In the last week there have been no fewer than three shocking instances of group criminality on Britain’s high streets. First, a “link-up” flash mob of hundreds of teenagers ransacked shops in Clapham, south London, assaulting several people in the process.

Next, a horde of Pokémon fans – of all people! – smashed in the locked shutters of Sports Direct on Oxford Street, while police stood by and watched.

Finally Take Back Power, a characteristically entitled offshoot of Just Stop Oil, announced they would be stepping up their campaign of shoplifting to “liberate” food from supermarkets, following a series of such actions in March.

Each incident has different roots and motivations, but together they represent a new and concerning step in the collapse of law and order on high streets in the UK.

This problem didn’t start here. It began with an uptick of unpunished shoplifting over recent years, which has only accelerated. It is now routine to see thieves walking into cafes, bakeries, shops and supermarkets, filling their pockets or even holdalls, and leaving without paying. They have, it seems, not a care in the world.

The British Retail Consortium’s annual crime survey refers to “repeat and increasingly brazen offending”, costing retailers hundreds of millions of pounds a year in direct losses and almost........

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