The government claims that the wave of violent unrest currently sweeping across the UK is the work of ‘thugs’ – of bigots, racists, fascists – who’ve been misled by disinformation on social media regarding the identity of the suspect responsible for the Southport stabbings. However, since it’s now widely understood that the suspect is not a Muslim and is not an asylum seeker, it’s hard to see how this claim makes any sense at all.
Equally nonsensical is the claim that the rioters are a small group of ‘mobile’ individuals who move from one town to another to create unrest. But if that’s the case, how is it that yesterday’s riots and protests took place in a dozen or more towns and cities spread across the length and breadth of the UK? Have these rioters cloned themselves or discovered the secret of teleportation?
What the government signally fails to recognise is that there is deep and widespread anger about the UK’s immigration policy and that this anger is not confined to racist thugs but extends to law-abiding citizens like myself. Having been politically left-of-centre all my life, in last month’s general election I found myself voting for Reform UK purely because of their stance on immigration. A policy of net zero immigration and an exit from the ECHR, allowing the small boats crossing the Channel to be returned to France, is perhaps the only way to put an end to the current tide of unrest. Or should I also now be regarded as a racist bigot?
Robert Grossmith 