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Is Britain heading for civil war? It would be foolish to write it off

Rioters set Sunderland aflame at the weekend (Drik/Getty Images)

Rioters set Sunderland aflame at the weekend (Drik/Getty Images)


August 5, 2024   6 mins

Unusual for the time of year, the radiant sun was setting over the picturesque city. It was the early evening of 5 April 1992, and while some of Sarajevo’s residents were listening to the opera, lovers could be seen strolling along the Miljacka river. The following morning, the city woke up to bodies in the streets.

Admittedly, tensions had been rising for over a month as politicians and fascists politicised a murder at a wedding to sow hatred and division. But nobody expected it to come to this. How could a European city so rich in culture and on the road to development be torn apart by such brutal violence? Overnight, Sarajevo had become a byword for the dangers of ethnic division, ultra-nationalistic fervour, tribalism and wanton extremism.

The events of the past few days in the United Kingdom reveal a number of familiar traces. Southport has become synonymous with Sarajevo, in the sense that, once again, under the watchful sun a small extremist minority is seeking to politicise a brutal tragedy and turn it into something whose consequences reach across the country. This is not protest; it’s about violence, terror and a naked appeal to intimidation.

The idea of a civil war has traditionally referred to an internal conflict where one armed group seeks to wrestle power from the state. While some may brush this aside by suggesting a civil war is not something that the British do, we should not be so complacent. Remember, after all, that alongside the American version, the English civil war between 1642-51 remains one of the most instructive. As a result of this very British version of civic slaughter, the modern theory of sovereignty appeared in Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan. Not only did it put forward the now-familiar mantra that there is no politics without security and no security without the state, it also set in place the fundamental understanding — later picked up by Max Weber — that only the state can engage in legitimate violence.

“While some may brush this aside by suggesting a civil war is not something that the British do, we should not be so complacent.”

What marks a civil war from this perspective is a contesting of that very monopoly and the state’s right to use force for the preservation of order. That the police forces who appear on the front lines often become the first targets is not then incidental. But where is the line that needs to be crossed so that civil tensions become a war? Since the Seventies, critical thinkers such as Michel Foucault sought to invert the logic of civil war to explain how states are always waging a kind of silent battle upon minority groups. Through this, notions such as structural violence emerged. Presenting a civil war as a process — one that is not always about widespread slaughter but can also be measured in terms of a broader account of violence and social tensions — does have some merit. The danger with such reasoning, however, is that if everything is a civil war, nothing is.

If Sarajevo made explicit how the new emerging contours of civil war would be written in ethnic terms, it had already been shown in Somalia, Mexico and later Rwanda how the very idea of a civil war was no longer bound to single movements whose sole aim was the capture of the state. Such unbounded violence went global with 9/11, which revealed the utter nihilism of certain ethnic doctrines. It also showed how the lines between race, religion and political beliefs are far from homogenised.

Political violence has since been very much driven by ethnic division, which speaks to a problem that is far more expansive than reductive explanations that focus on race. Of course, there are some overlaps between race and ethnicity, but they are not mutually exclusive. A failure to recognise this means we fail to properly understand the causes and the solutions.

Three decades on from the violence in Yugoslavia, the world is undeniably a different place. The UK political landscape is notably a world away from how it looked in the early Nineties, divided as we have become by all the social media tensions that, as recent days have shown, actually makes violence easier to provoke by non-uniformed and misinforming online generals. This has been matched by the Americanisation of our political system, where performativity — including the performativity of violence and outrage — has replaced substance and where the complex lines of identity and ethnicity have been reduced to crass caricatures based on neat categories of race, sex, gender and whatever other category we care to impose.

The category of race, for example, in itself tells us little about a person’s privileges or political and religious beliefs. That is why counter-narratives around “whiteness” are also unhelpful here; just as they are useless in explaining why many black and Asian people in the US support Donald Trump, or why Enrique Tarrio ,who is of Afro-Cuban descent, became the chairman of the neo-fascist organisation Proud Boys. We should not forget their cos-play riot on Capitol Hill, for what that pantomime showed was such movements today really don’t expect to be able to take on the state. Instead, their enemy are other Americans who have a different vision of what being American actually looks like.

Unlike in Britain, the idea of a possible civil war there has been part of mainstream discussion in America for some time now. Indeed, what marked out Alex Garland’s compelling film Civil War was precisely its plausibility. Garland revealed one of the truisms of a civil war, where its experience is never universally shared. A civil war has never meant that every street is a battlefield. The violence is always concentrated. Witnessing the streets ablaze in Belfast at the weekend should remind us of this. That city, which for many impartial observers looked on the precipice of a civil war for a number of decades, was also liveable even as the ethnic divisions required the physical construction of walls. Belfast also shows how the lines of ethnic divisions are never static but take on new forms.

How should we respond to it? Many have dismissed those engaging in the weekend’s violence by emphasising its thuggery and blaming the likes of Tommy Robinson or Nigel Farage. While I sympathise with this instinct — the criminality was parasitic and abhorrent — it shouldn’t come at the expense of understanding that it was also carried out in the name of a certain ethno-nationalistic vision. So, just as we asked “why do they hate us?” in the aftermath of 9/11, so we must now ask “why is there so much hatred in Britain?”.

A staple explanation in studies of global conflicts since the mid-Nineties has been the idea that poverty is the greatest single cause for violence. Indeed, the edict that underdevelopment was dangerous has been advanced by every single international organisation and humanitarian group tasked with mitigating conflict and violence. Certainly, areas of Britain are desperately poor at the moment. And they have been suffering from the fallouts of years of austerity, the impact of Brexit and the costs of the Covid lockdown. That the anger is spilling out from those areas is cause enough for deeper reflection. But we should not fall into the trap of reducing everything to a question of economy.

One of the best books written on the rise of extremism and how a small minority can change the course of history is Wilhelm Reich’s The Mass Psychology of Fascism, which was published as Hitler was coming to power in 1933. Reich encouraged us to move beyond simplistic explanations for fascism’s rise. Instead, he asked us to question the fascist that exists within each of us. We can all learn to desire power and violence, and seek to belittle, shame and intimidate others. Fascism as such doesn’t solely reside on the Right or the Left of the political spectrum. Any identity or ethnicity can become fascistic, just as any identity or ethnicity can become peaceful and welcoming.

Despite the protestations of radical moral puritans, then, there is nothing inherently fascistic about Englishness, the flag of St George, or any other symbolic accoutrements. It is instead about how they are mobilised and whether they are appropriated in the service of violent means.

History needs heeding. As Reich showed, once fascistic desires are liberated, that is when politics tends to get reduced to questions of survival. We saw this repeatedly played out over the weekend as narratives of survival, from the protection of our children to the preservation of a way of life, resulted in the open assault upon police officers and burning of libraries and advice centres. Such calls to violence thrive in febrile moments when questions of sovereignty are translated into everyday concerns. And more dangerous still, the freeing of that violence creates the very conditions in which rigid positions have to be chosen.

Thankfully, Britain is not an armed society, and its violence is mostly contained. But that shouldn’t mean that can’t change. Across the world, civil wars have been raging in the name of revitalised ethnic divisions, which have only required a single spark to set entire societies and nations ablaze. Britain is contending with these forces, and they could become much worse. It would be foolish to believe that we are too civilised to ever let that happen. The potential for civil war is written into the DNA of all ethnic conflicts — and, like a sleeping demon, once its fires are lit there’s no knowing where it will spread.


Professor Brad Evans holds a Chair in Political Violence & Aesthetics at the University of Bath. His book, How Black Was My Valley: Poverty and Abandonment in a Post-Industrial Heartland, is published with Repeater Books.


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Right-Wing Hippie
Right-Wing Hippie
3 months ago

To have one civil war may be regarded as a misfortune; to have two looks like carelessness.

LindaMB
LindaMB
3 months ago

the first was caused by a king who thought he had a divine right to rule, refused to listen to parliament and ruled as an absolute monarchy.
The second will be caused by a parliament that believes it has the divine right to rule, refuses to listen to the people’s concerns, and wants to rule as an absolute power.

John Ramsden
John Ramsden
3 months ago

The Romans must have been exceptionally slipshod, because over recorded history they had literally dozens!

David L
David L
3 months ago
Reply to  John Ramsden

The Romans also came to regret allowing millions of barbarians across their borders.

Maybe we should learn from history.

Arthur King
Arthur King
3 months ago

Islam shows up and within a couple generations there is civil conflict. It has happened throughout history in numerous cultures; some cultures for whom the majority has effectively disappeared. This issue is that Islamic theology is inherently supremacist and exclusionary. It was designed to function that way.

jane baker
jane baker
3 months ago
Reply to  Arthur King

But the nastiness has only been cultivated and grown because people in power,and not the ones we see and vote for,have steered it that way.

Norfolk Sceptic
Norfolk Sceptic
3 months ago
Reply to  jane baker

The ‘people in power and ‘those we see’ look coordinated enough for there to be plan, especially when there’s no curiosity by the Legacy Media around the supporting destruction of the nation.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
3 months ago
Reply to  jane baker

people in power – who are they if we dont voye for them? please advise as I assume you dont meant Tommy Robinson et al

William Cooke
William Cooke
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

Sir Humphrey and the police, for example.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  William Cooke

If you observe that no journalist or other media organ ever seems to disagree with a professor or other academic; and that they all insist on the religious-like doctrine of “Universalism” that has as its corollaries open borders, globalization, mass migration, “refugees,” multiculturalism, feminism, tolerance of sexual deviancy, sexualization of children, and the celebration of nearly every vice together with the destruction of all taboos…
…then you will see who is really “running things.” As Hobbes notes in the opening of his “Behemoth,” the “universities” are, and have always been, the hotbeds of degeneracy.
For people asking such questions, I recommend Moldbug as the best answer yet:
https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/04/open-letter-to-open-minded-progressives/

Kent Ausburn
Kent Ausburn
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

The bureaucracy/administrative state.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

The globalist cabal hiding in plain sight.

Dr E C
Dr E C
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

You may be interested in / depressed by this: https://youtu.be/C-HhIfpBdoQ?si=QZpyV7ncr8C8ZcsS

mike otter
mike otter
3 months ago
Reply to  jane baker

Politicians are in some ways worse as they may have limited time at the trough so act in more extreme ways, the apparatchicks can have 40 years trousering smaller amounts, but neither have legitimate authority – they are simple thieves and w/o a social contract to restrain them violence will likely fill the vacuum.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  mike otter

Quite so. It has always astounded me that people accept without criticism the dictum that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Answer this: how can you corrupt a king? What would you offer him? He needn’t make concessions to you; he can merely take it.
It is fractured power that corrupts. And fractured power is the premise of democracy. Therefore, democracy can only be corrupt. How is this not exactly the lesson of the American “experiment,” to say nothing of the French disaster since 1789?
In a thousand years (and probably much sooner) the Age of Democracy will look to historians, correctly, as a time of mass delusion and political insanity.

