What may have started out as peaceful demonstrations triggered by the Southport stabbings have descended into violence directed at migrant hostels, mosques, and the police. Shops looted and cars torched. And there are disturbing signs that the violence is becoming racialised, with rival gangs of white and Asian men attacking each other in Middlesborough. Malaysia has just issued a travel warning to its nationals, advising them to avoid protest areas and ‘remain vigilant’. And Elon Musk, the renowned prophet, has warned that civil war ‘is now inevitable’ in the UK.
How have we got here? The official line, propagated by government ministers and the mainstream media, with the BBC in the vanguard, is that the grief and anger felt over the Southport stabbings, a tragic but isolated incident with no known cause (apart from the perpetrator’s well-publicised autism) has been hijacked by the far right – racists, fascists, Nazis, white supremacists, and known agitators like Tommy Robinson – to further their nefarious ends. They have organised violent disturbances across Britain, using misinformation and conspiracy theories on social media concerning the identity of the Southport stabber to whip up hatred against Muslims on the one hand and migrants on the other. Here are some of the headlines and news leads from recent days: ‘Who is behind the UK’s far-right riots’ (Financial Times), ‘Far-right fuelled riots erupt across the country’ (Telegraph), ‘Demonstrations organised by far-right groups descended into riots in UK towns’ (BBC), ‘Despicable scenes across the UK amid far-right protests’ (Guardian), and ‘Far right protests take place across the UK in the aftermath of the Southport stabbings’ (Sky News).
It goes without saying that anyone in their right mind will condemn the thuggery and wanton violence we have witnessed in recent days and support the police in using all necessary force to restore order to our streets. Far-right groups have doubtless been involved, as have miscellaneous vandals and hooligans. But can the unrest all be blamed on the far right? Were, for example, the peaceful protestors gathered on the steps of Jubilee Square in Portsmouth on Saturday members of the far right? Judging from photos of the event, the gathering consisted of a cross-section of the public drawn from the local shopping mall. All ages were present, as many women as men, and no shaven-headed yobs in sight. And were the large crowds of angry protestors marching through Middlesborough on Sunday really agitators bussed in from outside? Judging from the video footage, they looked and sounded very much like local people.
By contrast, it was noticeable that the tone of the reporting of disturbances in Leeds, Manchester, and Rochdale just prior to the Southport stabbing, whether by the mainstream media or by government ministers, along with the response of the police, who withdrew altogether when faced with rioting in Harehills, was markedly more conciliatory. Although violence and intimidation were condemned, care was taken not to inflame community tensions, and to address injustices real or perceived – like social deprivation and discrimination. Indeed, anyone trying to discover why the taking into care of four Roma children by social services (something that only happens if children are judged to be in immediate danger) should have provoked a riot, was met with a media wall of silence. Who were the rioters? Again, no information was forthcoming. However, of the four who have so far been charged with violent disorder, it emerges that three have Romanian names. Could it be that the authorities had no desire to draw attention to the ethnicity of the rioters, which, so it now appears, was largely Roma? Could it be that child rearing practices in the Roma community leave something to be desired? Could it be that the Roma are not very well integrated into our ways and values? Silence. Instead, Leeds Council appealed for ‘local communities to remain calm’, promised an urgent review of the child safeguarding case that apparently provoked the riot, and praised the Roma community for their ‘fantastic role in the community’ and their contribution to ‘the diversity and richness of the Harehills’.
A handful of news sites and articles buried within the mainstream media have drawn attention to the flagrant double standards at play in both the reporting and the policing of recent disturbances, depending on whether those involved are white working class or of other ethnic backgrounds. For example, David Swift’s article on Unherd (1 August), Rakib Ehsan’s in Saturday’s Daily Mail (3 August), and Nick Timothy’s superb piece in the Telegraph (4 August). And they have highlighted the danger of trying to shut down legitimate debate by seeking to label all who have concerns over immigration as ‘far right’, as the BBC’s Mark Easton appeared to do in his News at Ten report on the riots on Saturday night.
Could it be that much of the anger we are witnessing, even some of the violence, is the manifestation, albeit inchoate, of a much wider sense of anger and resentment among millions of people in this country. Was it not this same sense of anger and resentment that led to the Brexit vote eight years ago? Research conducted by Eric Kaufmann has shown that the main reason people voted Brexit was concern over immigration, and their concern over immigration was overwhelmingly connected to a fear of social and cultural change. In other words, their motive was ‘We want our country back’.
Could it be that it is the white working class who are deprived, discriminated against, marginalised, and demonised – just like the Roma in Harehills? They languish at the bottom of every social, economic and educational table. Their communities are hollowed out and disintegrating. Could it be that rapid demographic change, deindustrialisation, pressure on housing caused in part by mass immigration, the influx of cheap labour, workplace discrimination to counter their ‘white privilege’, allied with a relentless assault on English culture and history, now judged racist, has caused a certain resentment?
Could it be that resentment towards Muslims, however misplaced, has causes? For example, the sexual abuse of thousands of young white girls in Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford, and elsewhere by grooming gangs consisting predominantly of Muslim men from Pakistan, which was allowed to continue for years because the police feared accusations of Islamophobia? Or the memory of terrorist outrages like the Manchester Arena attack where the perpetrators cried ‘Allahu Akbar!’ as they exploded their bombs? Or sundry knife attacks? Or restrictions on freedom of speech, de facto blasphemy laws, that judge any offence caused to Muslims to constitute a hate crime? Or imams preaching hatred and antisemitism in mosques? Or parallel communities under Sharia Law from which the English and their culture seem to have been banished?
Has anyone considered why people are attracted, or driven, to the far right? Could it be because people’s concerns about immigration and the loss of their culture have been ignored by the mainstream political class, our liberal elite, and that they continue to be ignored?
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