Who's to blame for Britain's far-right riots?

August 14, 2024
By Henry Ridgwell
VOA

People hold signs at a protest against racism outside Reform UK's headquarters in Westminster, in London, Aug. 10, 2024.

British authorities are trying to ascertain the origins of the violent far-right protests that erupted in towns and cities across the country in recent weeks. While some blame simple racism and false news posted on social media, others say deeper social forces are at play – and warn that the government faces significant challenges in trying to prevent further unrest.


Who’s to blame for Britain’s far-right riots?

As the debate rages over the possible root causes of the riots, the initial trigger for the violence is undisputed. On July 29, a teenager with a knife attacked several children attending a dance class in Southport near Liverpool, resulting in the deaths of three girls, ages 6, 7 and 9.

False reports initially posted by an obscure crime website called Channel3 Now, wrongly identified the killer as a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived on a small boat. The false news spread quickly on social media.

There was initial speculation that the Russian state was behind the disinformation. An analysis by the BBC, however, suggested that Channel3 Now had purchased an existing YouTube channel based in Russia to gain subscribers, but no link with Russian authorities has so far been identified.

Britain has accused hostile foreign states, including Russia, of amplifying misinformation in the days following the Southport attack.

Police later named the Southport suspect as 18-year-old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, who was 17 when the attack took place. Rudakubana was born in Britain to Rwandan parents.

The role of social media is now in sharp focus.

“The initial violence was kicked off by a falsehood. To an extent, I think it’s fair enough to blame social media,” said Anand Menon, a professor of international politics at Kings College London.

The riots began the day following the Southport knife attack, July 30, as far-right protesters attacked a nearby mosque. Dozens of police officers were injured and a police van was set on fire.

The violence spread to other cities across Britain in the following days.


An anti-immigration protester is detained by police officers, in Newcastle, Britain, Aug. 10, 2024

Shops were looted and public buildings set on fire. Businesses owned by people of color were targeted. Mosques were attacked amid a wave of anti-Muslim violence. Hotels purportedly housing asylum seekers were set alight.

Immigration – and especially the influx of asylum seekers in small boats across the English Channel – appears to have been a driving force behind the riots. Forty-one-year-old mother Karina, who did not want to give her family name, was among those attending a far-right protest in the city of Nottingham.

“We want to see an end to people coming over illegally on boats from safe countries,” she told Agence France-Presse.

More than 1,000 people have been arrested since the violence erupted.

Many observers see deeper social divisions driving the violence.

“These are tensions that you see in a lot of countries right now – I would include the U..S to some extent in that, too – where you have emerging feelings of nationalism, a sense that people are being left behind, a sense that people's freedoms are being denied, the sovereignty of the nation is at stake,” Stephanie Alice Baker, a sociologist at City, University of London, told The Associated Press.

“And a lot of this really coincides with a rise of immigration and a cost-of-living crisis. So, people have these first-hand experiences of grievances, and a lot of these negative feelings are projected onto an 'other,’” she said.

Critics accused some right-wing politicians – especially Nigel Farage, the leader of the anti-immigration Reform party – of fanning the violence. On his YouTube channel, Farage has previously publicized the location of hotels that purportedly house asylum seekers. He has also accused British police of operating a so-called “two-tier” system where right-wing protesters are dealt with more harshly than other groups, although he has not provided any evidence. British authorities strongly deny the accusation.

A large demonstration was held Sunday outside the Reform party headquarters in London.

Farage has strongly denied inciting the riots.

“At no point in the last week or in the previous 30 years have I ever encouraged the use of violence, have I ever encouraged the use of anti-democratic means,” he told LBC News on August 6.




An anti-discrimination message is shown on a big screen at London's Wembley Stadium during a soccer match between Manchester United and Manchester City on Aug. 10, 2024.

The riots pose a challenge for Britain’s politics, said analyst Anand Menon.

“I think it’s a problem when political figures come very close, as some of them have, to actually justifying violence. On the other hand, I think if you get something like this it would be strange if you weren’t to think about the kind of causes that lead people to feel so angry that they’re able to contemplate this sort of thing,” he told VOA.