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

“Answer this: how can you corrupt a king? What would you offer him? He needn’t make concessions to you; he can merely take it.”
Yes, but that comes with its own set of inherent dangers. If the king, being an absolute monarch, is corrupt then there are no tools to control him and limit or even prevent abuse–short of assassination that is. Case in point: the French Revolution where the king and queen ultimately lost their heads. One can argue that Louis XVI didn’t deserve death as he wasn’t an evil monarch and even implemented several reforms in accordance with Enlightenment ideas of the era, but he was weak and the people were suffering. Unfortunately, too much power often, if not usually, leads to the belief that one is infallible and above the rest of humanity. Such beliefs are a slippery slope, and abuse and violence towards one’s subjects are all too frequently a direct consequence. The idea of a balance of powers as conceived by Montesquieu is a way to limit such excesses. Democracy for all its flaws is still the best system we have. Everything else has also proven less than ideal.

Vito Quattrocchi
Vito Quattrocchi
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

I think the point of the dictum is similar to the observation that a man is only as faithful as his options. What it says is that those who possess power will eventually begin to construct justifications that frame as virtuous acts that would conventionally be considered immoral. This is the corruption that the saying refers to.
So, let’s say a king can’t be bribed by a peasant because the king simply owns the peasant and everything he has already. Now, let’s say the king desires the peasant’s wife. The king constructs a rationalization where he has the right to do with the wife whatever he wishes and his power justifies the action so that he can consider it moral or himself above such considerations. That’s the corruption of absolute power.

Vito Quattrocchi
Vito Quattrocchi
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

It seems like you’re claiming that if a king takes what he wants from the defenseless under his rule, it’s not ipso facto corrupt because he has the right to anything he wants within his kingdom. I don’t think that deals with the problem, it just defines corruption narrowly as something that can only take place when there’s a prior expectation of restraint. By this logic, if we were all slaves that would at least deal with the problem of corruption since there wouldn’t be any expectation of rights that our masters could violate.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  jane baker

because people in power,and not the ones we see and vote for,

You seem to be very close to realizing an important truth: that “democracy” has never worked and cannot be made to work.
This phenomenon, where those that we vote for are not actually the ones in power, is the key observation.
How long after this realization will a man continue to “vote,” rather than do something that might actually effect change? It does not take many men to effect such change, as Reich understood. A small, determined group of people is the only thing that has ever made any difference.

laurence scaduto
laurence scaduto
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

I detect a certain amount of pleasure in your prophecies, as if you’ve been looking forward to the “…bodies in the streets.”
You’ve crossed the line into nihilistic ‘manifesting’. It’s not helpful.

Lancashire Lad
Lancashire Lad
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

These thoughts are what happens when someone thinks of themselves as having “seen through” democracy. In fact, you simply haven’t understood it.
The imperfections of democracy are better understood by those whose lives have been lived in the kind of autocracy you appear to be advocating, but who’d give their lives – and have done so for centuries – to arrive at the stage where the imperfections of democracy can be realised and lived within. Only fools think themselves too clever for imperfections.

Will K
Will K
3 months ago
Reply to  Lancashire Lad

When the people in power are not those we vote for, it’s not a misunderstanding, it’s a con-trick.

Robbie K
Robbie K
3 months ago
Reply to  Arthur King

The author is blaming poverty and the oppression of the working class, and considering how young white males have been forgotten by the system he is on to something. Of course this is combined with the immigration issue and the widespread crimes of Muslims in these towns.

Ken Charman
Ken Charman
3 months ago
Reply to  Robbie K

The poverty line is misleading. The main identifying factor is that most of the protestors are non graduates. Many are well paid but they are angry and frustrated at being demonised, abused and ignored over migration.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Ken Charman

They are angry about the colonization of their nation by cultural aliens, enabled by the traitorous elite.
And they should be.

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

Exactly. Who can fault them? I have been predicting exactly this for almost 20 years. It’s the old proverb about the final straw breaking the camel’s back. There comes a point where it’s too much, and all hell will break loose as a result. I am still not sure if politicians and their helpers are simply too stupid and/or cowardly to realise the connection between actions and reactions, or if they do understand and just don’t care, or if this is perhaps done by design, i.e., with intention. A part of me still believes in the old adage that stupidity and selfishness are sufficient explanations, but another part of me thinks that nobody can remain that stupid for this long.

Lindsey Thornton
Lindsey Thornton
3 months ago
Reply to  Katja Sipple

Yes, I’m picking up a strong sense of Karma working itself out; the natural law of cause and effect. The Liberal elite are reaping what they’ve sown and it’s coming back to bite them. About time.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
3 months ago
Reply to  Ken Charman

The white males in the video of the riots in the UK looked like the same kind of white males that make up Donald Trump’s MAGA.

Dr E C
Dr E C
3 months ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

Ie male & white? Hmmmmm, profound.

Brett H
Brett H
3 months ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

The same in what way?

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
3 months ago
Reply to  Robbie K

There was a report published in 2021 but The Education Committee here’s an exert from the committee. ‘The forgotten: how White working-class pupils have been let down, and how to change it’, the report highlights how White British pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) persistently underperform compared with peers in other ethnic groups, from early years through to higher education.
White working-class pupils have been badly let down by decades of neglect and muddled policy thinking and only a proper targeted approach will reverse the educational underachievement of this long forgotten disadvantaged group, MPs say today.
The report notes the Department for Education’s failure to acknowledge the importance of investigating the reasons for the disparities, instead relying on muddled thinking and an insistence that pursuing the same policies will somehow provide a solution.
In contrast, the Committee highlights the reasons behind the disparities and identifies five key solutions.
Statistics on underperformance (page 18)Early years: In 2018/19, just 53% of FSM-eligible White British pupils met the expected standard of development at the end of the early years foundation stage, one of the lowest percentages for any disadvantaged ethnic group.GCSE performance: In 2019 just 17.7% of FSM-eligible White British pupils achieved grade 5 or above in English and maths, compared with 22.5% of all FSM-eligible pupils. This means that around 39,000 children in the group did not achieve two strong passes.Access to higher education: The proportion of White British pupils who were FSM-eligible starting higher education by the age of 19 in 2018/19 was 16%, the lowest of any ethnic group other than traveller of Irish heritage and Gypsy/Roma.
The Committee found these disparities particularly striking because White people are the ethnic majority in the country and, while White British pupils are less likely to be disadvantaged, FSM-eligible White British pupils are the largest disadvantaged group.
ReasonsDuring its inquiry, the Committee heard of many factors that may combine to put White working class pupils at a disadvantage. It was not convinced by the DfE’s claim that the gap can be attributed to poverty alone, with pupils from most ethnic minority backgrounds more likely to experience poverty, yet consistently out-performing their White British peers.
Among the many factors that may combine to put White working-class pupils at a disadvantage are:
1. Persistent and multigenerational disadvantage
2. Placed-based factors, including regional economics and underinvestment
3. Family experience of education
4. A lack of social capital (for example the absence of community organisations and youth groups)
5. Disengagement from the curriculum
6. A failure to address low participation in higher education
Solutions1. Funding needs to be tailor-made at a local level to level up educational opportunity. (page 45) A better understanding of disadvantage and better tools to tackle it is needed – starting with reforming the Pupil Premium.
2. Support parental engagement & tackle multi-generational disadvantage. (page 33) To boost parental engagement and mitigate the effects of multi-generational disadvantage, a strong network of Family Hubs for all families is needed. These should offer integrated services and build trusting relationships with families and work closely with schools to provide support throughout a child’s educational journey.
3. Ensure the value of vocational training and apprenticeship options while boosting access to higher education. (page 49) Reform the Ebacc to include a greater variety of subjects, including Design & Technology. Ofsted must be stronger in enforcing schools’ compliance with the Baker Clause, to ensure they allow vocational training and apprenticeship providers to advertise their courses to pupils. Where there is non-compliance, schools should be limited to a ‘Requires Improvement’ rating.
4. Attract good teachers to challenging areas. (page 43) Good teaching is one of the most powerful levers for improving outcomes. Introducing teaching degree apprenticeships and investing in local teacher training centres may support getting good teachers to the pupils who need them most.
5. Find a better way to talk about racial disparities. (page 14) The Committee agreed with the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities that discourse around the term ‘White Privilege’ can be divisive, and that disadvantage should be discussed without pitting different groups against each other. Schools should consider whether the promotion of politically controversial terminology, including White Privilege, is consistent with their duties under the Equality Act 2010. The Department should issue clear guidance for schools and other Department-affiliated organisations receiving grants from the Department on how to deliver teaching on these complex issues in a balanced, impartial and age-appropriate way.
Chair’s commentsRt Hon Robert Halfon MP, Chair of the Education Committee, said: “For decades now White working-class pupils have been let down and neglected by an education system that condemns them to falling behind their peers every step of the way. White working-class pupils underperform significantly compared to other ethnic groups, but there has been muddled thinking from all governments and a lack of attention and care to help these disadvantaged White pupils in towns across our country.
If the Government is serious about closing the overall attainment gap, then the problems faced by the biggest group of disadvantaged pupils can no longer be swept under the carpet. Never again should we lazily put the gap down to poverty alone, given that we know free school meal eligible pupils from other ethnic groups consistently out perform their White British peers. In 2019, less than 18% of free school meal eligible White British pupils achieved a strong pass in English and Maths GCSEs, compared with 22.5% of all similarly disadvantaged pupils. This equates to nearly 39,000 White working-class children missing out.
So far, the Department for Education has been reluctant to recognise the specific challenges faced by the White working class, let alone do anything to tackle this chronic social injustice. This must stop now.
Economic and cultural factors are having a stifling effect on the life chances of many White disadvantaged pupils with low educational outcomes persisting from one generation to the next. The Government needs to tackle intergenerational disadvantage, inbuilt disadvantages based on where people live and disengagement from the curriculum.
What is needed is a tailor-made approach to local funding and investment in early years and family hubs. This should be alongside more vocational opportunities, a skills-based curriculum and a commitment to addressing low participation in higher education.
We also desperately need to move away from dealing with racial disparity by using divisive concepts like White Privilege that pits one group against another. Disadvantaged White children feel anything but privileged when it comes to education.
Privilege is the very opposite to what disadvantaged white children enjoy or benefit from in an education system which is now leaving far too many behind.”

