Before I begin, I want to make it very clear that there should be no place in society for violent thugs looting businesses, destroying property, attacking the emergency services and committing arson. I don’t care what your cause is, whether it’s climate change, protest about wars in the middle east or crimes committed in the UK. Violence is never the answer. Those that have committed these crimes should be punished according to the law.
Secondly, I understand that there is an element of our communities that don’t understand the difference between various groups of immigrants such as first and second generation immigrants born and raised in the UK that are here legally, that provide crucial skills that we need in the UK like doctors, nurses and engineers. Without these people contributing hugely to our society we wouldn’t be able to function as a country. There are also people fleeing from war torn countries that are in the process of claiming political asylum to gain refugee status and finally there are people that have been human trafficked across the ocean in incredibly dangerous vessels that run the risk of losing their lives. This is a human tragedy. Our media, our politicians and members of the public on all sides of the political spectrum conflate these groups, often maliciously.
There are people that believe that trafficked illegal migrants and are simultaneously coming over here, “taking our jobs” and not working, receiving generous benefits and being handed priority council houses whilst British people of all ethnicities can’t find work or affordable housing. This is absolutely not true. Those that survive the journey are often at the mercy of criminal gangs and exploited in industries such as farming, fishing, or sex work. These illegal migrants were sold a dream by criminal gangs but that dream has now turned into a nightmare.
I do not believe that the majority of the people that hold misguided views about illegal immigrants are bad people. I don’t believe they are fascists or members of the far right. They’re just people living in communities where there are genuine issues with poverty, social cohesion and an influx of migration that is having a negative effect and they feel they are not being listened to.
Successive governments have made promise after promise to control the flow of illegal immigration and reduce the flow of legal migration to manageable levels but those promises have all been broken. People are frustrated and angry. They feel like their culture is under threat, and they are correct.
The knife murder of three young girls in Southport felt like the final straw for a lot of these people. There was a vacuum in terms of information about the identity of the culprit and where there is a gap, false information quickly spreads. Some of the rioters believed that this was yet another extremist Islamist terrorist in the footsteps of the 7/7 London Underground attacks, the murder of Lee Rigby, the Manchester Arena bombing amongst other similar incidents. Of course, in this case they were wrong. I do not know the motive of the killer. It could be a case of mental illness, a personal vendetta or terrorist grooming of a young man to hate the country where he was born.
Whenever children are murdered, it always provokes an emotional reaction. There were protests when Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were murdered. There were protests when Jamie Bulger was killed. There were protests when Sarah Everard (although not a child) was murdered. Grossly offensive murders tend to trigger deep fears. That is no justification for rioting but just as one side of the press and public discourse encourage hatred based on fears around immigration and lawless streets, the other side of the media likes to whip up hatred by labelling anyone upset over the deaths as “far right”.
There used to be a time when people could hold different opinions on different subjects, debate vigorously but at the end of the day still enjoy a drink together and recognise the humanity of the other person.
We seem to have lost that. You’re either with us, or you’re the enemy and we’ll use caricatures of what we believe the other side is saying and portray them as racist because an ad-hominem is easier than nuanced, balanced discussion. It may make people feel good but it won’t re-educate people that have a false impression of the situation and it won’t address the legitimate concerns that have been ignored for decades.
Yes, there absolutely are a small number of people that genuinely hate anyone of a different skin colour or religion to them. They exist in the Muslim community. They exist in the White British community. To be honest, they exist in every community. When the police use heavy handed tactics for one group of protesters then walk away in other instances, it’s like throwing petrol on an already burning police car.
The Prime Minister’s response was tone deaf. You can’t keep calling everyone who has noticed that the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes “far right”. For the majority of the protesters, it wasn’t about race. There were Sikh protesters, Black protesters, even Chinese origin protesters. They are all fed up with a lack of law and order and two tier policing. We’ve turned a blind eye to the issues with communities that refuse to integrate and that refuse to obey the rule of British law. This is not all Muslims. There are plenty of British Muslims that have integrated and enrich our communities and these people do not deserve to be attacked by thugs in guilt by association but the rate of influx from countries with very different value systems is causing problems. We need to reassert British values such as tolerance, justice and peace.
There seems to be this bizarre alliance between far left communist groups supporting groups that are totally illiberal. Extremists that do not believe in gay rights supported by LGBT organisations. People that want to curtail the right to free speech, the right to criticise Religious groups. I don’t think they realise that the spider is not keeping them on the web to invite them to supper.
We need to stop the influx of cheap labour that is keeping down wages in the UK at a time when the cost of living has never been higher. The media is the boy that cried wolf. You can only claim that all the disgruntled British people are racist far right thugs for so long before it ceases to mean anything. The scary thing about this is by that behaviour we are becoming completely desensitised and that creates an environment where that small handful of genuinely racist odious cretins in the real far right might become much more appealing to disillusioned young people that see very little hope for the future. Is that what we want?
It’s time to cut out the rhetoric. Stop this divide and conquer smoke-screen aimed at distracting us from the reality of falling standards of living, increasing poverty and unrest. People of all colours, ethnicities, faiths and socio-economic groups. We need to unite together and make it very clear to anyone trying to pedal lies to make people believe that Britain is a country full of racists that this old tactic won’t work anymore. We want to preserve our values and we will peacefully put our point across until the establishment starts to listen.
Stop the mass gaslighting of the general public. Stop pretending there isn’t a problem with community cohesion. Actually police our borders and stop the torrent of criminal gangs trafficking vulnerable people to this land. Enforce the law equally for every citizen and lets innovate to build a better economy, a stronger economy of substance, not bluster.
When we, the people, speak as one, we demand the government we have elect to power to serve the people, not belittle them.
Rant Over 