Far larger demonstrations against the far right have dominated towns and cities across Britain in recent days. A significant increase in policing and widespread arrests have also stymied the far-right protests.

British police, prepared for far-right agitators, find peaceful anti-racism protesters instead

Justice has been swift. More than 1,000 people have been arrested and hundreds convicted of offenses linked to the riots. The youngest was 12 years old; the oldest, 69. Scores of people have been charged with offenses relating to posts on social media, even though they may not have taken part in the violence.

Elon Musk, the owner of the social media site X, has faced criticism for allowing such posts to be published. He has himself posted in apparent support of the far-right protests, writing that “civil war is inevitable” in Britain. That prompted fury from many British lawmakers.

The riots pose the first big test for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party won the July 4 election by a landslide.

“In relation to online and social media, the first thing I'd say is this is not a law free zone, and I think that's clear from the prosecutions and sentencing. … That's a reminder to everyone that whether you're directly involved or whether you're remotely involved, you're culpable and you will be put before the courts if you've broken the law,” Starmer told reporters on August 9.

“I do agree that we're going to have to look more broadly at social media after this disorder. But the focus at the moment has to be on dealing with the disorder and making sure that our communities are safe and secure.”

The unrest poses a longer-term challenge, said Anand Menon, professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King's College London in the UK and has been serving as director of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative after his appointment in 2014.

“The UK has, over the last 10 to 15 years, had very low economic growth and hasn’t done much for many people who are struggling economically,” Menon told VOA. “And while that isn’t to justify the violence in any way, shape or form, I think it is absolutely appropriate to think, given what’s happened – are there circumstances that make people feel so desperate that they are more prone to this than others?”

UK

Challenging the rise of the new far right

Analysis by Stephen Lambert
14-08-2024


Photo by Monkey Butler Images


Unlike the fascism of the inter-war years, Teesside University academic Paul Stocker argues in his book English Uprising, that the re-emergence of the extreme populist right, manifested in a wave of brutal racist rioting in the last month, is a cultural rather than just an economic phenomenon.

Stocker provides a critical overview of the history of 20th century British fascism. Unlike Oswald Mosley’s BUF Blackshirts in the 1930s, the spectacular rise of groups like the National Front and BNP, were a direct response to post-war black commonwealth immigration in the fifties and sixties. In 1967 the NF, a racialist party of the extreme right was founded by the author Chesterton. Its main belief system was a redefinition of the ‘real’ British community in terms of colour. For the NF whites were seen as ‘true’ Brits. Black and Asian minority ethnic groups weren’t and were blamed for social problems like unemployment and bad housing.

By 1979 the NF lost a lot of it support partly due to its thuggish skinhead image, street violence and partly due to Thatcher’s populist stance on overseas migration. By 1992 it fell into decline and was eclipsed by the British National Party. Till 2011 the BNP was the lead player on the extreme right and enjoyed modest success in council elections particularly in the deprived outer boroughs of London. By 2009 its leaders Nick Griffin and Andrew Broms were elected to the European Parliament for the first time.

By 2012 the rapid rise of UKIP, although not a fascist party, represented the ”further mainstreaming” of ideas popularised by the BNP. As Nigel Farage, UKIP’s former leader boasted: ”We’ve taken a third of the BNP vote and I’m quite proud of that”.

Currently the new far right is splinted into a number of groups ranging from the EDL, Britain First and Patriotic Alternative. Britain First led by Paul Golding sees itself as the successor to the BNP with a blend of far right street protests and stunts like mosque ‘invasions’. It has an extensive presence on social media and its estimated 800 members have tried to whip up unrest in predominantly Muslim neighbourhoods. Its harmful online propaganda played a key role in the radicalisation of the convicted far right terrorist Daren Osbourne. Nick Lowles of the anti-racism charity, Hope Not Hate, said: ”The speed with which Osbourne was radicalised was frightening.”

Patriotic Alternative, formed in 2019 by former BNP activist Mark Collett, has presented itself as an anti-migrant and ”white pride” organisation.