Alan Tonkyn
Alan Tonkyn
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

Thank you for this interesting summary of parts of this report, which is illuminating, and indicates some of the many factors underlying white working class underachievement in education. One factor not discussed here, however, is family structure: how many underachievers come from what were traditionally described as ‘broken homes’? Where children are not being supported, encouraged and nurtured by two parents, especially their biological parents, disadvantage is almost certainly built in. This disadvantage can apply within other ethnic groups, of course, and does explain why some Afro-Caribbean pupil groups outperform others. The issue of sex – boys vs girls – is also not discussed above. There is a need to develop teaching approaches designed for boys and educational streams relating to useful career opportunities for them.

Colin Haller
Colin Haller
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

Can we stop pretending that schools are capable of overcoming the socioeconomic pathologies of the communities in which they are embedded? By all means fund them in a way that provides good educational opportunities for all, but until the poverty in their communities is addressed as poverty (with all of its attendant ills) these schools will continue to fail.

mike otter
mike otter
3 months ago
Reply to  Arthur King

They sent the army in against the NUM – who i abhorr, and the poll tax crusties who are no better than the NUM. IIRC there were no Moselms in the NUM or in the “peace” camp movemrnt?

Peter B
Peter B
3 months ago
Reply to  mike otter

Really (your claim that the army were used against the NUM in the 1984 miner’s strike) ? This is the first I’ve ever heard of this. And some brief research suggest this is nothing more than a myth/conspiracy theory.
You might want to put up some facts.

mike otter
mike otter
3 months ago
Reply to  Peter B

Myself and two colleagues were traveling to Hartlepool NPS and stopped at the services near M1 j25 in Notts. We met a bunch of guys in black rain jackets and similar pants eating at a neighbouring table. We recognised several as members of a regimental rugby ream we played against. They served in a regiment stationed in the southern cathedral city where we lived and worked. Great bunch of lads and the same regiment produced a WBA world champ in the late 80s. After checking the Brass were out of earshot they explained they were off to Orgreave to give back up to cops from Yorks and Tyneside police forces. Their outfits were the same as police rain jackets but w/o the ID epaulets and numbers. TBH we thought it fair at the time… if Scargill, Foot and probably young Starmer could get USSR money why shouldn’t our side get outside help too. Once the NUM and their SWP renta mob saw the size and fitness levels ranged against them i expect they figured out that wasn’t t’owd plod!!

Brett H
Brett H
3 months ago
Reply to  mike otter

“similar pants” – oh my god!

Lancastrian Oik
Lancastrian Oik
3 months ago
Reply to  mike otter

No they didn’t.

General Store
General Store
3 months ago
Reply to  Arthur King

We’ve been in a civil war since Blair opened the border. It’s just becoming kinetic. And about time. I hope it’s non-violent. But I hope that it’s enough for Labour and the Tories to implode, for REFORM to explode into a majority force – and for Farage to understand what needs to be done, which is:
Close border – zero immigration20 years of assimilation/integration – coercive if necessary
Declare an end to multiculturalism in all manifestations, in schools, state-funded universities. Instead, the intention must be to build a cohesive civic national society with shared (Christian) values. Multi-ethnic for sure. Not multicultural
National service for teens – they can share the experience of hating the sergeant
Life long local service for everyone -regardless of class, religion….cleaning, maintaining, schools and hospitals, roads…whatever needs to be done. Half the cost of public services. 2 weeks a year. Failure to participate leads to prison
Complete ban on leftist ideologies in schoolLords prayer and national anthem
Ban on Muslim immigration – if tiny number of asylum seekers admitted, 100% selection of Christians. There are enough YAzidis and Coptic Christians who have been killed and persecuted across Middle East
Leave European court pronto and defund UN – all but peace keeping missions.
No funding/cheap loans for undergrads to live away from home for university; strong preference for staying with parents
Radical defunding of pointless ideological social science and humanities disciplines; reduction in number of universities and places; emphasis on STEM….
Study away from home mostly reserved for post-graduates and specialist technical disciplines
Re-creation of craft colleges, polytechnics and guild system for apprenticeships
Family policy to strengthen marriage, and create the conditions for extended family (to eliminate need for childcare and reduce cost of elder care)
End to gay marriage. Civil partnerships fine but not marriageStiff automatic prison sentences for ANYONE defacing public statues
Compulsory history lessons in schools – re-establishing the story of a sceptred Isle…..Yes focusing on the contributions of all communities but with the emphasis on that to which they are contributing. Strong emphasis on the role of Britain in ending slavery
Feel free to add suggestions below

If anyone has Farage’s email – please copy and send to him

JR Stoker
JR Stoker
3 months ago
Reply to  General Store

Maybe Farage is on holiday, he is certainly unusually quiet

James Kirk
James Kirk
3 months ago
Reply to  General Store

Send it yourself Email: [email protected]
Or write to him on GBNews

General Store
General Store
3 months ago
Reply to  James Kirk

Ha I forgot he’s an MP now 😉

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
3 months ago
Reply to  General Store

I agree with most of this, but not with:-
i. defunding humanities disciplines. The loss of literary and cultural heritage would accelerate White deracination. By all means purge the humanities of the woke scum contamining the discipline (see below), but don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.
ii. ending gay marriage. Gay marriage promotes assimilation.
My additional suggestions:-
a. A wholescale purging of the woke scum. Sack them from their jobs, evict them from their housing, remove their internet access.
b. An annual White British Pride week, celebrating White British culture, endorsed with state sponsorship, and to which other races and ethnicities are warmly invited.

mike otter
mike otter
3 months ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

True re humanities – studied with rigour humanities and social science can serve an open civic society AND excercise active minds. Rote marxist propaganda learned by the halfwits at todays “universities” is not the same thing. As far as coercing ppl to follow our rules i think we just need to except them to integrate as in the Republican states in the USA and they’ll gladly follow – after all many fled their s***holes to get away from the violence and intolerance typical of labour, demrats and other leftist mob rule types.

General Store
General Store
3 months ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Sure purge woke scum. But 99% of humanities and social science disciplines are fallen beyond repair.
gay marriage – Hmm I disagree. It was supposed to be the end of the line. But no sooner achieved, than the next thing – polyamory, queering the kids….and transhumanism is next stop. It’s natural law or bust
to be honest, on the white thing – I see the rhetoric value. But race identity politics are hell. I prefer the original Catholic internationalism

Jacquie Watson
Jacquie Watson
3 months ago
Reply to  General Store

Well it may take civil unrest, violence to rise up and quench itself. Let’s face it there’s not enough law and order available to stop it, and the politicians have their heads in the sand. The current political parties don’t have the policies or the balls to stop it. There’s a leadership vacuum. Mass immigration of a group of misogynistic, Christian terrorising killers, whose leaders cannot agree on how to interpret their own holy book; who will just radicalise their own youth, and won’t uphold the law, but want to replace it with their own religious law, well that’s insane. End of day, you-all should bend over and kiss your asses goodbye, and your donkeys too! Sorry to be blunt, but it’s a blunt problem thats real and happening now. How much worse will it get, Gee there are not any examples anywhere in the world are there?

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
3 months ago
Reply to  General Store

Re introduce a need to pass a paper in Greek for entry to university which was dropped by Oxford in 1920. The thesis and Viva to be undertaken in Latin. A gentleman knows Latin and a gentleman and scholar knows Latin and Greek.

Bernard Davis
Bernard Davis
3 months ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Why not Erse and Chinese? At least those languages are not dead yet

Mr Sketerzen Bhoto
Mr Sketerzen Bhoto
3 months ago
Reply to  Arthur King

Islam had nothing to do with anything here, except a mosque being attacked unfairly. That said we shouldn’t be sanguine about Islamic immigration, or either other cultures that don’t conform. In the case of the perpetrator from Rwanda it’s pretty clear that the attack was racist. Attempts to declare a mental illness is deflection.

If the attacker were white, the victims black and the protestors non-white it’s likely that they would be celebrated, not condemned.

Instead blame our idiot elites, with their philosophy or invading the Islamic world and inviting the Islamic world. And the rest of the world.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago

All correct.
Now, if you can figure out why the “elites” are so hell-bent on colonizing Britain (and the rest of the West) you win the prize.
What exactly would motivate their actions?
Hint: https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/04/open-letter-to-open-minded-progressives/

mike otter
mike otter
3 months ago

Indeed and if the enemy trying to destroy your society happens to be one of: homosexual, drug addict, child moelster, sexual deviant or just a dumb theif what better allies than the other peoples of the Book – Jews & Moslems

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Arthur King

“civil conflict ” tends to show up during a colonization.
Everyone keeps calling mass migration “invasion,” but this is a misnomer. Colonization is much more insidious. A people can survive an invasion; it is organized, obvious, and can be defended against. They cannot survive a colonization. Ask the “native” Americans, the Incas, etc. The “conquering” of the Incas was quick and short, but also merely political. It was the colonization over the next several centuries that obliterated their culture and genetics — in short, their race.
The Brits are running out of time to stop the destruction of their race.

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
3 months ago
Reply to  Arthur King

I wonder who the 11 people who gave this comment a thumbs down are? They certainly never seem to engage in the forum exchange (probably because they have no arguments), and are utterly ignorant of history. I have my suspicions as to their identities, but without seeing one write a rational counterargument that remains speculation.

D Glover
D Glover
3 months ago
Reply to  Katja Sipple

The worst feature of this forum is that anyone can leave a downvote without leaving a refutation. What is the first worth without the second?

Micky Kelly
Micky Kelly
3 months ago
Reply to  Arthur King

Britain has very few issues as a society. The cost of living is more affordable by the day. Britain did not have the greatest transfer of wealth (ever) upwards in the last five years (did the Muslims get all of that as well?). Britain does not have food banks. Britain has affordable housing that has not been getting worse for 30 years. Britain has a wonderful safety net. Britain has been ensuring that communities have not been left behind. Britain has no deprivation. The poor are becoming richer.
I’m not saying immigration and culture are not an issue. But you lot on here are clearly trying to blame them for everything which is clearly not true. Let’s at least be sensible because hatred doesn’t seem like the clever way to deal with serious issues and some of these comments are hate-filled rather than pragmatic or reasoned.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
3 months ago

Do we have a choice?
I note that the Middle East countries have managed to cleanse their Christian populations without resorting to war

David Lindsay
David Lindsay
3 months ago

We did that for them.

j watson
j watson
3 months ago

So you favour some ethnic cleansing as tried in the Balkans?
And you’d justify by saying as a bunch of sick Theocratic Middle east states might do suchlike we should too?
You seem to have become detached from our British values and appreciation of what makes us great.

Dr E C
Dr E C
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Wilful misreading. We are all worrying about conflict now BECAUSE Muslims have cleansed most of the Middle East & large parts of Africa & the Far East of Christianity, Judaism & every other religion.

Will Longfield
Will Longfield
3 months ago
Reply to  Dr E C

Western Europe has also been cleansed of Christianity.
A people of no faith will not be able to stand against Islam.

