There doesn’t seem to be a thread on this yet; about a week ago, a 17-year-old entered a dance/yoga class and attacked people, stabbing and killing three young girls and seriously injuring others.
A rumour circulated that the attacker was an undocumented immigrant and this sparked a series of riots and violent protests by various far right groups, attacking police, Muslims, non-white people in general and destroying hotels and other places where asylum seekers are housed; this has spread to other locations across the country.
I have read about it and find it horrifying how well organised the right wingers seem to be and how readily they are mobilized. Is it too soon to ask how much of this is foreign (read: Russian) meddling?
What is known of the attacker in the meantime? A week should have been enough time to stop unfounded rumors, who is spreading them?
The (accused) attacker is British-born, which you might think would quell the unrest, but he’s black, and his name is Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, so that hasn’t helped at all in the eyes of the mob.
On that part, various right wing sources, including Andrew Tate, apparently.
Certainly the loathsome Nigel Farage has been doing his bit - ‘just asking questions’ about the official police line on right-wing news outlet GB News. And then demanding that parliament is recalled as if the rioting is just a manifestation of the silent majority’s desire for an ‘honest’ conversation about immigration.
I don’t have much info but I stopped talking to one fellow there a couple of years ago who was spouting a ton of racist bullshit. It shockingly copies old US racist tropes, memes, and political rhetoric. Seemed that he started expressing a new attitude when Brexit started.
So the usual §#*&%$!!! suspects are using this to atttack the newly elected Labour government. Was to be expected, but it is chilling to see how far they are already willing to go.
I’d say Brexit was (in significant part) a manifestation of a general rise in xenophobia that is being stirred up by nationalist and right wing groups.
I wouldn’t object to recalling parliament but to to discuss immigration. For example, if the police need support while the government can bring the army in without parliamentary debate it would probably be better if they had all party support.
With the prisons overcrowded maybe we would come to an agreement with Rwanda to deport all the rioters there!
I don’t think that Brexit had a lot to do with it. There has always been a section of the British population that professes to hate foreigners:
Mosely did pretty well whipping up resentment against Jews in the 1940s.
When I was a young man in the “swinging” 60s, gay bashing was a popular Saturday night entertainment.
Enoch Powel did the same for black immigrants with his “Rivers of Blood” speech in 68.
Now we have the boat people to blame for all our ills. Net migration for two years, ending June 2023 is 1.3 million - Considering our falling birthrate, this hardly affects the total population figures. Of course, the xenophobic racists are not susceptible to logic.
The Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung also mention Tommy Robinson, née Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (in German and probably paywalled) publishing hate videos from the five star hotel in Cyprus where he is supposedly staying. They also claim the radical violent right is highly decentralised and difficult for the autorities to follow. I wonder why it seems that the right is always more dfficult to control than the left, even when the left (well, Labour anyway) is in power.
These recent riots seem to be quite a chaotic violent lashing out, including looting shops as well as the more ‘focused’ persecution of refugee hostels, mosques and so on. Maybe it’s the more opportunistic, non-ideological thuggery which is harder to control than the more organised, misguided ‘protests’.
I love Marina Hyde. I just recently discovered her via the podcast she does with Richard Osmand, The Rest is Entertainment. Mostly British, but some international, behind-the-scenes entertainment news and views. She is an information junkie and is ten steps ahead of everyone. And of course can write with the best of 'em!