and there are deaths already.