Peter B
Peter B
3 months ago
Reply to  Dr E C

But is that actually true ?
I’ve been to Iran and seen functioning Armenian (Christian) churches. I understand there is also a small Jewish community in Iran. Yes, these are small minorities, but it’s far from the case that all Muslim countries have been “cleansed”. Last time I visited, Malaysia and Indonesia were doing fine.

Ken Charman
Ken Charman
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Haven’t you noticed the ethnic cleansing that has already taken place with London and Birmingham now both being cities where the majority of the population was born outside of the UK? That is host community displacement on a catastrophic scale, especially as the process has established many self segregated mono cultures based on religion and ethnicity, that are clearly hostile to the British traditions you refer to.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

You chose to misrepresent what I said. I pointed out that cleansing had been accomplished in the Middle East without war. Look at what happened in Lebanon in a very short period of time
Well we assisted in the ethnic cleansing of Germans from Eastern Europe at the end of WW2 and no one seemed to bat an eyelid.
As for the Balkans it might be the only way to bring an end to centuries of conflict.
This country has not been great for at least a century. We are a middle sized country trying to come to terms with our diminished and still diminishing role trying to stay afloat and chart our way in an uncertain world.
The only way British values work is in an homogenous country. They have little relevance when you import millions of immigrants who do not share those values and actively reject them.

David L
David L
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Defeating our enemies is what made us great. Something we’d better hurry up and learn how to do again.

jane baker
jane baker
3 months ago

That’s a step to come. In COVID all churches were by law not allowed to meet. They should then have all refused to comply. But church Christianity is now almost exclusively nice people who tend their gardens and allotments,make chutney and jam,watch Songs of Praise and LOVE everybody (they dont really,no one can). They are good obedient citizens and so they obey the laws of the land. I should add the lifestyle I’ve described is LOVELY and I wish it was mine and I watch Songs of Praise but it your answer to civil unrest is to make cakes,no that doesn’t cut it.

Dr E C
Dr E C
3 months ago
Reply to  jane baker

You’d probably appreciate the words of Calvin Robinson and Cannon Phil Harris, Jane. They’re making me rethink my having left the church (in my teens) for precisely the reasons you point out.
https://youtu.be/wS3x3hRXXL0?si=rbPTiBG7OvsCZU35

William Amos
William Amos
3 months ago
Reply to  jane baker

I believe what you describe here is simply the legitimate, orthodox and scripturally mandated political profile of a Christian believer as outlined in the thriteenth chapter ofthe Epistle of Paul to the Romans.
Love your neighbour, live honourably and temperately, honour and obey the secular authorities,
You can’t fault the Christians for being true to their creed.

R.I. Loquitur
R.I. Loquitur
3 months ago

They cleansed their Jewish populations too. Its easy when you have an overwhelming population advantage and are sufficiently ruthless.

Michael Askew
Michael Askew
3 months ago

And their Jewish populations. “Cleanse” is the euphemism, drive out is the reality.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
3 months ago

Yes, the threat of violence or decapitation and impalement is quite effective. The “religion of peace”, we are told. Perhaps it has been hijacked by extremists, but it appears to have been hijacked almost completely in many places.

David Lindsay
David Lindsay
3 months ago

On Tuesday, the Labour MP for Tamworth, one Sarah Edwards, said in the House of Commons that, “The residents of Tamworth want their hotel back.” Wes Streeting called Labour’s loss of Muslim votes, “Shaking off the fleas.” Keir Starmer has explicitly defended the measures that have given polio to the children of Gaza. And so on.

Since it is the Government, then the Government is even worse than the Official Opposition, the party of Lord Davies of Gower, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, retired Detective Chief Inspector with 32 years’ experience on the Force, and of the view that the riots were “politically justified”; the party of Donna Jones, Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, and defender of the rioters as the defenders of “British values”.

But even if Labour were in any position to comment, then real civil wars produce giant figures, not Starmer and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. Yaxley-Lennon has been tracked down to Cyprus, making the most of his EU passport and of his wallet full of euros. The Home Secretary ought not to have the power to revoke British citizenship. But she does, and she has no plan to give it up. Over to her.

And if Parliament had not been recalled by tomorrow morning, then all MPs worthy of the office should reconvene of their own initiative, even if they had to do it in St Stephen’s Tavern. For all Nigel Farage’s bluster, Reform UK merely abstained on the two-child benefit cap, while the five MPs elected as Left Independents voted against it. Four of them are Muslims, as are three of the seven MPs from whom the Labour whip has been suspended for their having followed suit.

Therefore, Muslims are the majority of the Independent Left that will certainly vote against the means testing of the winter fuel payment, and in favour of the New Deal for Working People should that ever make it to the floor of the House, as those MPs will no doubt make every effort to ensure that it did. Reform’s position on that means test is unclear, while it would undoubtedly vote against that New Deal.

While pre-existing conservative phenomena have been known to ally with Fascism, usually to their own ruin, it is the liberal bourgeoisie that keeps Fascism in reserve for when it might ever face any serious demand to share its economic or social power with anyone who did not have it before the rise of the bourgeois liberal order, or to share its cultural or political power with anyone at all. It activates the F-bomb by rousing exactly the Lumpenproletariat that we see unmistakably on our television screens at the moment. Meanwhile, the working class, the class that comes out as one to clean up, knows its own.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
3 months ago
Reply to  David Lindsay

Lumpenproletariat … the working class, the class that comes out as one to clean up
Love the mythologising. That’s what home counties leftists who’d skim read a bit of Marx but never been north of Watford used to sound like before Livingstone and Mandelson invented the ‘Rainbow Coalition’. Bravo. Tres retro.

David Lindsay
David Lindsay
3 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

County Durham since 1982, when I was not quite five years old. A childhood in a pit village through the Strike and its aftermath.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
3 months ago
Reply to  David Lindsay

The ‘working class’ you talk about hasn’t existed outside the public sector since the ‘seventies.

Pedro the Exile
Pedro the Exile
3 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

Nailed it-spot on.

William Amos
William Amos
3 months ago
Reply to  David Lindsay

I would need to see the working out on your conclusion that the British Muslim constituency (socially conservative to an almost Victorian standard, pious, hierarchical, aspirational, and defined by fierce entrepreneurial drive with a fondness for competitive, conspicuous consumption) constitutes the last remnant of the ‘Independent Left’.
However yours was a fine a thought provoking comment. A refreshing new perspective on here.

David Lindsay
David Lindsay
3 months ago
Reply to  William Amos

Thank you. All four of the Gaza Independents voted to lift the benefit cap, and will vote against the means testing of the winter fuel payment. See also Zarah Sultana, Apsana Begum and Imran Hussain. That is seven out of what are now 12 Independent Left MPs.

Derek Smith
Derek Smith
3 months ago
Reply to  William Amos

David is a voice of the old left, and very much welcome at that.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
3 months ago

What a load of gibberish to describe what every thinking person knows to be true. When a sovereign country allows the mass immigration of a hostile, non-assimilating people conflict has to erupt. And with this particular culture, history has clearly shown us what happens. It’s hard to imagine that this is all just happening by chance.

laurence scaduto
laurence scaduto
3 months ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

From my perch here in NYC it seems like the whole question of ‘what to do about the Muslims’ has heated-up significantly since Oct 7. The mindless violence, the madness; and the nearly complete lack of push-back from the rest of the Islamic world have created a stark relief. A thinking person can’t not see it.

Andrew Vanbarner
Andrew Vanbarner
3 months ago

Western countries are experiencing invasion, not Civil War.

j watson
j watson
3 months ago

Good grief, there speaks someone I highly suspect has never been to a proper war zone where one side has invaded another

Rob N
Rob N
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

The Invasion of America by Europeans was mostly peaceful. At first.

jane baker
jane baker
3 months ago
Reply to  Rob N

The local Indians wanted to kill the strange group of people who had just washed up on the beach. Just kill em. But ONE shithead of them spoke words of compassion and his words won. The locals had mercy on this odd bunch and helped them survive that vital first winter and educated them in how to grow crops in this new soil,weather conditions and environment. Sadly compassion can be weaponised

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  jane baker

We should learn from the “native” Americans, and not repeat their mistakes.
Mass migration is colonization. To damage or coerce a people, invade their lands. To destroy them utterly? For that, you must colonize.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
3 months ago
Reply to  Rob N

How the native must have rued the decision not to drive them back into the sea while they still could

Tony Price
Tony Price
3 months ago
Reply to  Rob N

Tell that to the Aztecs, Incas, Floridians, Caribs etc etc etc etc!

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Tony Price

The “native” Americans fought like hell to resist colonization of their lands. The Lakota were especially ferocious.
They lost, that’s all.
Let’s not lose, ppl. History is not kind to losers.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

And you have? Don’t think so.

glyn harries
glyn harries
3 months ago

Migration, at any level, is not invasion. Invasion is a planned, premeditated politcal act with the aim of taking over territory and enabling regime change.
Yes there are very high levels of immigration currently, and issues associated with that, but to call this an invasion is infantile.

D Glover
D Glover
3 months ago
Reply to  glyn harries

I assume from your name that you’re Welsh. The Britons were driven from or outnumbered across most of southern Britain. The exiles became Welsh, Cumbrian or Cornish. Today not even the most optimistic Welsh Nationalist thinks they will get England back.
The white indigenous British are on schedule to become a minority in the UK in the 2060’s. That means an indigenous baby born today will be in a minority sometime in their forties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Kingdom
Look three-quarters of the way down, under future projections.

Will K
Will K
3 months ago
Reply to  glyn harries

Ever heard of an invasive plant?

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago

“Invasion” is misnomer.
It is “colonization,” which is far worse.
Ask the “native” Americans, or better yet the Incas, who succumbed to invasion by the Spanish very rapidly. Yet it was colonization over the next centuries that obliterated their race and culture — not the 200 men and horses that “invaded” their empire of 12 million.
Invasion merely changes the political structure. Colonization changes the cultural structure. A people can survive invasion; they do not, by definition, survive colonization.

glyn harries
glyn harries
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

Colonialisation depends on a mother country.
There is no mother country that is co-ordinating this wave of immigration.

Jacquie Watson
Jacquie Watson
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

Oh thank god that’s a relief, really?

Ted Miller
Ted Miller
3 months ago

This article is a paradigm piece in the narrative of denial that the established population of the UK just do not want to be Islamised, and I agree with them. There is zero chance that mainstream Islam will, in any foreseeable future, accept the division between Church/Mosque and State, they are not even discussing it. Unless we want to undo the political disposition of the West, which insists upon this separation, Muslim immigration must be stopped, or even more and more serious social unrest is inevitable. These are just simple, obvious facts and to deny them is nothing but gaslighting

j watson
j watson
3 months ago
Reply to  Ted Miller

You need to get out more and actually work and meet a few British Muslims. Vast majority don’t hold the views you think they do. Yes some on the extreme do and we should bring the full force of the law onto them if they cross on a line. But be v careful about ethnic simplifications wipped up on social media whilst we sit indoors panicking.

