Something in our country changed at the weekend. Like cities across the UK, London has seen protests organised by the far right before, but this felt different. Over 100,000 people filled the capital. Tens of thousands of them marched peacefully. But some violently attacked the police officers tasked with keeping Londoners safe. Elon Musk tried to rally protesters against our democracy, telling them to “fight back or you die”.
The scenes we saw didn’t come from nowhere. For far too long, our politicians and pundits have refused to condemn the rising tide of hatred in this country, instead choosing to dabble in dog-whistle politics and dangerous rhetoric themselves.
