Far-Right Riots Ruin Kier's Honeymoon
Far-Right Riots Ruin Kier's Honeymoon
Britain called America's immigrant hate and raised it a dozen Far-Right riots.
July 29th. In Southport a man breaks into a child's dance studio. A studio holding a class for little girls learning how to dance to Taylor Swift. He attacks the class, horrifyingly, stabbing 11 kids and 2 adults. He left nearly all the children in critical condition. Tragically, 3 little girls pass away.
July 30th . Assuming the attacker was an immigrant, far-right groups in the United Kingdom push the idea that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker that just arrived on a small boat. Social media like X (formerly Twitter) and the controversial messaging service Telegram are used to rile up crowds and organise nationwide 'protests'. The early protests devolve into riots that focus on attacking Muslim majority and immigrant communities.
In the days since these key events took place, a few more details have come to light. The UK police said the suspect was a 17 year old boy. Born in Cardiff he is a British Rwandan Christian. He is not a Muslim. He is not an asylum seeker. But hatemongers, anti-semites, anti-Islamists won't stop the narrative. And it has revealed just how strongly islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment have become entrenched in British society.
Since then riots have broken out across the nation.
July 31. Riots break out in Aldershot, Manchester, Hartlepoole, Middlesbrough and Blackpool
Aug 3. They spread to Bristol, Stoke-on-Trent, Portsmouth, Belfast, Nottingham, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool
Aug 4. Rotherham explodes.
Aug 5. More in Plymouth, Darlington, and Belfast again.
From London to Belfast - mosques have been torched, libraries set afire and hotels actively holding refugees seeking asylum have seen rioters attempting to burn the residents alive. 140 people have been arrested.
Starmer's honeymoon is truly over and he has come out promising swift punishment and extra prison places. He will hold the neo-Brown Shirts at bay (it seems Doc Martins have become too expensive now so New Balance trainers are the fashion of choice for the modern far righter).
How did we get here? How did Britain become so polarised around the issues of immigration, Islam and multicultural society that far-right thugs have taken to the streets leading to violence and riots?
It started with the British Empire. The greatest colonising operation of all time (the C-GOAT) had, at its peak, the largest population of Muslims in world history. As the Empire's central governing power, the British Isles benefited greatly. It was the white Britons who got the greatest spoils from their rule over the vast Muslim communities as well as numerous minority communities throughout the empire.
But, as the sun finally began to set on the British empire - yes, yes, we know technically the sun still won't set for a few hundred years or whatever - the British Isles faced a problem. How could they maintain a renewed labour pool after a 6 year existential war that decimated the British population? The UK's solution: invite the colonised people to the UK, to work and reinvigorate the economy. In return they would be safely settled in Britain.
It began with the "West Indies" population. The windrush generation answered the call in a significant way. They arrived in the 50's and 60's, and were a massive part of Britain's post-war recovery. 70 years later the Windrush scandal removed a number of these settlers and their rights washed back out to sea. How we forget.
After integrating the Windrush generation, another group of immigrants came to the UK from the Commonwealth - largely Muslim Pakistani/Bangladeshi communities and both Muslim and Hindu Indian groups. They settled throughout the UK, from London to Newcastle (via Leicester) - to Glasgow and Swansea.
All these communities would suffer from both popular and institutionally reinforced bigotry - most famously in the 1960's and 70's from the Conservative right and growing far-right political organisations. In 1968 Enoch Powell delivered the famous Rivers of Blood speech that laid out the beliefs that inform anti-immigration in the UK to this day. It was powerful enough to change immigration policy both for his Conservative and future Labour governments.
What does this have to do with the modern day? Who cares about history from more than 50 years ago. (No but seriously how are we already more than half a century since the 70s!?). Well, we seem to be reliving that moment. The latest retro rerun. It is reflected in British culture's present day response to a new immigration crisis.
In the years between 2011-2014 the Arab Spring swept through North Africa and the Middle East. These popular uprisings tried overturning authoritarian leadership in many of the Arab states. In some it succeeded . In others it resulted in brutal repression. But everywhere it meant incredible instability.
Already seeing refugees fleeing war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, and political refugees from states like Iran and Saudi Arabia. The UK began to see a massive rise in refugees fleeing into Europe and eventually Britain from Syria, Libya, Sudan and many more North African/West African states. Desperate to reach British shores, after being crowded into cramped camps in France, Italy, and Greece, these people began to take drastic measures. They started jumping on small insecure boats over the channel.
Through constant fear-mongering by certain media and politicians (letterboxes anyone?), opposition to the small boats and dread/disgust of the asylum seekers within them became a rallying cry for the far-right. In 2023, extremist/supremacist positions became normalised. It's so very easy to blame problems on others and immigrants were the ultimate other. The Tory government spent more than £700m on a plan to send refugees to Rwanda for 'processing'.
Statements like Londonistan became increasingly accepted - hell, a woman, a candidate for Mayor of London endorsed the term in her Twitter (sorry X, we know how Elon hates deadnaming) feed. Of course respectable people find comments like that unacceptable and that's why she came - dear god - second. But, racism and othering was no longer just found on the right. No, in fact it was alive and kicking on the left as well.
The Israel-Gaza war began and a sort of civil war started on the left. An existential crisis emerged in the Labour party over wether to support genocide or worse, be associated with Jeremy Corbyn. While Labour grappled with this, they were outflanked on their left, by parties like the Greens willing to support an unequivocal ceasefire, and independents, often Muslim, who appealed to their communities by focusing on the issue of Gaza and calling out Britain's Islamophobia, including the poor living conditions of many in those communities..
Labour accused those challenging them on the Gaza issue as sectarian. In fact this was a popular claim of the Lib Dem's too. They insisted these campaigns relied on "intimidation" because they were being labelled "genociders". But their positions and voting records seemed wobbly to say the least. The Conservatives chose to meet the moment by getting ever closer to the new Reform Party. Much to their subsequent disadvantage. It seems that 50 years after the Rivers of Blood moment not much has changed after all.
And so today a significant segment of the population believes Britain has been invaded. They believe that immigration - the main source of British growth over the last decade and a half, has destroyed a white country. All that celebrated integration and diversity has left Britain only 83% white. 30% of the British are born to mothers who weren't born British. In London that number is closer to 60%.
Riled up and urged on by the media, politicians and hard right misanthropes many believe the only answer is violence. They believe hate and intimidation are the solution. These riots happened for a reason. These riots happened because over a century of politics has insisted that the issue is the immigrant.
These riots happen because no major party will stand with the migrant and refugee populations that come to escape persecution or poverty. The Conservatives AND Labour have just run elections vilifying immigration and criminalising desperate people crossing on small boats. Our only escape is to get through this. Our only hope is that the fever runs hot enough to kill itself. The shame is that those who will suffer the most from the fever, are generally those who are most vulnerable in our society.
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