Although one of its leaders was jailed for racial hatred it has kept a low profile in the wider context of the recent riots. One of the key contemporary figures of the new far right, however, is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon aka Tommy Robinson founder of the defunct English Defence League. Robinson is being investigated by the police for spreading online disinformation and being behind some of the riots which hit many towns across the UK including Sunderland, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough.

Although the recent racist yobbish behaviour on our streets alarmed the vast majority of people it received no public support even amongst those who have concerns about the impact of migration. Although racist attitudes and values were prevalent in the latter part of the 20th century, the UK is by and large a tolerant multi-ethnic and multi-racial society. Research by Hope Not Hate notes that we’ve become more, not less tolerant since 2011. Overtly racist opinions, as measured by surveys, have dropped significantly in the last two decades.

British Future, a thinktank, has pointed out that the UK enjoys a high level of integration compared to several European countries and the US. There has been a consistent fall in intergenerational racial prejudice and a gradual decline in ethnic residential segregation in cities and large towns.

However, there’s some evidence that hard right extremist elements are gaining a foothold in some urban ‘left-out’ communities. Following Brexit the radical right wing party, Reform UK, which attracted over four million votes at the last general election, is becoming increasingly racialised with five elected MPs including Nigel Farage.

British values and the role of education

In 2017 the government with cross party support unveiled its Fundamental British Values initiative coupled with the launch of the Building A Stronger Britain, part of the state’s counter-extremism strategy, to address genuine concerns about the potential growth of far right groups and ‘Islamo-fascism’ in local communities and in schools.

Although most schools and colleges have integrated FBVs into their systems of delivery, Ofsted noted, that too often they are being taught in a piecemeal and ad hoc way. For a minority of white working class young people their sense of disenchantment and alienation can easily be exploited by far right extremists who ”promise a better tomorrow by scapegoating and blaming minorities today”.

Clearly educational providers have an important role in challenging extremism in the classroom, online and outside the wider community. That’s why it’s vital that all schools re-emphasise the shared common values of democracy, tolerance, respect and the rule of law through the formal and ‘hidden’ curriculum. Alistair Campbell in his new book, But What Can I Do, has gone one step further calling for the introduction of anti-fascist education as part of a universal civics programme across all schools.

Left behind areas

Stocker challenges an explicit economic explanation for the growth of new far right populism and urban unrest. Other experts point out, the core lesson from inter-war Britain, is that this nativist populism only comes alive when government fails to address the anxieties of the dispossessed living in left-behind and neglected post-industrial towns and coastal communities both in the north and elsewhere. Violence, thuggery and damage to property broke out in seven of England’s most disadvantaged areas: Middlesbrough, Blackpool, Liverpool, Hartlepool, Hull, Manchester and Blackburn.

As former Chair of the Social Mobility Commission Alan Milburn warned four years ago a failure to bridge an unequal society, stem industrial decline, tackle stagnant incomes and a sense of political alienation could fuel support for a proto-fascist solution through new far right movements or hard left totalitarian groups in some parts of our divided and fractured post-Brexit nation.

Stephen Lambert is director of Education4Democracy and a Newcastle City Councillor.

SCOTLAND

FM Swinney and unions release joint

statement to condemn ‘inexcusable’ rioting

The violence in England and Northern Ireland began in the wake of the murder of three young girls in Southport, Merseyside.


Violence erupted over several days in England and Northern Ireland (

Owen Humphreys/PA)

PA Wire
Craig Paton


Scotland’s trade unions have described the recent riots in England and Northern Ireland as “inexcusable” in a joint statement with John Swinney.

As of Wednesday, 372 adults have been charged, along with at least 65 people under the age of 18, in the wake of riots following the murder of three young girls in Southport, Merseyside.

The Crown Prosecution Service said 69 adults have been sentenced, with 64 sent to prison as a result.

The riots have not spread north of the border, despite rumours of planned protests.

Police Scotland has repeatedly said there is no intelligence to suggest disorder could take place, but a planned “pro-UK rally” – touted by former English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson – is planned on September 7.

In a joint statement alongside First Minister John Swinney, STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said: “Alongside the Scottish Government, we jointly condemn the recent, inexcusable violence and disorder perpetuated by the far-right across the UK.

