A sixth day of violent disorder in Britain saw attacks on police, to property and the firebombing of a hotel in Tamworth believed to be housing migrants. Those engaging in this rank lawlessness must be identified and face the full force of the law. This cannot go on.
The spark for these riots was a real crime – the deaths of three young girls in Southport. But thugs have abused the awful stabbings for their own motivations, which is how we have reached this disturbing juncture.
No doubt, the flames have been fanned by social media. Big tech companies and their platforms must take responsibility – or be forced to act – over their content. If a newspaper were to carry such falsehoods, it would face serious consequences – and rightly so. That Elon Musk, owner of X, suggested on his own website that civil war was “inevitable” in the UK speaks to the nature of the problem faced.
British security services must also investigate the extent to which foreign actors are involved. Hostile states such as Russia revel in fissures within Western societies for their own benefit. Vladimir Putin wants nothing more than to suggest that multiracial, liberal democracies are weak and fragile, when it is in fact his country that faces an economic and social dead-end under his years of authoritarian rule.
From a political perspective, this is a major challenge for the new Labour Government. The Prime Minister and Home Secretary must demonstrate they have a tight grip over what remains an ongoing situation. Those who commit crimes and seek to terrify their fellow citizens ought to understand they will not get away with it. As with the London riots, tough sentences must be handed out to show that there are severe consequences to disorder
That is the short-term. In the longer-term, we must better understand and then counter the sheer levels of disinformation and baseless conspiracy theories which pose a threat to our way of life. The events of the last few days have involved relatively small numbers of people. But they have the power to shake the foundations and how ordinary, law-abiding citizens see each other.