Rob N
Rob N
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

You completely miss the point. I have worked with and talked to Moslems in the UK and overseas and all were decent people.

However survey after survey has shown that a significant minority support extreme Islamism AND that a much larger minority will support those radicals and the rest will fall into line.

The UK has far too many immigrants, it is just especially obvious and dangerous with the Moslem ones. .

Norfolk Sceptic
Norfolk Sceptic
3 months ago
Reply to  Rob N

The problem with any silent majority, especially the silent majority of law abiding Muslims, is that they are silent, until they are not a majority.

Matt S
Matt S
3 months ago
Reply to  Rob N

Just saying, but I believe moslem is considered to be quite offensive and doesn’t mean the same in Arabic as Muslim does. One means “submits to god” and the other means “an evil or unjust person”

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
3 months ago
Reply to  Matt S

Frankly, I don’t care. My grandparents referred to them as Mohammedans, i.e., the followers of Mohammed. A Moslem is a follower of Islam, and it was the preferred spelling for decades. The assertion you make is simply false as confirmed by a native Arabic speaker.

Dr E C
Dr E C
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

I’ve been teaching Muslims for a decade & a half – some of them were my best students. Thats indeed how I know that Islam is an incredibly problematic political ideology based on ‘submission’ (which is what the word Islam means).

It’s actually the people who know the most about it that are sounding the alarm right now, cf Ayan Hirsi Ali, Yasmine Mohammed, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, Mosab Hassan Yousef, I could go on & on.

I know you like to throw the R*cist word around liberally – like all good Leftists who actually despise working class, indigenous people – but this actually has nothing to do with ‘ethnic’ conflict and everything to do with a fundamental clash in values – not least the value that the poorest Brits are sick of being violently attacked and denigrated and paying for the privilege.

JR Stoker
JR Stoker
3 months ago
Reply to  Dr E C

Islam means “submission to the will of God” or “Do as God wills”; rather as all major world religions would hold that God is supreme.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Dr E C

The problem is not “Islam.” “Islam” did not allow millions of nonwhite, non-Western immigrants into the West in what essentially constitutes a colonization.
No, Universalism did that. It is a Western ideology, or religion, basically Christianity without the supernatural aspects, which insists that all men are “equal,” that “progress” is inevitable, and that multiculturalism “works,” among many other insidious doctrines.
Either Universalism dies, or the West dies — racially and culturally. “Fascism” is, nearly by definition, the only force that opposes Universalism. (The reason “fascism” is so vaguely defined is precisely because “Universalism” conceals itself by refusing precise definition, at least publicly.)
https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/04/open-letter-to-open-minded-progressives/

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
3 months ago
Reply to  Dr E C

Exactly.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

I suspect most Muslims are as frightened of the zealots as our cringing politicians are. That’s why they keep quiet.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

They should live in their own lands.
Those who refuse this fundamental asseveration ARE the problem. That idiotic Christian (or, in post-Christianity, “Progressive”) urge to “welcome all, love all” is exactly what led to the cultural, racial colonization of the West that is now underway.

Prashant Kotak
Prashant Kotak
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

I know one view the ‘vast majority ‘ hold: 75% don’t believe that there was murder and rape on Oct-7. That’s not ‘some’ as you put it, that’s three-quarters.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/06/one-in-four-british-muslims-believe-hamas-israel/#:~:text=Asked%20whether%20Hamas%20committed%20murder,they%20had%20or%20had%20not.
Yet, I know of not a single politician in either the Conservatives or Labour, who is willing to talk about this publicly. Leaving aside why the islamic community believe what they believe, and why British politicians are unwilling to discuss this publicly, what do you think will happen in a country in which an ethno-religious group believes this?

MJ Reid
MJ Reid
3 months ago
Reply to  Prashant Kotak

And yet all the Muslims in our community condemned the 7 Oct attacks and continue to do so as they reject the “free Palestine” mantra of so many. Polls are simply possible projections not actually reality. When looking at Muslims living in the UK, maybe you have to look at the countries they live in rather than treating them as a homogenous group!

Prashant Kotak
Prashant Kotak
3 months ago
Reply to  MJ Reid

Not clear what you mean by “the countries they live in” – do you mean the countries they originate from ethnically? In the UK, I cannot do other than treat them as a homogenous group because their behaviour is, um, homogeneous. For decades (until the recent breakdown towards islamic pro-Gaza candidates in the election just gone, they have voted pretty much as a block ~90% Labour. Out of curiosity what is the geographic location of your community? Because if it’s in the UK, the implication would be: communities like yours account for the 25% who do not deny the reality of Oct-7, and to account for the overall numbers in the surveys, there are communities out there where pretty much 100% are denying that anything bad happened on Oct-7.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  MJ Reid

If they would remain in their own lands, it wouldn’t much matter what they thought.
Would it!?

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

Well, if they start attacking others then it does matter. Islam is an expansionist ideology by design. It spread through conquest, and many Westerners fail to understand that this is an ongoing process.

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
3 months ago
Reply to  MJ Reid

You must live in some sort of utopia. Would you mind sharing where this paradise of tolerance and peaceful co-existence is located? My birthplace in rural Dorset is still more or less a tranquil place, but that’s because my small community consists of 98% white Europeans (mostly English, Scottish and Irish), and the few ethnic minorities number in the low double digits (and I mean the low 20s). I have seen pictures and videos of people dancing in the streets of London and other cities in the UK on 7 and 8 Oct.

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
3 months ago
Reply to  Prashant Kotak

Thank you.

Gordon Black
Gordon Black
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

You need to get out more and visit the World’s Muslim majority countries and find out how they became that way and what they were before; should be simple enough as Islam was only invented a mere 1400 years ago.

David L
David L
3 months ago
Reply to  Gordon Black

Europeans have spent the last 1400 years repelling repeated Islamic invasions.

Maybe our elites should read some history.

Lancashire Lad
Lancashire Lad
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

We’ve all worked and chatted with muslims, you utter ignoramus. Many are decent people, but will do nothing to hinder their more extremist and criminal elements. They just turn a blind eye. Their young males are allowed, encouraged even, to take whatever ‘liberties’ they choose.

Just one example: traffic laws are for fools and road carnage in high-powered vehicles their putative incomes suggest they couldn’t possibly afford is regularly wreaked in the places where i “get out”. They, and their communities, do nothing to try to prevent any of this.

Those in politics and media will likely live in places where these things aren’t apparent, then seek to take an authoritarian tone when those sections of the country who’ve had to put up with this behaviour and disdain for the rule of law for decades, finally start to react.

I don’t condone the attacks on police or the destruction of property, not at all. But your “they’re lovely people” schtick is woefully naive and your attitudes are part of the problem. You, sir, are as culpable as any of the rioters.

MJ Reid
MJ Reid
3 months ago
Reply to  Lancashire Lad

And yet Muslim leaders and scholars are speaking out and condemning the lack of integration and how some of their youth behave. Maybe it is a country issue not a UK issue… And while we are on it, how many Christian leaders and white community leaders have stood against the violence and the law breaking and the way white youths behave?

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
3 months ago
Reply to  MJ Reid

Name one

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

He/she is not able to do so. I have given up on these “progressive” apologists. Frankly, all of them spit out the same nonsense, and when you challenge them and their limited factual knowledge, they either disappear or simply dig in further. I am done with these people. They will have to learn their lesson the hard way.

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
3 months ago
Reply to  MJ Reid

And here I thought one could engage in intelligent discussion with you. I see that I was sadly mistaken, and the comments are just the standard left-wing drivel that I have come to expect from so-called “progressives”. Your fundamental mistake is that you equate Islam and Christianity. There is not one single accepted Christian denomination that promotes violence and law breaking. Not one. Are there some lunatic nutters out there who spout such nonsense? I don’t doubt it, but they don’t govern a country nor can they justify their nonsense with the Bible. Please don’t tell me that the Old Testament contains plenty of violence; yes, it does, but that is descriptive. These stories talk of events in the past, and nowhere does it say that this is the standard for being a good human. Quite the contrary! The parts that are prescriptive (10 Commandments, for example) are generally accepted rules for living in a civilised society. Don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t lie, don’t be envious, be a decent person. Who could argue with that? The Koran is entirely prescriptive as it claims to be the perfect and eternally valid word of God. Unfortunately, it includes commands to kill infidels, and some of us have a problem with that. I for one don’t want to be killed and refuse to go quietly. This will be my last response because I dislike wasting time.

David L
David L
3 months ago
Reply to  Lancashire Lad

Extremist Muslim, “Do what we say or we’ll kill you”

Moderate Muslim, “Do what we say or they’ll kill you”

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

I mix with a large number of them and they certainly hold those views and those that are silent tacitly support them

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

What makes you think that they tell you their true views? If they have to show their true colours and choose a side, I am willing to bet my most beautiful ball gown that they will select the Ummah and not us and our civilisation. I have a good friend who is of Lebanese and Persian heritage. Her mother is a Maronite Christian, and her father fled the Islamic Revolution figuring that his agnosticism wouldn’t be well received by the Mullahs. I dare say he was spot on. My friend understands Arabic because of her mum, and she has been saying for 20 years that the comments she overhears on public transport and sometimes even in pubs and restaurants are truly frightening. What she has heard directly contradicts your assumptions, and confirms mine that we will be mostly on our own when push comes to shove.

Mr Sketerzen Bhoto
Mr Sketerzen Bhoto
3 months ago
Reply to  Ted Miller

> accept the division between Church/Mosque and State

> Unless we want to undo the political disposition of the West, which insists upon this separation

What?

In the country you are probably from there is no such division in law. This is a good example of the Americanisation of the discourse, British people not even knowing their own constitution.

The response to this isn’t that “in practice the U.K. is secular“, because the State isn’t. Which is the topic.

And nor should it be, we need to keep our traditions and remain antidisestablishmentarianist. If we continue to think like Americans we will end up not only believing that we don’t have an established church but that we are a nation of immigrants, and that “white” is a useful term.

Oh wait.

Jacquie Watson
Jacquie Watson
3 months ago
Reply to  Ted Miller

Agreed, it’s no use trying to ignore that many British have no love of radicalised Islamist, does anyone in the middle east? I notice a distinct lack of middle eastern countries accepting many of the refugees that Britian and other part of the world are insisting are immigrants.

Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
3 months ago

I was checking out Enoch Powell on Wikipedia today. He knew German, French, Italian, Modern Greek, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Welsh, Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic. And he read books, from a very early age. When you read about his take on various issues you appreciate the difference between a man of learning and a writer like Brad Evans, who is a man of the current received elite narrative.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
3 months ago

Powell was a failure and a bitter fascist. No wonder you admire him…

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
3 months ago

Like you, ‘fascists’ are big state socialists. Powell was a small state conservative. The two things are polar opposites. He may have been a ‘racist’ but he certainly wasn’t a fascist.