“Scotland is not immune and we cannot become complacent.

“We must do all we can to oppose the far-right, including reaching out to our faith and migrant communities to offer solidarity, support and the reassurance that they enrich the social and cultural fabric of our nation.

“Scotland is their home. We stand with them.”

Mr Swinney said the trade union movement has a “long and proud history” of standing up against oppression, work Ms Foyer said “continues”.

She added: “We won’t cower to hatred and prejudice. We will work with the Scottish Government to ensure inclusivity, respect and tolerance triumphs over persecution and ignorance and will oppose, across every village and town, those who wish to divide us.”

Mr Swinney said: “The Scottish Government and STUC are aligned in our support of communities across the UK that have faced violence and intimidation instigated by far-right groups.


“Scotland is a diverse, multi-cultural society and this diversity strengthens us as a nation.

UK, Germany Condemn Israeli Minister’s ‘Provocative’ Visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, center, flanked by his security detail, approach the entrance to Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, which Jews revere the site as the Temple Mount, believed to be the location of the First and Second Temples, and it is a holy site for Muslims as Haram al-Sharif or the Noble Sanctuary, in the Old City, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP)

14 August 2024 AD ـ 09 Safar 1446 AH

Britain strongly condemns Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound known to Jews as Temple Mount, British foreign minister David Lammy said on Wednesday.

"The UK strongly condemns Minister Ben-Gvir's deliberately provocative visit to Jerusalem's Holy Sites," Lammy wrote on X.

"Such actions undermine the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan's role as custodian of the sites and the longstanding Status Quo arrangements."

Germany also condemned Ben-Gvir's visit, saying it expects the Israeli government to halt deliberate provocations.

"We reject unilateral steps that jeopardize the historical status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem," the Foreign Ministry in Berlin posted on social media platform X.

ANTI CREATIONISM

New gardens at the Natural History Museum take Londoners on a Jurassic journey through time

The fern landscape. Photography: The Trustees of the National History Museum

Architecture, News I 14.08.24 I by Ellen Himelfarb

The new Urban Nature Project at London’s Natural History Museum has been called a ‘living laboratory’, a ‘wondrous jungle’, a ‘haven for wildlife’, and a ‘triumph’. The museum’s first landscape redesign in its 140-year history is all these things, not to mention an accessible approach to the museum itself—a gentle entree into an enduring institution that guides visitors back through aeons.

Architects Feilden Fowles and landscape architects J&L Gibbons have collaborated on this piece of natural theatre, which is as absorbing as a David Attenborough series (indeed the man himself is represented in a quote embedded in bronze at the museum’s entrance: ‘The future of the natural world, on which we all depend, is in our hands’). They’ve segmented the outdoor space into scenes of interest, demarcated with plantings, signage and smaller curiosities to discover, all folding into the larger purpose of telling the story of nature on Earth.
Photography: Kendal Noctor

It begins with the Evolution Garden, a gradual build-up of prehistoric rock from all corners of the nation. Ancient species of ferns trace the earth’s botanical history, leading to a 26-metre bronze-cast Diplodocus called Fern. Primeval creatures are stamped into surfaces like fossils, alongside actual fossils.

The Nature Discovery Garden was designed to enhance the biodiversity of the urban landscape while enhancing our understanding of our climate emergency. It consists of old London plane trees, woodland plantings, grasses and wetland plants added to the museum’s pre-existing garden. The landscapers incorporated well-considered drains and gutters to gather rainwater for the facility’s upkeep.
The pond landscape. Photography: The Trustees of the National History Museum

Connecting these zones is the newly widened pond, encircled by sunken pathways that meander past stone benches, each evoking a different geological era. Among them are two new buildings in limestone and Douglas fir, designed to bring the community further inside the landscape. The Nature Activity Centre and a Garden Kitchen, to open in September, will be valuable neighbourhood spaces and a reason to stay a while, even in inclement weather.

