Dare “far-right thugs” that only deploy “pure violence” and go away “I regret having participated” riots or for fanning racial and anti-Muslim hatred online. This is how British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described those, and especially those who, in early August, from Southport to Bristol via Belfast, threw bricks at the police, mosques or even tried to set fire to emergency accommodation for migrants. Labour refused to outline explanations for these outbursts of anger, dismissing anything that might resemble the beginnings of a justification of violence. They were fuelled by small groups and far-right activists, who spread false information according to which the murder of three girls in Southport (north-east England) had been committed by a Muslim immigrant.
The leader’s response to the riots has so far been exclusively judicial: arrests have been massive (more than a thousand), justice has been swift and particularly harsh: hundreds of people have already been brought before a judge, of whom a majority have been sentenced to prison terms. Starmer has chosen the same strategy of deterrence as during the London riots of 2011, when he was director of public prosecutions.
However, violence has erupted in some of the country’s poorest towns, such as Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Rotherham in northern England, where people are expressing a lack of confidence in the ruling parties after decades of deteriorating living standards. These towns also have more emergency accommodation for migrants than the wealthy south of England, because rents there are lower.
“An achievement”
However, Keir Starmer’s line has achieved consensus and neither the left nor the right question the multicultural national model or the assimilation of British Muslims into national values. Indeed, Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party, described the clashes in Leeds as “politics of the subcontinent [indien] »But only the extra-parliamentary far right, in particular its leading figure, Tommy Robinson, blames multiculturalism and Islam for all the ills of a white working class with a strong sense of being degraded.
“The fact that British society is multiethnic is taken for granted. People do not question it, they are even proud of it, that is what our surveys show. Only 7% of respondents [dans un sondage réalisé le 9 août] During the riots, 48% expressed shame at living in a multi-ethnic country, compared to 45% who said they were proud and 48% who had no opinion.Luke Tryl, director of the British think tank More in Common, points out. In the early 2010s, David Cameron, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, [2010-2016]I had mentioned the ” chess “ of multiculturalism. Labour leader Tony Blair [1997-2007]Following the London Underground attacks in 2005, he also stressed the need for the entire population of the country to share the “British values” or western.
You have 45.43% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