Tony Price
Tony Price
3 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

I think that you need to reconsider your definition of fascism, which is about neither a big state or socialism!

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
3 months ago
Reply to  Tony Price

Well, you don’t get much more fascist than Benito Mussolini who was a self-described committed big-state socialist.

Will K
Will K
3 months ago

Where would you draw the finish line, to determine the winners and failures?

j watson
j watson
3 months ago

Predictable the old Enoch fans identify themselves at moments like this. Yes he was a man of diverse talents and experience, but still a racist when it came to it. I guess you particularly liked the ‘piccannines’ reference ?

Rob N
Rob N
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Don’t believe that he was a racist rather just a nationalist. Usage of such terms back then was common.

jane baker
jane baker
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Maybe he was very aware of being a person of rarefied intellect in a world of shitheads. In the 1960s my Dad would teach us “they are as good as us”. He meant black people of afro-caribbean source. We didn’t have Asian Muslim people then in our area. The black families were Christian and really pretty British already in their way of life. The problem is you may have noticed in my Dads totally innocent and well meant words. What I mean is what if they DONT think they are AS GOOD as us. What if they think they are better,and justifiably so. If Im outside working on our communal garden in old clothes and with soil smeared hands,like a yokel of old,and my near neighbour passes me,a smart young woman dressed immaculately for her clean,well paid office job that she diligently studied and worked at school to qualify for why would she think herself “as good as me,thats a low bar” my neighbour is a young black woman,another is a young Muslim woman,I mean one is of afro-caribbean family origin, the other of more recent from Africa,probably Somali origin.
They have every reason to not see themselves.”as good as me”.they see themselves as much much better. I mean we all know that gardeners are simple illiterate folk who don’t know what day it is. This is why in my opinion trying to stop these destructive riots by baking cakes and being extra super nicey isn’t going to.cut it.

Norfolk Sceptic
Norfolk Sceptic
3 months ago
Reply to  jane baker

Singing won’t help much, either.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  jane baker

You are onto something.
It is a sad fact that the elites have set us up for genocide, civil war, massive social unrest. Was it deliberate? Or were they blind?
Doesn’t matter at this point. As George Carlin said, “unfortunately, I think a lot of people are going to have to die.”

Peter B
Peter B
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Please provide a definition of “racist” if you’re going to use this term. Otherwise it’s meaningless.
State your definition. Then explain exactly why Powell meets your criteria.
My definition would be someone who believes that one racial group is superior (or inferior) to another for immutable (essentially genetic) reasons. Mutable reasons (culture, etc) are not relevant here.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Peter B

This is not what “racism” is. This is called “racial supremacy.”
You can be a “racist” without being a “supremacist.”
Nowadays, anything that is racist is maligned as “supremacist,” since the shopworn arguments against mere “racism” are starting to fall on deaf ears.
Example: you need not think your race “superior” in order to prefer to want to live among them, and to exclude all foreigners from your homeland. However, that is certainly “racist.”
Another inconvenient fact: no one has ever demonstrated or even argued that there is something inherently wrong, wicked, immoral or evil about “racism” or even “racial supremacy.” Isn’t that interesting? They merely assert, or better, imply, and everyone goes along with it. No one dare challenge these notions.
That’s what “totalitarianism” is all about, folks. Over generations, it creates a kind of intellectual “learned helplessness.”

Will K
Will K
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

The races are certainly different. We can all tell them apart, with high accuracy. To say the races are different may be “racist”, but it’s a provable fact, nothing evil. To prefer to live among members of one’s own race is a reasonable preference, nothing evil.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

I’m afraid that in light of present events you people are just going to have to reconcile yourselves to the inescapable fact that you people have lost the room.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Remind us: what exactly is incorrect or “wrong” about “racism,” except that it contravenes your own religious dogma, which is termed “Universalism?”
By which I mean Moldbuggian “universalism”: Christianity with the supernatural aspects surgically removed.
https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/04/open-letter-to-open-minded-progressives/

jane baker
jane baker
3 months ago

No one bothers to read now..They listen to a podcast or watch a tik-tok. Politicians now who deign to grace a radio studio,the days when TODAY could summon Cabinet Ministers are long over,they reply ” I dont have those figures to hand,it’s back at the office. The likes of Barbara Castle could immediately quote ÂŁ200K 30 shillings and two pence. Maybe they made it up.but at least they had the presence of mind to.do that.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
3 months ago
Reply to  jane baker

I recently finished reading Balzac’s Le Pere Goriot in the original French, and have embarked on Hardy’s A Pair of Blue Eyes.

Steven Carr
Steven Carr
3 months ago

‘So, just as we asked “why do they hate us?” in the aftermath of 9/11, so we must now ask “why is there so much hatred in Britain?”.’
We had a government and media which whipped up hatred against ‘antivaxxers’ and people who did not want to wear facemasks.
Hatred was weaponised by the government and the media.

j watson
j watson
3 months ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Total tosh.
I suspect though the explosion of social media, allowing folks who might have griped in their own home or down the pub, to share it more widely has fuelled a growth in expressed and shared hatred.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

There seems little point in your coming on here and endlessly repeating verbatim what you’ve been told by the BBC. We’ve all heard this boilerplate thousands of times before and we’ve simply stopped believing it. You’re not going to persuade anyone. It’s a waste of your time. Why do it?

JR Stoker
JR Stoker
3 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

You endlessly repeat material from the wilder shores of Reform; why should Mr Watson not talk a little common sense back?

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
3 months ago
Reply to  JR Stoker

You endlessly repeat material from the wilder shores of Reform
Such as? If you can’t distinguish between my views and those of the neo-liberals at Reform then I’d suggest you’re not very politically astute.

jane baker
jane baker
3 months ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Compassion has been weaponised too.

Ian Barton
Ian Barton
3 months ago

“why do they hate us?” This what the indigenous U.K. population are asking its Parliament (yet again).

Jacquie Watson
Jacquie Watson
3 months ago
Reply to  Ian Barton

Hahaha yes, why do people whose religion faith whatever in its extremist form, calls for the killing of infidels, ie people that don’t follow their faith. They openly tell us that, and we still just think if we turn the other cheek and give them a welcome to country pack, money, a place to live, free health care, the right to worship their own gods, even if that means they want to kill non believers! Too too funny. It’s not all of that religion, but enough of them causes terror and death.

j watson
j watson
3 months ago

Once a good number of the Yobs are banged up in crowded cells without their access to social media bile things will calm down, much as they did in 2011 when summer riots seemed to be sweeping across our cities with the ‘end is nigh’ media frenzy as commentary. As far as confrontations go none anywhere near the Battle of Orgreave in 84. Pathetic drunken and drug fuelled bullies are not a New Model Army.
And as we can see likes of Robinson checking the clicks on his social media that helps his enrichment whilst lounging on a beach. Grifters always come a cropper in due course.
There is undoubtedly a rightful concern about how to stop illegal/Boats migration. Given 14 years of ineptitude it’s a bit rich to think Starmer can fix this in 4wks, but we can have much more confidence in competency now given some time. He and his team well know the issue must be tackled, but effectively and not performatively as Author notes.
As we saw the local Mosque in Southport sent volunteers to help clean up the streets after the riots and many locals welcomed that. There are ‘wrong uns’ on all sides but the core of folks are good and British values of tolerance, kindness and of course the ‘rule of law’ will win.

Steven Carr
Steven Carr
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Starmer is competent?
Who is stirring up trouble? Starmer or Robinson?
There will be 24 hour courts will there, set up by two tier Kier, for the purposes of quick justice.
The trial of Axel Rudakubana, the 17-year-old accused of stabbing children in Southport, is provisionally set to begin on January 20, 2025

jane baker
jane baker
3 months ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Totally fake I mean the trial.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
3 months ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

totally agree
what about the Muslim that attacked three officers at Manchester Airport – as far as I am aware he is not even on remand following the faux outrage on the first video which was purposely started from the wrong position
How many police dogs and horse were let loose in the Leeds suburbs when teh Police were just trying to help a kid that had been dropped from a window – only arrest was a white woman telling the primarily Asian thugs who were throwing things at police and burning vehlices to go away
Two tier Starmenr is spot on

Tom A
Tom A
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

All on police bail pending further investigation, obtaining and viewing CCTV, witness statements, medical evidence etc. Not everything can happen within a 24-hour detention period and it rather sounds like there were a number of offences to investigate as part of the same matter. I’m sure they will be charged in due course. The big difference with the current slew of public order charges is that most, owing to the nature of offending, will be based entirely on police evidence (i.e. evidence from police officers catching people ‘red handed’ as it were). Much easier to deal with, which explains the good deal of Guilty pleas at first appearance going on at the moment.

Peter B
Peter B
3 months ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

This “two tier Keir” phrase is going to stick. Sums up everything that’s wrong with socialism (and he’s on record as self-indentifying as a socialist).

JR Stoker
JR Stoker
3 months ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Robinson, obviously

Tom A
Tom A
3 months ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Most Murder trials (even straight-forward ones such as this) take at least 6 months to organise. So, January 2025 is pretty swift actually. The ’24 hour courts’ dealing with the current situation are Magistrates Courts, essentially clearing centres to address the issue of volume. Should any defendant go to trial at a Crown Court, they might also expect not to be tried until next year. So, not really two-tier.

Rob N
Rob N
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Riots of 2011 were purely criminal self enrichment.

Steven Carr
Steven Carr
3 months ago
Reply to  Rob N

two thirds of those arrested were for burglary, theft, etc.

Tom A
Tom A
3 months ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Also happening in 2024, though percentages remain to be seen.

Dylan Blackhurst
Dylan Blackhurst
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

I’m amazed at how social media is made partly responsible for the riots.

We had no riots before X then?

Rumours didn’t spread before social media?

Blaming social media is total nonsense. Governments don’t like it because they can’t control the narrative. Basically it makes it harder to lie (done of course in the interest of social cohesion).

Well, I’m tired of the lies. I’m tired of accommodating of people who insist on killing in the name of their god.

Dr E C
Dr E C
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Evil triumphs when good people do nothing.

Dennis Roberts
Dennis Roberts
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Hampshire and IoW PCC

“The rioting and civil unrest across the country following the murder of three children in Southport on Monday, has escalated to a worrying level. Police officers have been injured, buildings have been targeted because of those living in them or worshiping at them and police cars and vans set on fire. Millions of pounds of damage has been done and more than 100 people have been arrested, with many more expected.

“Police stations are burning, police officers’ annual leave has been cancelled and riot police are dusting off their shields from Land’s End to John O’ Groats. The behaviour of some of those protesting has been extremely violent, highly distressing and absolutely criminal.