Experienced all together, the thriving expanse becomes not only its own exciting Jurassic Park but also a place to monitor and observe the changing nature of nature, for better or worse – while highlighting the antique beauty of the museum building itself.
A model of megazostrodon rudnerae – an early shrew-like mammal. Photography: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum
Evolution timeline rock canyon. Photography: The Trustees of the National History Museum

The Nature Activity Centre. Photography: Jim Stephenson
Read next: Snøhetta plants 12 giant ‘petals’ in Austin
Inside the Oxford Botanic Glasshouses – ancient botany in the historic

‘A Labour Oxford Chancellor could be transformative for the university sector’

Tom Taborn    

14th August, 2024

Photo: 4kclips/Shutterstock

Chris Patten, the former Conservative minister, has retired as Chancellor of Oxford University, triggering an election for the post. The post has never been won by a Labour figure, although the once Labour minister Roy Jenkins held the post as a Liberal Democrat when there were two Tory contestants and he came through the middle. 

This will be the first year that the Chancellor will be elected online, rather than electors having to come to the University to vote. This means that this year the electorate will increase from the 6,000 who have participated in person to the potentially 250,000-strong graduate population of Oxford.

The deadline for Oxford graduates to register to vote is this Sunday, sparking fears that Conservative campaigns, with long-standing alumni networks, will pull ahead in registrations. Graduates may register online and do not need their alumni number to do so.

READ MORE: Sign up to our must-read daily briefing email on all things Labour

The election is traditionally fought between competing public figures – in the past Conservative vs Liberal – although one internal ‘University’ candidate normally puts their name forward.

Sky News has reported that Peter Mandelson and William Hague have made their interest known along with Elish Angiolini, principal of St Hugh’s College. Other possible candidates include Imran Khan, the former Pakistan Prime Minister, and Reverend Matthew Firth, a member of the Free Church of England standing on an ‘anti-woke’ platform. 

A Labour Chancellor could promote higher education reform

Although Conservative candidates have been successful in seven out of the nine contests since the beginning of the last century, this year may be different. The significantly widened electorate means that old assumptions are not so strong.

The Labour Party’s dominance of the under-40 vote, combined with the anger of recent graduates over tuition fee and student loan rises, and the previous government’s attacks on universities, mean that Conservative candidates may face a tougher battle. 

The contest is likely to focus on the sector’s financial sustainability, maintenance grants and student support, admissions processes and regional inequality. Mandelson’s recent column in The Times hit back at right-wing attacks on universities and argued that Keir Starmer’s growth mission requires a thriving university sector. Fringe candidates are likely to focus on ‘culture war’ issues, seeking to turn the contest into a battle about freedom of speech. 

READ MORE: ‘Water firms are failing us. But Labour is already working to turn things around’

While the Chancellorship is largely a symbolic, ceremonial role, a Labour Chancellor could argue in favour of reform. Funding for the sector, which has been tightly squeezed in recent years, needs to change as does a fresh influx of cash from the philanthropic sector and industrial sponsorship of research.

The combination of a Labour Oxford Chancellor and a Labour government could also change the tone of the wider debate around universities. While the previous government took a broadly hostile approach to the sector, the shelving of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act is an indication of the new government’s increasingly rational stance. A new Chancellor, alongside a new government, could promote higher education reform for the first time in 14 years. 

The new Chancellor could be a powerful advocate for students

The New Labour years saw a dramatic increase in university participation as part of the shift to a service-led economy. In his Times column, Mandelson made the argument for more, rather than fewer, people in tertiary education in which universities play an important part.

In the climate of attacks on ‘mickey mouse’ degrees and ‘hyper-liberal’ universities, it is a brave argument to make. If he takes up the role, the country could see a new voice for the further expansion and quality of university education, changing the debate in a positive direction. 

READ MORE: Party seeks £105k policy and comms chief but slims down following victory

The Chancellorship also has a representative purpose. Student interests, which have been frequently sidelined by culture-war clamour, could gain a powerful advocate. A Chancellor focused on representing students, academic staff and alumni, unencumbered by ideological gripes and preoccupations, could act as a voice for a sector which has often had difficulty defending itself from external attacks. 

Any Oxford graduates who wish to participate in the election have until Sunday using this link.

