The news from Southport overnight was very depressing.
The tragedy of an attack on children in which three have lost their lives, and others are critically injured is bad enough for any community to bear. To have a vigil for the dead and injured, and all who support them, turned into a riot by the far-right on the basis of what the police say is misinformation about the identity of the alleged attacker is appalling.
The humanity of those who created this riot has to be questioned. They clearly do not care about a grieving community. Instead, they are seeking to use them. That has to be condemned, without hesitation.
But there is also a lesson in this because this is what the far-right does. It exploits suffering people to create division with the intention of gaining from the resulting tension. That the division might not exist, and that the tension may be exaggerated by their own claims is something about which they care only to the extent that they acknowledge that this is their modus operandi.
Far-right politics is parasitical. Its intention is to exploit the suffering of others.
There is a lesson in that, though. Whilst no-one can ultimately prevent crimes of the sort committed in Southport by those intent on doing them, a great deal of suffering in our society can be relieved. We need a government intent on doing that, with the explicit goal of reducing differences within our society. That is the only way to defeat the far-right.
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Appalling.
I was in Oxford a year or so ago and passed one of the ‘anti 15 minute city’ demonstrations.
It was a bit like the Dementors from Harry Potter had arrived and sucked every available IQ point from the demonstrators.
I suggest that we should be looking at what happened in Southport as a failure of education to give thinking skills. There is a clear benefit to both those taught and society as a whole to teach these as they do seem to reduce crime as a whole because they stop people behaving impulsively and as a result getting involved in criminal and anti social behaviour
Thank you and well said, Richard.
I add that the law to require recipients of foreign money be enforced, too, so we learn who’s funding the EDL and the lifestyle of its leader, who when arrested in Canada recently was found to travel on an Irish passport and be resident somewhere usually warm and sunny. I imagine the establishment will not want to look in that particular can.
Is it not time the EDL be banned last year at amnesty day they desecrated the cenotph claiming they defending against ceasefire demonstrators who were miles away. And now this where they’ve desecrated the murders of three young children. Shame on them!!
I reiterate my comments on a previous blog.
This now includes the recent announcement on Winter Fuel Payments, too many people have the perception that money and resources are unfairly distributed, unable to get GP appointments, no NHS dentistry, declining High Streets and increased costs, there are, of course, many more issues.
Some point out the level of tax evasion compared to benefit fraud, but tax evasion and other corporate tax abuse is rarely visible.
Seeing daylight drug abuse, boarded up shops, graffiti on buildings amongst other highly visual factors, if any readers of this blog regularly go through Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester for example, watching tall buildings spring up with expensive rents, all contribute these feelings.
Given that a number of these thugs have been photographed and will be identifiable, I wonder how many will get more than 5 years in prison for actually rioting, rather than discussing climbing onto a motorway gantry?
A very good question
My thoughts exactly Cyndy. Violent, drunken racist scum attacking the police and causing quite a few of them injury. So, as people have now been jailed for up to 5 years for the ‘crime’ of trying to organise entirely peaceful protests against a potential climate catastrophe, how are these thugs going to be treated?
Can we expect 15 year sentances for example for GBH, affray, etc? Or will most of them not even be arrested?
Incidentally, I see a lot of them were chanting the name of their beloved leader ‘Tommy’ (actually Stephen Yaxley Lennon; isn’t that an Irish surname?). I see that he’s managed to avoid jail for contempt of court because when he was arrested at Folkestone the police let him out on bail, and he’s promptly left the country!
What great law enforcement eh?
Thank you.
The gentleman is indeed Irish, of Irish origin and travels on an Irish passport. The Canadian arrest document details his Irish citizenship and place of residence, sunny Spain.
Sorry but this is just so good
https://x.com/i/status/1818384899469910349
Karma
I wonder if any state-sponsored troll factories were involved in the misinformation. It’s a very cheap way to destabilise an enemy state.
I suspect we are all underestimating the extent of Putin’s misinformation machine. He’s been doing this stuff for his entire career, starting in the KGB. The rise of the Internet must have been a gift for him. For someone who has no compunction sending assassins around the world to eliminate his opponents, fomenting dissent by spreading divisive lies online must be just routine.
I wonder how many of us have read a social media post, believing the author to be a real person, and maybe believed what they said, without realising it’s actually a fake, created by a paid Russian troll.
So how do we know you aren’t a paid Russian troll? This is always my problem.
In the current ‘climate’ people do not need a reason to riot…… they only need an excuse. And a little prompting. We’re living in a tinderbox.
A massive Tommy R rally was held in London last weekend as this arrogant reprobate tried to get the disillusioned, easily led and angry ready for violent rioting across the UK. I joined a peaceful counter-protest march against his vile racism that was held that same day. It was frightening to see the shocking numbers he managed to mobilize and it was bound to stir up further outbursts. The horrific incident in Southport was hijacked as a tangential motivation for his ignorant thugs to cobble together an excuse to unleash their rawth. Although the disinformation has been thoroughly discredited, Tommy’s thugs will still want to get in on the vandalism bandwagon all around the country.
Starmer will have a tough time trying to rationalize the extreme sentences on peaceful climate protesters without ordering serious jail time for violent rioters who have deliberately targeted and injured police. How will they find the space to lock up the growing number of rioters? Meanwhile, as early as 6AM the following day, the grieving residents of Southport spontaneously came together to clean up their streets, remove rubble and rebuild damaged walls. This was a sterling example that provided a powerful message regarding the compassion and unity of the Southport community.
I firmly believe that we must proactively collaborate on various local projects to promote community cohesion. There is an amazing multi-ethnic community where I live here in St Clements, Oxford; this was the principal motivation for me to settle here. I am trying to get permission from Oxford City Council to plant an Olive tree as a ‘Peace Tree’ in Manzil Way Gardens on nearby Cowley Road. My other project does not require City permission. We just need to come together as a community to declare our district “St Clements Cowley Road Global Village” using posters and street art.
These pockets of ethnic diversity exist in all our cities throughout the UK, but the idea first came to me when I was living on Stirling Street in Baltimore. Adjacent to the street where I lived, I tried to rescue the culturally diverse businesses located in the historic buildings on Old Town Mall from city demolition. Sadly, despite my ‘global village’ initiative, predominantly African American business owners were unable to combat the powerful commercial interests of city developers so our efforts failed.
However, we could make the Global Village a reality here in Oxford and hopefully other cities will emulate our efforts to capitalize on ethnic diversity with positive projects. When we demonstrate the genuine benefits of working together to build community cohesion, it will create safer streets where Tommy’s thugs will not dare to venture.
Good luck!