“This weekend a number of protests are planned across the country and across political and ideological spectrums.

“The announcement of the Prime Minister’s new Violent Crime Units have lead to an accusation of two tier policing, which has enflamed protestors who state they are battling to protect Britain’s sovereignty, identity and stop illegal immigration. Burning towns and cities and attacking the police is not the answer, so how do we stop it?

“I’ve spoken to people from both sides of the spectrum and the only way to stem the tide of violent disorder, is to acknowledge what is causing it.

“Whilst the devastating attacks in Southport on Monday were a catalyst, the commonality amongst the protest groups appears to be focused on three key areas: the desire to protect Britain’s sovereignty; the need to uphold British values and in order to do this, stop illegal immigration. The growth of feeling across the country has mirrored (to a lesser extent) the rebellion to illegal immigration that has played out across France over the last 12 months.

“The government must acknowledge what is causing this civil unrest in order to prevent it. Arresting people, or creating violent disorder units, is treating the symptom and not the cause. The questions these people want answering; what is the government’s solution to mass uncontrolled immigration? How are the new Labour government going to uphold and build on British values? This is the biggest challenge facing Sir Kier Starmer’s government, and its bitten quickly.

“As a national police leader, and a Police and Crime Commissioner, someone who has spent almost two decades representing the public, this is the clear message I will put to the Prime Minister and Home Secretary this week.

“We all need to work together to stop this mindless criminal behaviour committed by a small number of people, whilst understanding the views of those attending rallies who feel strongly but don’t cause disorder.”

Which is the kind of comment we usually get from politicians etc during riots ie the criminal element must be dealt with, but we must also understand the cause. Buy how has such a comment been met this time?

‘Eastleigh MP Liz Jarvis accused Ms Jones of “attempting to justify the criminality”, describing the PCC’s earlier comments as “divisive, inflammatory and grossly irresponsible”.’

And

‘Winchester MP Danny Chambers also criticised Ms Jones, saying he was “deeply concerned” she believed “rioters vandalising our streets and attacking mosques are motivated by ‘the need to uphold British values’.”‘

“divisive, inflammatory and grossly irresponsible” – really? Perhaps these responses are just typical that MPs on the right give during other riots. But even so, they show a lack of understanding of the issue or how widely the concerns about immigration are felt and that worries me. Hopefully these MPs are just minor and those higher above have a bit more insight.

BTW – thanks for taking on some of the more extreme opinions posted on here.

Richard Calhoun
Richard Calhoun
3 months ago
Reply to  Dennis Roberts

With due respect you have failed to address the elephant in the room .. Immigration.
If the Starmer’s Govt wants to stop the conflagration we are witnessing they will enact legislation, if needed, to physically stop the illegal boat entries into the UK immediately, and then turn to legal immigration, now, and reduce the numbers to zero for 5 years and then look at the situation again.

Lancashire Lad
Lancashire Lad
3 months ago

Zero is unrealistic, and probably unfair. ‘Vastly reduced’ covers it.

Dennis Roberts
Dennis Roberts
3 months ago

Eh? The comment from the PCC identifies immigration as the key issue, and the whole point I’m making is that attempts to talk about immigration are routinely dismissed and worse, as evidenced by the two quotes from MPs.

It is that inability of some to even understand immigration is a real issue and complaints are not just due to racism that worries me.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
3 months ago
Reply to  Dennis Roberts

You have failed to address the issue of immigration of uneducated Muslims who wish to impose Sharia Law and have contempt for democracy and secular western values. You completly ignore the massive change in Islamic society from the late 1960s to early 1970s when the likes of the highly westernised Jinnahs, Ayub Khans and Buttos had political power to Islamicists inspired by Mawdudi, Qutb and Khomeini. Qutb wrote ” Sign Post ” In 1964 which has inspired the Salaafi/Jihadism
Ma’alim fi al-Tariq has been called “one of the most influential works in Arabic of the last half century”.

jane baker
jane baker
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

We don’t have any room left in prisons. They told us that last week. On purpose I suspect.

Derek Smith
Derek Smith
3 months ago
Reply to  jane baker

Good news, Jane! They’ve managed to find 500+ cells just for the rioters. Isn’t that convenient?

jane baker
jane baker
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

The rule of law was done away with under cover of COVID as eventually (when they come for you) you will find out.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

What never fails to astonish me is the complete refusal of the rent-seekers to recognise that their greed is the root cause of all these problems. Have you ever once asked yourself where the unearned wealth that you accumulate every year has been coming from? If you did you might realise that it’s been taken from the people you so snobbishly deride as ‘yobs’ and ‘drunks’. Stop passing the buck.

Andrew F
Andrew F
3 months ago
Reply to  j watson

Your pro Muslim arguments are just pathetic.
As is your claim that there are wrong uns on all sides.
Whatever rioters did, they are native to this country, whereas Muslim invaders are not.
When we have BLM and Muslim rioters policed properly, then your comments might have some validity.
When you have BLM kneeler and appeaser of Muslim criminality Starmer in charge, we know selective policing and prosecution will take place.

Chris Whybrow
Chris Whybrow
3 months ago

Wilhelm Riech was a crackpot who believed orgasms could cure all mental
illness. I don’t think he’s worth listening to regarding anything at all.

jane baker
jane baker
3 months ago

Yes. It’s plain that divisions are being fomented and reinforced. It’s going to get much nastier. As for all this making cups of tea,baking cakes and seeking to prove how nicey-nice-nice we are I have nothing but contempt for that. It’s not appropriate now,at this stage in the situation. Nietsche has the best words to describe exactly this sort of thing.

Sj Kay
Sj Kay
3 months ago

I enjoyed this article, thanks.

Ken Charman
Ken Charman
3 months ago

The only thing missing in this analysis is a reference to the fact that many protestors are from the well paid but (generally) non graduate class who have become increasingly frustrated at their views being demonised and ignored by all the main parties (who are dominated by middle class liberal professionals with degrees). This was also a major dividing line in Brexit and the anti lockdown and mask protests. It’s a class war that is covered well by Matt Goodwin, David Goodhart, Rob Henderson and (before he flipped his lid) J D Vance.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
3 months ago
Reply to  Ken Charman

In what way has Vance “flipped his lid”?

Matt S
Matt S
3 months ago
Reply to  Ken Charman

Do you honestly believe that most involved with the riots have really thought about it in any depth. Just look at the photos. They are same lot that fight at football matches and ride around on bikes looking to steal your phone. How is looting the local shop or burning someone’s car going to solve anything.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
3 months ago
Reply to  Matt S

The one good thing that can be said for it is that it may deter some immigration. People are less likely to go where it is made clear that they are not welcome.

Richard Calhoun
Richard Calhoun
3 months ago

I have to be blunt here, you are plain wrong in your analysis.
The British electorate have been protesting against the level of immigration for many, many years.
In 2010 Cameron’s Tories came to power and promised to reduce the level of immigration to tens of thousands per year, like everything else Cameron promised, it was a lie.
Over 14 years the Tories have kept promising to reduce immigration but have not put any plan in place. The Rwanda plan was never going to fly unless they came out of the ECHR. Boris promised to do so but failed again. They knew the Rwanda Plan wouldn’t work but still they spent millions on it.
The British electorate have had enough, housing, jobs, wages, schools, the NHS have all been damaged by the failure of Westminster to act on immigration numbers.
Nobody supports the thugs in the streets, but we all know if you ignore the ‘people’ for so many years you facilitate such people.
If the new Labour Govt want to stop this in its tracks they will stop blaming small sections of society, enact emergency action to physically stop the ‘boats’ and change our immigration laws without delay to reduce the numbers.
Of course they won’t and doubtless people in the MSM and the politicians will blame small groups of people, but we know and they know what the root cause of these problems are.

Claire D
Claire D
3 months ago

Additional wrinkle..

The thugs that the middle class like to deride, are doing the dirty work of the very same patriotic but fearful middle class.

Like previously self declared pacifist women handing out white feathers to their menfolk a century ago – the laptop class who do see their culture being replaced without their consent – may soon owe a debt to those on the street throwing fire extinguishers and resisting the globalists agenda.

LindaMB
LindaMB
3 months ago

TBF to Boris, he was stymied by covid, and his party (led by Dominic Cummings) was actively working to remove him from office (as he was celebrating the election victory). while being blocked by the politicised (left leaning) civil service. We never got a chance to see how his ideas for governance would have played out.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-57880118

Jacquie Watson
Jacquie Watson
3 months ago
Reply to  LindaMB

And the post covid lingers on, the WHO and the vaccine mandate and pandemic response laws, which further erode our rights, and to which the woke politicians kowtow to. Only serving those with the Foundations that develop said vaccines and benefit their benefactors, certainly not the human race.

Pedro the Exile
Pedro the Exile
3 months ago

Agreed that the article is wrong on many levels.A couple of points in the article.
Anyone in thrall to Foucault is asking for his bona fides to be queried-a total charlatan .
 we asked “why do they hate us?” in the aftermath of 9/11,And of course the rational response would have been to answer the question truthfully and not hide behind some tortuous liberal theorising and then on that basis stop “them” entering the UK Instead we got “we don’t know but lets invite hundreds of thousands of “them” to live here”
they have been suffering from the fallouts of years of austerity, the impact of Brexit and the costs of the Covid lockdown.Nothing to do with rampant globalisation,progressive identity politics,DEI,uncontrolled migration-again sloppy,lazy writing.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
3 months ago

Upvote in particular for your concluding paragraph.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago

Correct.
“Democracy” cannot fix this; “democracy” is what caused it.
https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/04/open-letter-to-open-minded-progressives/

Jacquie Watson
Jacquie Watson
3 months ago

Globalisation, the current stupid notion.

glyn harries
glyn harries
3 months ago

So, 14 years of a Tory government, and in 2024 immigration at it’s highest ever.
Can you explain that, can you explain why?

Richard Calhoun
Richard Calhoun
3 months ago
Reply to  glyn harries

The Corps. kept insisting on it for cheap labour, they supported the woke left with their virtue signalling without understanding the damage they were doing.
The Tories changed from ‘conservative’ to ‘left’

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
3 months ago
Reply to  glyn harries

The answer is simple: Tories and Labour are just two labels, and the contents are virtually the same. The party leaders are all cut from the same cloth.

Jacquie Watson
Jacquie Watson
3 months ago
Reply to  glyn harries

Don’t care whose responsible it has to stop, and make sure it doesn’t happen the way it is now.

Derek Smith
Derek Smith
3 months ago
Reply to  glyn harries

It started under Blair, and then the Conservatives merely ‘conserved’ his policies instead of halting them.

It is fitting that all of this is now happening under a Labour government. They were to blame in the first place.