NEW HUMANIST

Britain's new era: our Autumn 2024 edition asks, what now?


It's time to take stock of where the country is, and where we'd like to be. What's happening with discipline in our schools? How do we heal the "toxic culture" in our NHS? And will refugee rights be restored under the new government?

By Editorial Staff , Thursday, 15th August 2024



The Autumn 2024 issue of New Humanist is on sale now! This issue we're delving in to Britain's new era – from schools to the NHS to refugee policy.

Spare the rod

Cherry Casey explores the rise of super strict schools across England. Some are achieving impressive results – but at what cost?


"The ultra-disciplined approach – often referred to as championing “high behavioural standards,” “strong leadership” and a “no excuses” mantra – is spreading ... Yet many pupils, parents and teachers feel it comes with heavy costs to children’s mental health, wellbeing and educational outcomes. And they are speaking out."
Crisis of compassion

Following the revelations of the Birth Trauma Inquiry, journalist and former midwife Pavan Amara looks at persistent reports of a "toxic culture" within the NHS, the institutional failures that have led to it – and what can be done to fix it.


“If you talk to people who have never worked in the health service, they have no idea that it’s a lot like the army. It’s a tough place, everyone is in survival mode."
Ken Loach

Director Ken Loach – renowned for his films documenting the lives of working people in Britain – talks to us about reclaiming solidarity in British politics.

"Human values have political implications … If someone falls down in your street, you would help ... And yet we elect people to represent us who do the opposite."
In this together

Writer and feminist Natasha Walter talks to us about refugee rights, climate activism, and what humanism means today.


"For a few years we got policy wins [on refugee rights] ... But then came this unbelievable backlash. I felt we won certain battles but we lost a war in the last few years."

Credit: Alamy

Also in the Autumn 2024 issue:Michael Rosen follows the history and meaning of the word "landslide"
Peter Salmon explores why political defections feel so wrong
Kunal Purohit meets the Indian communities fighting back against religious hate
Jody García looks at where the battle for Guatemala's democracy could lead
Jody Ray tracks one of the world's first malaria vaccine rollouts in Sierra Leone
Shaparak Khorsandi offers tips on the lost art of eavesdropping
Samira Ahmed issues a call to remember the Pacific War, before it's too late
Jessa Crispin has a hot take on what's really driving Swiftmania
A brush with cancer gets comedian Richard Herring laughing about death
Dan McCarthy thinks it's no bad thing if adults are acting like kids
Briley Lewis takes an astronomer's eye to a Hollywood blockbuster about Apollo 11
Bethany Elliott describes how Ukraine's national identity was put to the ultimate test

Plus more fascinating features on the biggest topics shaping our world today, and all our regular science columns, book reviews, original poetry, the cryptic crossword and brainteaser.

To celebrate the launch, we're offering six months of New Humanist for just £1! Subscribe now using code AUGUST24 (offer valid until the end of the month) or buy a single issue online and in all good newsagents. Read on for a peek inside the magazine.

UK

‘What happened last night was not funny’ – Liz Truss responds to lettuce prank

The former prime minister was not amused.


Former prime minister Liz Truss, as a banner featuring a picture of a lettuce unfurled behind her on the stage at an event in Suffolk (Led By Donkeys/PA)

PA Media
Max McLean

Liz Truss has said a banner proclaiming “I crashed the economy” with a picture of a lettuce which appeared behind her during a talk was “not funny” and an attempt to “suppress free speech”.

Speaking at Beccles Public Hall and Theatre to promote her book Ten Years To Save The West, the former prime minister was discussing her support for Donald Trump when the banner unfurled behind her.

Led By Donkeys confirmed the event was genuine, but refused to explain how they pulled the stunt off.

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Ms Truss wrote: “What happened last night was not funny. Far-left activists disrupted the event, which then had to be stopped for security reasons.

“This is done to intimidate people and suppress free speech. I won’t stand for it.
“Would we see the same reaction if the activists were far-right?”

A statement from Led By Donkeys read: “Liz Truss appears to be a huge supporter of free speech up to the point she encounters it”.

