1985 Handsworth riots 1500 police officers drafted into the area, about 45 shops looted and burnt, and a trail of damage running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. As well as racial tension, unemployment was seen as a major factor in the riots; by the time of the riots, fewer than 5% of the black population to have left school that summer had found employment. The riots were the first of a series of similar riots across the country during the autumn of 1985, notably the Broadwater Farm riot in London which also resulted in a fatality (the murder of policeman Keith Blakelock).
Broadwater Farm riot Police on 28 September 1985 in the mainly Afro-Caribbean Lambeth neighbourhood, sparked a second riot in Brixton. Over the next weeks and months riots broke out in Peckham, Toxteth and at the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham, North London. In 1985 Letwin was then considered to be a "young star" of the Conservative Party. The memo scorned suggestions by senior cabinet ministers to set up a £10m communities programme to tackle inner-city problems by helping blacks start businesses as suggested by David Young, refurbishing public housing council blocks as suggested by Kenneth Baker and "establishing training programs for low-income youth."