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Last night I watched with increasing horror as communities in London were set on fire and looted. Less than two days earlier I had been happily walking around East London - oblivious to the rising tension.

That feeling of disbelief that fellow Britons are behaving so badly brought to mind the last time I felt so horribly disconnected from the actions of my compatriots.

It was during the Falklands conflict. I had been on a university course in such a remote location in Germany that there was no contact with the outside world for a whole week. It was just as the Argentinians invaded.

Sir Galahad on fire in the Falklands

What we had missed was a week of indignation and of the day. It was with utter shock that I found family and friends who I had thought more on the pacifist and level-headed side were eagerly caught up in the "bash the Argies" fever.

It felt as though my own nation was baying for blood. Perhaps I too would have been, had I been caught in that heavy swell of national outrage.

I returned to Germany, where the school children I was teaching English to were perplexed. As descendants of those responsible for starting the they could not condone the invasion of another country nor could they approve of using military means to settle the dispute.

For me it was much more frightening. Take away the pros and cons of the conflict itself, what I had accidentally witnessed by being one step removed was a sea change in the mood of my own country.

It made me realise that given the right circumstances, lines you think we'd never cross are mere illusion.

Last night I was watching the TV news and .

It was tough seeing fellow countrymen trashing their own community. It was also difficult reading the many messages from those who wanted the army to move in and have the culprits strung up.

There is always a ray of hope. As well as more reasoned comments, a message pinged in from who was watching from afar, just as I was in 1982.

He is filming in New Zealand and wondering what on earth is going on in the motherland. At least he can monitor it in realtime. He picked up on a .

The speed and technology may have changed - but then, as now, you wonder how well you really know your own country.