The Daily Mail may view recent student disorder as a first sign of civilisation's imminent collapse south of the border, but the Spurtle is more sanguine north.
Riotous assembly here in Edinburgh has a long history, so long indeed that in some ways it seems more the norm than the exception.
Perhaps City of Edinburgh Council should now acknowledge occasional mob rule as a charming folk tradition, take steps to promote it, and commence an aggressive PR campaign marketing unruliness as an international year-round tourist attraction.
We offer a potted history. Analysis will follow.
1559 Mobs attack churches and monasteries
1561 Craft riots
1580 Riot by schoolboys
1587 Riot by schoolboys
1596 Anti-King James VI riots
1608 Riots
1637 'Jenny Geddes' riot
1664 Riots against Duty on Cloth
1672 Lord Provost deposed by riot
1681 Mob burns house of Provost Dick
1682 Riot against pressganging
1688 Town Guard and mob sack Holyrood
Sack of Roslin by mob
1700 Mob frees prisoners from gaol
1716 Mob loots Leith Customshouse
1736 Porteous riot
1742 Riot against bodysnatchers
1756 Riot against impressement into the Army
1760 Footmen riot in the theatre
1767 Theatre Royal: Stayley Riot
1763 Meal riots
1779 Anti-Catholic riot
1784 Canonmills distillery riot
1792 Riot to celebrate the King's birthday
1796 Riot to celebrate the King's birthday
1800 Meal riots
1801 Meal riots
1811 Hogmanay riot
1812 New Year riots
Meal riot
1814 Town Guard fight Soldiers
1815 High Street riot
1823 Riot of Scots v. Irish at Musselburgh Races
1829 Anti-Irish riot
1831 MPs' re-election riots
1838 Student snowball riot
1840 Riot of navvies against police in Dalkeith
1842 Miners riot
1846 Navvies riot against the police
Heriot's School riot
1847 Chartist and Annuity Tax riots
1848 Chartist riots
1855 Riot in Meadows to open road
1868 Leith election riot
1871 Baby-farming riots in Portobello
1900 Pro-Boer meeting riot
1935 Riots against Catholics
1936 Riot against Catholics
1940 Riots against Italians
1959 Riot by Teddyboys at Wallyford
1994 Riots in Craigmillar
2005 G-8 protests turn nasty
AM