Dustin Needle
Dustin Needle
3 months ago

Weak professorial tosh taking BBC/Guardian headlines shoehorned into a bit of a history lesson. And why bring Trump into this for goodness sake?

I was seeking balance in the form of analysis on 21st Century Klansmen parading through Bolton town centre yesterday in uniform and masks but it was strangely missing.

Policing there only occurs by consent. The paramilitaries, by their sheer physical size, would actually be of huge benefit in the UK police or armed forces but that is not their calling. So a partnership it must be, a phenomenon that has grown post-Scarman, and without any help from Farage, Robinson and Social Media.

J6 cosplay protestors were gone by J7, and many of the migrants hotel protestors who used violence will be gone soon once the weather turns bad. They incurred the disgust of those whose preference of those who wished to protest peacefully by the way, unreported in the sources Brad uses.

But I can assure Brad that the Bolton protestors and many of their l persuasion in other areas will still be firmly in control tomorrow and the day after.

And they will have demands for Sir Kier in return for their compliance. Perhaps Kier will need more than his ‘romantic side’ – previous Brad article – to deal with these chaps.

So the article we need is one that projects Britain into the future as a Balkanised country. That surely is the next step before actual Civil War, indeed may ultimately be our destination for as long as International Lawfare, as opposed to the pre-Blair democratic settlement, rules the UK.

Give thay article to Aris, please, as he has real world experience in similar conflicts.

michael harris
michael harris
3 months ago

I, for one, did not ask on the day after 9/11 ‘Why do they hate us so much?’
That is, to put it politely, a second order question after ‘How do I defend myself?’ and ‘What revenge do I seek?’

William Amos
William Amos
3 months ago

Revolutions and civil wars are only possible where there is a relutance or inability on the part of the established order to fight back. The current regime in Britain has so far been conspicuous in its willingness, nay its eagerness, to use the apparatus of repression.
So far this looks closer to the Gordon Riots than Yugoslavia.
What we are witnessing is the ground being laid for an oncoming wave of repression. The modern left strengthens its control by coup de theatre and the scenes we are witnessing are the prefect pretext for the tightening the noose.
The desperate and misguided people out rioting are caught in a constrictor knot. Their undirected anger will only and inevitably lead to the inexorable tightening of their original bonds.
The only revolution conceivable is spiritual. The only way out is through.

LindaMB
LindaMB
3 months ago
Reply to  William Amos

The police are intent on agitating the protesters to riot. It was evident at the Armistice Day events where they kettled the attendees, the London rally in June, the recent rally in July where police led (surrounded by an escort) pro-Palestinian supporters waving the palestinan flag (making obscene gestures, etc) past the rally and in front of a pub where the rally attendees were sitting. They did not confiscate the flag-it was flying high-the did not arrest the two men in the name of community harmony as they had with British men who were flying the Union flag.
We saw at the London protest the protesters were arrested for simply standing on the pavement and watching.
The police turn up in riot gear, with dogs and horse to attack the crowd if it is white people, but if it is black they take the knee and if it is brown they run away.
No one in either policing or the political elite has approached them and said `We hear your concerns, we understand your frustration and your anger, we will listen and try to fix the problems’. Nope just demonize them, call the far right thugs.

David Brightly
David Brightly
3 months ago

“Of course, there are some overlaps between race and ethnicity, but [sic] they are not mutually exclusive. A failure to recognise this means we fail to properly understand the causes and the solutions.”
Two articles in recent days have drawn this distinction. I’m still failing. Anyone enlighten me?

A J
A J
3 months ago
Reply to  David Brightly

I can only suppose it means people of one racial group could be found on both sides of the divide. They’re separated by religious ethnicity rather than race? It still doesn’t quite make sense to me; what the difference is between race and ethnicity, though.
An example would be Sikhs of Indian origin attending Tommy Robinson marches, and Muslims of Indian origin opposing them.

Jon Barrow
Jon Barrow
3 months ago
Reply to  David Brightly

I think in the definition they use race is broad and is skin colour or continental (Caucasian, Asiatic, Negroid etc.), ethnicity is more focused and is ethnic or dna group (English, Polish, Xhosa, Malay, Pathan, Han).

Citizen Diversity
Citizen Diversity
3 months ago

Any person can be possessed by ‘fascism’? A return in the 21st century to the belief in demon possession. At any moment the demonic fascist spirit may clothe itself with the body of the unwary.
Is there an exorcist available? Who you gonna call, Ghostbusters?
Is the human body really a bottle that can contain a djinn?
There is no security without the state is simply the observation that human beings cannot survive without banding together in groups. But it is the banding together in groups that hastens their destruction. Is there any discernible difference in this in humans compared to other creatures, such as meerkats or wood ants?
What Reich described was merely the Self. If a creature has a sense of self it is automatically in contradistinction to other selves. It has to preserve its sense of self against the intrusions of the other selves. It may be in competition with other selves. Only children, those with learning difficulties, the elderly and the sick do not elicit this sense of competition from the Self.
The group combines the individual Self with other Selves, in no different a way than, say, trees in a forest are connected to each other by a subterranean web of micro fungi, along which pass signals and sustenance.
It is not for nothing that Christianity demands that the believer takes up his Cross daily. This is the Self denied – killed – nailed to an instrument of humiliation. This is not self-control, as if there were a ‘higher self’ that could curb the base desires of a lower.
It would indeed be unaccountable why this spirit of ‘fascism’ should possess some. Among the Afro-Caribbeans with whom I am acquainted there are some women of different ages and backgrounds. When these women hear reports of the Channel migrants they at once become outraged. One of these ladies, a woman in middle age who was born in Jamaica, fumes, “This country is full“.

Jonathan Nash
Jonathan Nash
3 months ago

The violence of course must be and will be stopped, by force if necessary. But it is really just the froth on the top of these protests, driven by looters and men who basically enjoy a scrap on Saturdays, either with the away fans or with the Police. The political question is what lies behind the anger of the majority of marchers, and what should be done about it. Starmer’s reaction is that it is either “far right” ideology – as if the good people of Middlesbrough spend each evening studying Heidegger – or “misinformation”: i.e. they are too stupid to avoid being manipulated by bad actors. That is why his latest speeches are so insulting and inflammatory: he doesn’t begin to see that the slogan “Enough is enough” is expressing a genuine and well-founded grievance at what has been happening in our “community” – i.e. the UK – for the past 20 years or so. I don’t think the author of this piece gets it either.

Aidan Anabetting
Aidan Anabetting
3 months ago

I am old enough to remember when Conservatism was about pragmatic good management. Recently it has been moving towards becoming an anti-woke cult as zealous as that which it opposes. The culture warriors may come to regret stoking the fires when it is the free market and asset inequality that becomes the target of protestors ire.

kevin smith
kevin smith
3 months ago

why no comments

Walter Marvell
Walter Marvell
3 months ago

Even if talk of civil war is premature, the UK has crossed a few big rivers on the path to Rubicon in recent days. The 20 year success story of the Progressive State and its captive compliant mass/state media to lie about and cover up the scale of Islamist terror and hatred by new migrants toward native whites and especially their women (Southport, Rotherham, Telford, London Bridges, Nottingham, Manchester Arena) is over. A vast super silent majority no longer want to talk of tragedy, kumbaya chants of love toward religions of peace and the joys of multiculturalism and diversity. They are scared. There is a terrible problem. And the other Super Lie propagandized successfully for so long – that the uncontrolled mass immigration of 8 plus millions has had zero impact on wages, house prices, access to health services and crime levels – this insane state credo has finally been trashed too. The sectarian progressive zealots now in power still think ranting at the enraged working class thugs on the streets and ignoring this social catastrophe will wash. It will not. That game is over The active complicity of their State in the Asylum scam – the illegal entry of migrants in joint enterprise with criminal mafia now all deterrence has been quashed – places them in a very dangerous new place. Two Tier Keir, the Sectrarian Sheriff Statmer has been found out in a matter of weeks. It is a step toward a form of anarchy for sure and things will get ugly when they unleash their Second Horseman; the upcoming Anti Growth Anti Wealth Anti Private Sector Anti Enterprise Big Statist policies on this same silent majority in the autumn. A twin offensive by a nasty cabal of mediocre progressives and Soviets who no longer recognise nor love one nation is coming. There may be Trouble. But not yet civil war. But new rivers are being crossed.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
3 months ago
Reply to  Walter Marvell

Ah yes, the ‘Religion of Peace’. At least we don’t get that particular piece of nonsense shoved down our throats so much these days. Small mercies, eh?

Sean Lothmore
Sean Lothmore
3 months ago

I’m surprised that South Africa never gets mentioned in discussions of multiculturalism and xenophobia. The great cause of the 80s, the Rainbow Nation of the 90s, over the past 30 years it has been deeply stressed by intercommunal fractures and anti-immigrant sentiment. Frequently these erupt into episodes of genuine violence. The country just seems to accept that these will happen, that this is part of being multicultural just as the occasional minor earthquake is just what happens on a fault line, and they carry on.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
3 months ago

Not surprising, murder and heavy injury on innocent children is met with meaningless flowers and emergency security for million pounds on Muslim mosques. Where is the logic in that?!

LindaMB
LindaMB
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

And the police politely asking armed muslims to put their weapons back inside the mosque

John Le Huquet
John Le Huquet
3 months ago

Islam in the UK is not here to integrate, it is here to colonise.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
3 months ago
Reply to  John Le Huquet

That’s only if you believe the words that are spoken. History repeats itself. Hitler spoke the same words with forceful clarity for years, yet some didn’t believe him.

Jacquie Watson
Jacquie Watson
3 months ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

It took a world war to stop him.

Chipoko
Chipoko
3 months ago

Why was there not a similar reaction by the Woking Class elite when the BLM riots of 2020 swept across the UK, with looting and destruction and women defecating on the shoes of police officers and offensive graffiti daubed on the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square or the Cenotaph – insulting the very heart of British identity and history? And what about the recent vast pro-Hamas demonstrations that the Police didn’t bother with too much? Ah yes … the Far Right ‘Gammons’ weren’t involved.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
3 months ago
Reply to  Chipoko

The tipping point hadn’t quite been reached then, but has now.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
3 months ago

People whose nations are being invaded and taken over wouldn’t resort to “ultranationalist violence” if their governments protected them.

Grooming gangs in Rotherham, terror supporters marching in the streets, murder of little girls – would this be happening if the flood of culturally incompatible people were stopped and reversed?

Fools like this author blame the abused population of native Britons for their abuse. They’re fighting back, you idiot, because their leaders have abandoned them.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
3 months ago

“It also showed how the lines between race, religion and political beliefs are far from homogenised.” what does this sentence mean? Unherd seems to be a magnet for this type of deliberate obfuscation, a language served up at our universiti