On the seventh day of nationwide protests, Britain faces hooligan violence, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-foreigner, which for the first time unites the Labour government, the Conservatives and the Archbishop of Canterbury in a single accusation: “Right-wing racists”. Birmingham, Belfast, Plymouth, Newcastle, are the new scenarios where perpetrators and victims confront each other. There are dozens of police officers injured and one person in critical condition in Belfast.
At the entrances to some towns they set up pickets, stopping drivers to prove they are British and white.
Years of demonisation and dehumanisation of migrants by the Tories and Brexit have plunged the kingdom into a spiral of violence that is now in its seventh day, with more than 400 people arrested and the government deciding to try them as “terrorists”.
The British Defence League, a group of ultras and anti-Muslims, are preparing for March on Wednesday to the hotels where the asylum seekers live. On Sunday, the Hollyday Inn hotel in Rotherham was vandalised and broken into. Four refugees slept in terror in a forest after fleeing the hotel. The riots of recent days have “reduced the UK to a conflict zone”, said the chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council.
Muslims and foreigners attacked
A man was trampled on the head for a hate attack, according to police on another night of unrest in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Police said that on Monday night, several members of the public tried to protect the man, who is in his 50s.
The victim was hospitalized. “His condition is described as serious and we are treating his attack as a hate crime,” the statement said.
Brawls and clashes occur at a right-wing extremist march in Rotherham, Britain, on Sunday. Photo: REUTERS
The crowd, consisting of several dozen people, He threw bricks and Molotov cocktails. He set fire to a police Land Rover and attempted to burn down the remains of a supermarket, which had been set alight during a riot on Saturday. The owner is an immigrant. “Officers were able to put out this small fire before it could develop,” the statement said.
Social networks
The attacking gangs are organized by X and Tik Toc. Keir Starmer’s Labour government believes Russia is behind the riots agitating with false information.
Social media companies have a “moral responsibility” not to contribute to the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content on their platforms, Justice Minister Heidi Alexander has said, after X owner Elon Musk irresponsibly wrote that “civil war was inevitable”.
Heidi Alexander told Sky News: “The idea that you can sit behind a computer screen or a mobile phone and somehow think that that protects you from the law is nonsense.” She added that the Labour government would take “a very tough approach” to businesses.
“There have been some welcome steps where some misinformation has been automatically removed. But I think social media companies could and should do more,” Alexander said. “They have a moral responsibility not to propagate and spread misleading and inflammatory content on their platforms.”
“The civil war” according to Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s post on X that “civil war is inevitable” amid the continuing spread of unrest in England and Northern Ireland is “deeply irresponsible”, Justice Minister Heidi Alexander has said.
Musk, the former Twitter boss of X, has faced backlash for his comments as social media sites have also been criticised for not doing enough to tackle the spread of misinformation.
Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the leader of the racist British Defence League and on holiday in Greece, is already known to be among those under investigation by police for his alleged role in spreading disinformation.
Minister Alexander told Times Radio on Tuesday: “If you have a platform, a big social media platform, then you also have a responsibility.”
Police guard a memorial in memory of the three girls stabbed to death in Southport, England, on Monday. Photo: AP
“Using language like ‘civil war’ is in no way acceptable. We’re seeing police officers seriously injured, buildings burned down. That’s why I really believe that everyone who has a platform should exercise their power responsibly,” Alexander said.
“They broke the windows of the house and the car with racist insults”
A Middlesbrough woman who was attacked on Sunday has spoken of the “traumatic” experience of having her family home targeted in far-right riots which swept through her area over the weekend.
Anika told BBC Radio 4 about the riots in her area, which left her property damaged. “We closed all the blinds and curtains, windows. Everything that could be locked. We went upstairs, obviously, because it’s not safe downstairs,” she said.
He said people tried to break into his house, smashing the window of the front door. “They were shouting racist abuse and then, jumping on the car’s windscreen, the roof, smashing the side door windows. The car was disabled.”
Anika described the attack as “really scary.” “It was a traumatic experience, like we had never experienced it before in our lives,” she said.
Police arrest a protester in Manchester, this weekend. Photo: REUTERS
What children of immigrants say
These are the voices of politicians who are children of migration. Sayeeda Warsi is a former Conservative minister. Her family arrived two generations ago from Pakistan and she was a star minister in David Cameron’s Conservative government. She denounces the kingdom’s anti-Muslim agenda, which now leads minorities to fear leaving home.
“The poisoning of public discourse on Muslims, migrants and refugees has been constant and deliberate. Some politicians, the media and some think tanks have pursued an anti-Muslim agenda. We must be brave enough to call it out. They have created the climate we now see in our cities and towns and they are as guilty as the thugs on the street,” he said.
It was she, a conservative, who revealed how the caring, without the slightest control, especially in the north of the kingdom.
“As someone who comes from the north of England, who has spent my whole life campaigning in cities where there has been a rise of the BNP and the EDL, I went on Question Time and faced Nick Griffin[the then leader of the BNP]. I honestly think the way to deal with bad ideas is to put forward good ideas,” he said.
“Our country, which belongs to all of us, which we have all helped to build and defend, is a country that believes in liberal and inclusive values. We cannot have crowds in the streets,” he said.
Sabir Zazai, who is also the president of Together with Refugees, said his family was asking him the kind of questions they would ask themselves if they lived in a war zone.
Zazai, who arrived in the UK in 1999 as an asylum seeker fleeing conflict in Afghanistan, said: “The violence, racism and Islamophobia of the last few weeks has reduced the UK to a conflict zone. My daughter asks me: ‘Where would we move if people hated us here now?’ My wife says: ‘Is it safe to go to work?’ The kind of questions you would be asked if you lived in a war zone,” he said.
Anti-immigration protesters demonstrate outside a hotel housing immigrants in Aldershot, Britain, on Sunday. Photo: EFE
British people of Asian origin, who were born in the kingdom and have an English passport, They defend their businesses with sticks, along with the Kurds and Indians, because they are burned, along with their vehicles, in the cities of northern Britain. Others do not want to go to work or go shopping at the supermarket, for fear of being attacked.
Countries such as India, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa and other former British colonies are warning their citizens about the protests and asking them to be informed and not to go to areas where violence is taking place.
The trials have begun
Trials against the hooligans have already begun in Liverpool and Belfast. More than 500 additional prison places are ready to deal with them and their sentences, the Justice Minister said. There are minors among those on trial.
Heidi Alexander said ministers had put forward 567 extra prison places to be used for violent protesters, who receive prison sentences. There were 6,000 specialist police officers on standby to deal with further violence.
The Labour government has been warned not to be too quick to label the riots “acts of terrorism”.
“Politicians should not be too quick to classify the riots that have broken out across Britain as terrorism,” said Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s independent reviewer of counter-terrorism legislation. “Care should be taken when invoking counter-terrorism powers in a ‘live incident’ as it may ‘end up pointing the finger at one group’,” he warned.
Hall’s comments contrast with remarks made on Monday by Neil Basu, the former head of the anti-terror police force, who said some of the violence being witnessed had “crossed the line into terrorism”.
Justice Minister Heidi Alexander insisted on Monday that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and not politicians will have the final say on the type of charges brought against those involved in rioting.
