Aug 15, 2024 08:30 AM IST
The anger of White Britain is a reality and Brexit in more ways than one was a response to this fury but things have continued to grow worse for this demography
In normal times, a tragedy involving the fatal stabbing of three young girls at a dance class in the seaside town of Southport, in the north of England, on 29 July would have brought the community together to tide over the incomprehensible nature of events. But then the world is passing through extraordinary times. Instead of compassion, violence surged through English and Northern Irish towns and cities for nearly seven days as disorder spread rapidly led by the far-right. This is being termed as the worst episode of violence that Britain has seen in more than a decade and though things look calm on the surface, simmering tensions underneath haven’t really subsided.
While more than a thousand people have been arrested and more than 200 people have been charged with violent disorder so far, the critics are already pointing out that Prime Minister Keir Starmer “fell short” in his “first real test” as the PM and that rioters should have been confronted earlier with an “overwhelming police presence.” As of now, however, the prosecutorial approach by Starmer seems to have returned order back to the streets of Britain.
The role of social media has been critical in starting and sustaining disturbances following the dastardly attacks as false speculation about the suspect being an asylum seeker — who arrived in the UK on a boat in 2023 — was widely circulated. The fact is that the suspect was born in Wales to Rwandan parents.
This allowed supporters of the far-right group the English Defence League (EDL) to mobilise quickly with violence spreading from Southport to London, Hartlepool, Manchester and several other cities. On X, influencers such as EDL founder, far-right activist and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson posted inflammatory messages on the subject to mobilise their followers to action.
The rioters targeted mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers even as in some cities counter-protestors also came face to face with the rioters. Immigration lawyers were asked to work from home as a list of offices started getting circulated on social media. The situation became so serious that many nations such as Malaysia, Nigeria, Australia and India issued travel advisories, asking their citizens to stay vigilant.
At the heart of all this trouble lies a growing concern in Britain about immigration and the seeming inability of the nation’s political class to address this. The violence that Britain saw earlier this month underlined for some a level of frustration about the current state of affairs in the country.
Along with the thugs and provocateurs, there were also people at some of the protests who wanted to register this concern through peaceful means though the thugs ended up high-jacking the situation. The Conservative party MP, Mel Stride, suggested that the riots also showed the need to think harder about “poorer, white, working-class males,” including “making sure that we give them the kind of opportunities that many of them feel quite distanced from at the moment.”
The anger of White Britain is a reality that few can deny any more. Brexit in more ways than one was a response to this fury and yet things have continued to grow worse for this demography. This sense of marginalisation has been amplified by misinformation and growing anti-migrant rhetoric in Britain’s media and politics. The British state is no longer able to give voice to the aspirations of this section of the society and its withering away at multiple levels has made migration the key central issue of the nation’s socio-political contestation. Rising costs of living combined with underfunded public services have taken the levels of deprivation to a new high, allowing the far right to effectively tap into this disenchantment when mainstream political parties are unable to vent their feelings.
Anti-immigrant sentiment is a function of several factors including economic concerns that immigrants are taking jobs away from the natives or are driving down wages to identity-related issues that an influx of immigrants is diluting or changing traditional cultural values. The scale and speed of globalisation have also resulted in a sense of alienation in certain communities, something which is projected onto the immigrants. If mainstream political parties do not respond effectively to these sentiments, then extremists fill that void aided and abetted by disinformation on social media.
Social media’s role in this crisis took centre stage when Starmer and X owner Elon Musk ended up in a tit-for-fat after Musk tweeted that “civil war is inevitable” in Britain. Starmer’s office pushed back by underlining that “there’s no justification for comments like that” and that “what we’ve seen in this country is organised, violent thuggery that has no place, either on our streets or online. We’re talking about a minority of thugs that do not speak for Britain.”
The British government has managed to bring the situation under control but it cannot be ignored that many people in the country do have legitimate concerns about legal and illegal migration. They cannot be simply wished away with suggestions of racism. The Labour Party has recently won a resounding victory. It will need all the political capital it has garnered to sort out the mess created by the recent turmoil. Otherwise, these riots will be just another vivid manifestation of a declining Britain.
Harsh V Pant is vice president for studies and foreign policy, Observer Research Foundation. The views expressed are personal