Led By Donkeys co-founder Ben Stewart earlier told the PA news agency that the stunt was “all about Liz Truss aligning herself with Trump and the far right in America”.

Ms Truss lasted only 44 days as leader of the country – she was famously outlasted by a lettuce that was recorded on a live stream, created by the Daily Star, which asked: “Which wet lettuce will last longer?” referring to the then prime minister and an actual lettuce.

Once she had been alerted to the sign behind her, the former prime minister was clearly unhappy and left the stage.

UK

Why eco-protesters are serving more time than rioters

Stephen Armstrong

TORTISE
Thursday 15 August 2024

It’s the law, and the law turns out to be political.


About 40 people have been sentenced so far in connection with the UK riots at the start of August. Sentences range from two months for criminal damage to three years for violent disorder. By contrast, five Just Stop Oil protestors were jailed in July for between four and five years for conspiring on a Zoom call to shut down the M25.

So what? If the scales of justice don’t seem fairly balanced, that’s because they aren’t. The discrepancy between relatively light sentences for race rioters and relatively heavy ones for eco-protesters is a function of process – most of the rioters have been swiftly dealt with and pled guilty while the JSO five had a jury trial;
personality – judges are human, after all; and
politics – the history of police and public order acts in the UK is a history of the British state bringing in laws to deal with temporal problems it finds infuriating.

The law. The maximum sentence available to judges for violent disorder, the most severe of the rioters’ offences so far tried, is three years. The maximum sentence for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance is ten years. The rioters are on trial for violent disorder as defined in the Public Order Act 1986. This was created to deal with the Miners’ Strike in 1984. The JSO protesters were on trial for public nuisance as defined by the Police, Crime and Sentencing Act of 2022 and the Public Order Act of 2023. These were created to deal with climate change protests, specifically naming Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.

Public enemy number one. The first ever UK Public Order Act in 1936 banned political uniforms and required police consent before political marches went ahead. This was created to deal with Oswald Mosely’s British Union of Fascists.

Judge dread. Judge Christopher Hehir, who sentenced the JSO five, noted thatprotesters’ actions had caused people to miss flights, funerals, mock exams, medication, cancer clinic appointments, work and an appearance at the All Party Parliamentary Group for Water;
a police motorcyclist was knocked off his bike; and
the defendants had form in previous protests.

Hehir also dismissed their lack of violence and conscientious motives as non-mitigating.

Harsh, no? During the riots, around 150 police officers were injured and almost half of them hospitalised. Business, hotels and police stations were set alight. Shops were looted. Cars were burned. A number of people were beaten by mobs.

Yes, but. In the case of the rioters, the judiciary has moved with almost unprecedented speed in bringing the cases to court. Currently the average length of time from offence committed to sentencing in the UK is around a year. In Liverpool, rioters were in court and sentenced within a week. It’s a judicial choice at a time when the legal system is under strain, so the judges are either reflecting the state or society’s views.

Soft touch. So far, none of the rioters has been charged with riot under the Public Order Act 1986 which carries a maximum sentence of ten years, although the Director of Public Prosecutions has said that is still a possibility.

Time to fold? Last week Liberty met with the Home Office to discuss dropping the Serious Disruption Regulations 2023, a set of amendments to the Police and Public Order Acts introduced by the former home secretary Suella Braverman that lowered the bar for disruption to be considered criminal.

The amendments were aimed specifically at environmental protesters, and they seem to have pleased Braverman more than the public.The High Court has since ruled them unlawful.
Over the past five years juries have been acquitting environmental protestors who justified their crimes by explaining their beliefs.

The JSO five are appealing against their sentences. The question is whether the legal system can do better than politicians at reflecting the wishes of society.

 

The Riots: A Classic Fascist Mobilisation

Labour Hub Editors

By John McDonnell MP

August 14, 2024

To understand why the riots have taken place and how to respond to them, you have to start by looking at who has been involved.

Drawing on other historical examples, it looks like a classic fascist mobilisation. 

At the top are leading demagogues, the political provocateurs, willing to exploit any issue for their political advantage no matter what the consequences for the people or communities involved.

