In 2020 there was widespread rioting, civil disorder,
vandalism and looting in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of
the police. This spread to Britain where large numbers of people broke the
Covid regulations in place at the time forbidding crowds to gather.
The cause of the disorder in the USA was not merely
that a police officer killed Floyd, but the perception that large numbers of
black people had similarly been killed by the police and that nothing was being
done to prevent it. So too many black people feel a long-standing grievance going
back some centuries that they are not treated equally but rather are the victims
of the same racism that brought their ancestors to North America as slaves.
These and other reasons can be given as the causes of the disorder.
In Britain there is not the same degree of police
violence against anyone as there is in USA. Still many black people sympathised
with the Black Lives Matter demonstrators and many on the Left in particular sympathised
also and were keen to show their support for the demonstrators even if some of
those demonstrators were involved in violent disorder. Keir Starmer was one of them.
Since October 7th last year when Hamas murdered 1200
Israelis and kidnapped hundreds of others there have been large numbers of
demonstrations against Israel with expressions of sympathy for the Palestinian
cause. At times these demonstrators have expressed themselves violently by
means of the signs that they carry and the words that they have shouted.
Why have so many people in Britain demonstrated about
a war that does not involve the UK and over which the UK has little if any
influence? There is on the Left a general sympathy with the Palestinian cause.
It is also obviously the case that many British Muslims in particular feel
deeply that it was unjust for Jews to migrate to the Middle East and take over
land that had previously been owned by Muslims. I think they view it as a
religious goal that Palestine ought to be once more controlled by Muslims. I
can think of no other reason why they are interested so much in this conflict
rather than any other.
So, I am able to explain without passing any
particular judgement over both the demonstrations that followed the death of
George Floyd and those that followed the latest war between Israel and the Palestinians.
It ought to be possible for me to do this about any contemporary disorder
without being accused of sympathising with the disorder or justifying violence.
The recent violent disorder in the UK followed the
murder of three girls. But the causes go back further, and I think they are
connected with the difference in response from the authorities to the disorder.
The response of politicians, the media and the police
to the disorder following the death of George Floyd and the Pro Gaza
demonstrations has been quite different to the recent rioting in response to
the murder of the three little girls. What’s more I strongly suspect that if a
white person for far-right reasons had murdered three little black girls and black
people had created widespread disorder and rioting the response would have been
quite different too.
Black people can demonstrate about George Floyd and
Keir Starmer will take the knee in sympathy as will footballers for some time
afterwards. Gaza supporters can say dreadful things about Jews and argue for
the eradication of Israel from the river to the sea and nothing much will
happen to them. But compare and contrast what happened in response to the more
recent disorder.
I don’t think anyone should be demonstrating. The
Black Lives Matter demonstrations didn’t help anyone either in USA or here. The
Pro Gaza demonstrations did not save one life in Gaza. The recent violent
disorder by white people has merely made life worse in the places that it occurred.
We live in a democracy. We must decide matters by
electing politicians rather than demonstrating.
But just as I can justifiably seek to explain the
Black Lives Matter demonstrations and the Gaza demonstrations so I can
legitimately seek to explain why some poor white people have been rioting. This
does not mean that I either think they were right to riot or that they have
been harshly treated.
I believe that the police ought to catch and the
courts ought to punish criminality so as to deter others. I don’t particularly
care if some poor unfortunate has a sob story. If you don’t want to go to jail
don’t engage in violent disorder.
But there is a widespread feeling that there is one
rule for one sort of offender and another rule for another. The media, the police
and the courts will look the other way when the Left sympathises with the cause
of Black Lives Matter or Gaza and will react quite differently if the case
involves white people.
This has been going on for some time now and gradually
it is fuelling discontent, and that discontent is giving way to fury.
The root cause is that the demographics of the UK has
been changed radically without the consent of its population. No reasonable person
can object to limited migration, but it has not been limited. Voters have
repeatedly made clear that they support controlling our borders. This was one
of the main reasons for the Brexit vote. But successive government over many
decades have simply ignored what they knew voters wanted.
When governments ignore what voters vote for, what is
the point of voting? If voters cannot change matters by means of the ballot box,
then you are in a situation similar to having an absolute monarchy and under
those circumstances the response can as with France and Russia become
revolutionary. Disorder is what happens when democracy fails.
It isn’t just two-tier policing that is the problem. It’s
two tier everything. Humza Yousaf can complain about white people having top
jobs in Scotland, but if a white person made a similar complaint about black people,
he would be a racist. British people are blamed for the existence of slavery even
though the Royal Navy fought to eradicate it, but Arabs and Africans are not
blamed even though they were involved in the slave trade too. We have to be colour
blind about the casting of black actors where they were not in the original
story, but we cannot have white actors playing black characters.
There is a double standard about everything.
Gradually we find that the worst consequence of mass
immigration since 1945 is that white people are the villains of British history
and that our only task is to take the knee in shame and to atone for our multitude
of sins. There is a certain sort of person who has nothing left to lose who
rebels against this. That is what we have been watching lately. He will feel
this still more now that his whole community has been cast as racist losers
unworthy of the least degree of sympathy. Let’s kick him some more to see what
happens.
The only hope is that we treat everyone in Britain
equally. Treating different groups differently according to their race is
explosive and if it continues it will explode again.
In the last few years we have had black people
demonstrating, Muslims demonstrating and now the poor white underclass demonstrating.
We need to look at why people get involved in disorder and do our best to
address these grievances no matter what the cause. We also need to find ways to
improve the standard of living for everyone and to erase all forms of injustice.
We need to treat each other equally and without prejudice.
But above all we need to realise that if we keep the
present levels of migration and if we continue to form divided societies which
view each other as strangers rather than fellow countrymen, then the present situation
will get worse.
I don’t think any population in history has been as
radically transformed as ours in the years since 1945 without conflict. Please
provide me with an historical example if you disagree.
I wish we could all live together in peace and harmony
only noticing our shared humanity, but I fear that pressure is building, and
all Labour is doing is putting a lid on it with the intention of continuing on in
exactly the same way. Go on Labour keep holding down the lid of the pressure
cooker while pumping in more migrant steam.
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