Exactly one week ago, Axel Rudakubana, the 17-year-old son of Rwandan immigrants to the United Kingdom, killed three children and wounded eleven others in a stabbing spree at a community centre in Southport. In the days since, widespread protests and rioting have broken out across the UK. It is the worst disorder Britain has seen since the migrant riots of 2011.
Over 400 people have been arrested after far-right violence swept across the country, with the prime minister setting up a “standing army” of specialist police officers to deal with further attacks.
Sir Keir Starmer has held an emergency Cobra meeting after far-right mobs carried out racist attacks and set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers in Rotherham and Tamworth.
Speaking after the meeting, the prime minister said: “We will have a standing army of specialist public duty officers so that we will have enough officers to deal with this where we need them.
“The second is we will ramp up criminal justice. There have already been hundreds of arrests, some have appeared in court this morning.
“I have asked for early consideration of the earliest naming and identification of those involved in the process who will feel the full force of the law.”
Last night, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer issued this condemnation of “far-right thuggery”:
I utterly condemn the far-right thuggery we’ve seen this weekend. Be in no doubt: Those that have participated in this violence will face the full force of the law. The police will be making arrests, individuals will be held on remand, charges will follow, and convictions will follow. I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves.
This is not protest, it is organised violent thuggery, and it has no place on our streets or online. Right now, there are attacks happening on a hotel in Rotherham. Marauding gangs intent on lawbreaking, or worse. Windows smashed. Fires set ablaze. Residents and staff in absolute fear. There is no justification, none, for taking this action. And all right-minded people should be condemning this sort of violence. People in this country have a right to be safe. And yet, we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted. Attacks on mosques. Other minority communities singled out. Nazi salutes in the street. Attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric.
So no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: Far-right thuggery. To those who feel targeted because of the colour of your skin, or your faith, I know how frightening this must be. I want you to know that this violent mob do not represent our country, and we will bring them to justice. Our police deserve our support as they tackle any and all violent disorder that flares up, whatever the apparent cause or motivation, we make no distinction. Crime is crime, and this government will tackle it. Thank you.
Some of the fiercest rioting has occurred in Rotherham, where migrant grooming gangs sexually abused thousands of young girls through 2013 – all with the quiet complicity of police and local authorities. Attempts to ascribe the riots to mere social media agitation by Tommy Robinson are unconvincing; this is an organic uprising by people who object to the consequences of mass migration and who feel their own government has sided against them.
That doesn’t mean these protests are a good idea. In fact, I fear that these riots are very likely to be catastrophic for all involved – basically the equivalent of the 6 January Capitol Hill protests for our British friends. Disorganised uprisings have few prospects of realising their political goals, they are often a gift to the regime, and participating in them vastly increases your chances of going to prison.
Please understand that I am not trying to blackpill you; I’m not saying that political change is impossible. What I am saying, is that many protestors have been sold a false vision of how that change comes about. If you buy into that mythology too hard, you may well find yourself achieving the opposite of what you set out to do, and in a great deal of trouble besides.
Liberal democracy operates on the ‘popular sovereignty’ theory of politics. Elected representatives, in this theory, derive their mandate from the people who vote for them. In extraordinary circumstances, the people can also exercise their mandate directly, for example by taking to the streets and demanding change. In democratic mythology, elected leaders will then respond to popular pressure and enact the policies demanded of them.
All of that seems simple enough, but it is almost exactly backwards:
In wealthy, developed Western nations, democratic governments function like crypto-oligarchies, in which a political elite exercise power and manage popular opinion. Part of that opinion management involves the maintenance of elaborate political illusions. We get a superficial performance of the forms and orders of democratic politics, and along with it a substantial helping of dishonesty about what is really going on. Liberal democracies thus present perhaps the most confusing and baffling political system humanity has ever seen, and I hope someday soon to write a brief book where I collect my thoughts about how they actually tick.
Here I just want to talk about protests. All political movements require two things to get anywhere. You need significant organisation, and clear alliances with the elite or a viable counter-elite faction. Because our states devote massive resources to subverting all potentially hostile political organisations, it is generally difficult to attain the former unless you also have the latter.
