Re the far-right riots, I was at an anti-fascist counter-demonstration in Bristol on Saturday and saw the full wretched horror of these far-right, neo-Nazi scum in person (Report, 4 August). The instant that they arrived, they attacked people. Immediately. There was no slow build-up of tension, no attempt to make a political point, just wanton violence against counter-demonstrators and police.
The torching of the hotel in Rotherham and the attempts to attack other hotels and mosques shows you exactly what they are: racist lynch mobs enacting a nationwide pogrom against Muslims and asylum seekers.
Some of the blame has to rest on the shoulders of the Conservative politicians who spent the last half a decade seeking increasingly outlandish ways to demonise refugees and immigrants, until we reached the revolting, cruel spectacle of the absurd Rwanda scheme. Their rhetoric, and that of the Reform party leadership, is part of what brought us here – to fascists flinging bricks at the heads of my friends in broad daylight.
Jack Anderson
Bristol
• The prime minister’s announcement of a new national unit to tackle extremist activity is welcome but not enough (Far-right riots: Keir Starmer announces new violent disorder unit, 1 August). Local areas differ, and tackling these issues will depend on community resilience and a quick and effective response. Resilience to these threats relies on strong networks in a community and cannot be built after an event. Such networks, for example, could dispel social media misinformation through their own communication channels, as well as bring local leadership and community organisations together.
It requires the government to take a long-term approach to the causes of social division and threats to cohesion in our society. This government should take on board the recommendations made by Sara Khan in her report on social cohesion earlier this year. The government should build capacity at a national and local level to respond to, avert and de-escalate community tensions, and empower resilient communities. We ask this government to put in place a long-term national cohesion strategy.
Shalni Arora
Chair, Belong Network
• It is unfortunate that some media outlets have described the violence and riots as “protests” for they are nothing of the sort. Calling them protests only gives them some sort of respectability. Keir Starmer has acknowledged this, as have the police. These are riots perpetrated by thugs in balaclavas intent on wrecking local communities. What they managed to wreck in Southport was rebuilt by the community the very next day. They did not prevail.
The rioters are not simply anti-asylum seekers or anti-Muslim. If we had no asylum seekers or Muslims, they would pick on other minorities. That is why the response by counter-demonstrators that “refugees are welcome here” plays into the hands of the thugs. When anti-fascists confronted Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists in 1936, their slogan was: “They shall not pass.” So, today, the slogan must surely be: “They shall not prevail.”
Fawzi Ibrahim
London
• It is misleading to suggest the rioters have any ideology that is implied by the “far-right” label. They are just aggressive young men looking for an excuse to cause trouble and indulge in looting. In the 1970s and 80s, the same sorts of men were involved in riots that were called football hooliganism. Toxic masculinity is a better explanation than any thought-through political views.
Emeritus professor David Canter
University of Liverpool
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