Beneath them are a relatively small phalanx of hardline foot-soldiers, who have been trained and involved in fascist groups like the English Defence League over the years. These are the true-believing fascist muscle behind the riots.

Then there is a larger group: the disgruntled, the dispossessed and the disillusioned. This is the combustible material that the fascists target to set alight: people who are so discontented with their lives – with so little hope, with so little understanding of the real forces that drive our society – that they are prey to the simple, beguiling message that someone else is to blame for how they feel.

All the leaders have to do is point the finger at whichever group is the scapegoat this time round and wait for a spark, an incident, to set the tinder alight. The truth of any incident doesn’t matter. It’s what they can convince people of.

Just as in the 1930s the advent of radio and cinema facilitated the spread of propaganda by the fascists then, so social media has been effectively used in spreading the lies now.

Decade after decade of recent racist and Islamophobic propaganda constructed on centuries-old racism embedded in society makes it so much easier to make race, colour or religion the identifying features of the scapegoat. 

When the fire is lit there are always new joiners, often young people, who can’t resist the excitement or the opportunity to exploit the situation generally with mindless vandalism or looting.

Overcoming the threat of continuing division and violent attacks requires action that is focused on each of these groups.

The demagogues have to be called out and confronted for what they say and what they do. The situation has been exacerbated by mainstream politics; instead of standing up to the far right, many politicians have opportunistically adopted its language and political positioning. 

The lesson is: don’t get into the gutter with them; take them on.

Doing that requires a unity of purpose across progressives in our society. History has taught us that fascism succeeds when the centre and left of politics are divided.

In times of crisis the state has a critical role to play. So it’s not just right that the justice system is used to take out of circulation the demagogues and the foot soldiers of fascism. It is vital to the security of our democracy.

Just as importantly, or even more so, it’s the disgruntled and disillusioned that warrant society’s attention.

It’s interesting how many of the men and women now being prosecuted are breaking down in the dock when they realise the consequences of their actions during the riots.

Many are older without any past convictions. Their sense of anger, whipped up by the demagogues, some mainstream politicians and, of course, by sections of the right-wing media, has left many of them bewildered, facing jail and future lives seemingly beyond repair. 

The election campaign provided the ideal environment for far right politicians to bring the anger to boiling-over point. 

Behind those being prosecuted are many more who didn’t participate in rioting, but who in interview after interview still express, if not sympathy for the rioters, then some appreciation of their motives. 

That’s the challenge society faces.

These riots may have been suppressed, but unless we can come up with a new approach to understanding what allowed the fascists to get a grip on so many in our communities then we will be back here in many years to come.

It doesn’t require high political theory. It does come down to some basic political nous.

Fourteen years of austerity have produced 14 million of our people living in poverty, including four million children, as well as a housing crisis, public services on their knees and a grotesque visible level of inequality generating a sense of unfairness overall.

The low turnout and low percentage level of support for the incoming Labour government should have sounded a warning on just how disillusioned with the political establishment people are. When politics appears to fail them some will turn to rioting and violence. 

People can’t take another wave of austerity and need to see a political movement, maybe beyond political parties, that gives them some hope.

The mobilisation of thousands on our streets has shown what mass action can do to deter the far right. There is a need in the short term for a fresh initiative to continue to discredit and isolate fascists, especially amongst the younger generation, just as the Anti-Nazi League did in the past and Stand up to Racism is doing now, building this grassroots reaction. 

For the longer term we need a movement that can organise in each of our communities to listen to the cares, concerns and, yes, the grievances people have, but this has to be accompanied by cutting through the penetration of the racist and Islamophobic propaganda of the far right and right wing media.

There are well-grounded progressive organisations across our society like the trade union movement, anti-racist campaigns, the women’s movement, anti-poverty campaigns, disability groups and many, many others that could be the foundation stones of such a movement to restore some optimism to us all.

The question for the government is whether they have the political will to provide the powers and resources to make this happen.

John McDonnell MP was Labour’s Shadow Chancellor from 2015 to 2020.

Image: John McDonnell MP. Author: Sophie Brown, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.