14 years of incitement: civil society burns, and the right runs riot
The mainstream right wing political parties’ 14 years of incitement to hatred cannot disappear into the memory hole. Far-right riots are the crowning achievement of Tory Britain.
Riots involving far-right groups are happening all up and down the UK. A list of immigration lawyers and advice services has been shared with a view to organising attacks. The CAB In Sunderland was burned down. And rioters tried to burn down a Holiday Inn full of asylum seekers - as well as, elsewhere, attacking some Fillipino nurses. You probably know this. As of Wednesday, this was an excellent summary.
The urge to say something meaningful
There’s been a lot of grandiloquent charity speechifying (and no small amount of Linkedin virtue-signalling) about the UK’s riots.
And I get it. It’s hard to think of what to do or say that is helpful. I have had the same urge everybody else does, but decided not write a ‘hope will always overcome hate’ speech. I’m not convinced it’s true, apart from anything else.
But we all want to make statements first of all because we feel powerless - so all we can offer is a statement. It’s a bit like talking to someone when they are bereaved. ‘Sorry for your loss’ or similar is about all we can manage. What the words say aren’t important, it’s just an expression of empathy.
And, admit it, all leaders at times like these have wondered what will happen if you don’t make a statement, and people think that your charity or civil society organisation has been fully on-board with far-right racist and nationalist sentiment all along. I mean: no statement from Donkeys 4 Mental Health? Racists.1
But seriously and less cynically, people genuinely want to hear some kind of reassurance that they are heard, seen, protected, at bad times. One CEO I spoke to said it’s absolutely a full time job reassuring people at a time like this. That is absolutely right and necssary, when the need is pressing, and urgent, and the world is deeply upsetting. Lloyds Foundation has posted some feedback from the charities they work with. Sobering stuff. And day to day, I can only imagine how Muslims must feel. And, you know, white gay man here; I feel pretty unsettled with this too. We’re always next.
Transcendent rhetoric
But another problem with rhetoric at a time like this is its tendency to focus on nebulous abstract ahistoricals and transcendent verbiage. At the start it seems inspiring; after a while it just sounds hollow, and that is because much of it genuinely is without meaning. It’s a line in the sand. I’m always drawn back to Barthes’ Mythologies and the type of ahistorical speech he looks at. Positioning this as a matter of good triumphing over evil looks great on social media, but it doesn’t do much to address the problem. This is partly because these things are produced historically, politically, economically, culturally. Unless you address those things, you are left with the speechifying and the eternal battle of good and evil.2 Some of this is good. I have a dream and all that. But we quickly need to move on to analysis and cold hard politics.
The reality is politics, history, discourse
Because, absolutely f*** the far right and the horse it rode in on. But let’s be clar, the horses have been Suella Braverman, Lee Anderson, Nigel Farage, Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel, the partially rehabilitated Theresa May, and a host of other demogogues stirring up hatred for their own selfish political ends. They too have been responsible for the demonising of civil society, and of charitable organisations of the kind now being burned to the ground, who were trying to increase social and racial justice in the UK. In one example of many, The Runnymede Trust was attacked by Conservative politicans including Kemi Badenoch for daring to criticise the Sewell report into racial equality. ‘Weird and woke’ was the description of charities fighting for social justice.3
Tommy Robinson and the assorted flotsam and jetsam of the online scumosphere are cartoon grotesques. But none of this would have been possible without the Conservative party of the last 14 years (and particularly the last 3 or 4). Mosleyites like Tommy Robinson have long existed, but for the most part they are minor voices. Enoch Powell and Suella Braverman are the people who make this stuff mainstream.
Meanwhile, I never thought I would come even close to agreeing with anything Reform MP Lee Anderson says. But when he noted today that not all the rioters are ‘far-right’ supporters, he was probably right. Those extremists and ideologues are the organisers. The other idiots pitch in because they see people to pick on, and to express their rage - which I‘ve covered elsewhere. Which is explicable, but no more excusable. And let’s be clear, the Conservative party has been the loudest enabler.
That means that those taking part beyond the small coterie of damaged, pathological and pathogenic, racists have been enabled by the ‘mainstream’. This would have been a few balaclava-clad angry men if it hadn’t been for the last few years of Tory rhetoric.4 And of course, their response has been pathetic.
So below I present a few choice morsels of Tory rhetoric we need to spread far and wide, to make sure they never, ever forget it. Or, more importantly, that voters do not.
And most of all, Labour must resist the urge - whatever the likely political expediency - of further demonising asylum seekers. And, for that matter, demonising civil society. When the honeymoon is over, can they resist shooting the messenger when we speak out for social justice?
The Conservative Party’s 10 year Incitement to Riot
Some choice morsels
How the Tory war on immigration backfired
Amelia Gentleman, The Guardian, 1 Jul, 2024
“For more than a decade, Conservatives have promised to crack down on illegal migration and slash the number of legal arrivals. Their repeated failure has infuriated voters – and further demonised immigrants to the UK In his first major speech as UK prime minister, at the start of 2023, a hopeful Rishi Sunak announced “five promises” to show that his government would “always reflect the people’s priorities”. Alongside familiar pledges to reduce inflation and grow the economy, there was a bold new promise: to “stop the boats”.
[…]
It has long been a trick of immigration politics for governments to signal their “toughness” with punitive commitments to crack down on illegal migration, in order to distract from parallel policies that have increased legal immigration numbers to meet the requirements of a growing economy. Under New Labour, tough talk about “false asylum seekers” was often an attempted smokescreen for rising figures of legal migration. But no government has fumbled the issue so dramatically as Sunak’s. As a result, the small boats debacle has become emblematic of this latest troubled chapter of Conservative rule.”
Tory attacks on ‘lefty lawyers’ could fuel abuse, barristers warn
Rowena Mason, 16th August 2022
This article is more than 11 months old
“Bar Council chair says Conservatives ‘crossed line’ with dossier that led to threats against immigration solicitor
Political attacks on “lefty lawyers” risk coarsening political debate and could lead to the abuse of more legal professionals, the head of Britain’s barristers has said.
Nick Vineall KC, the chair of the Bar Council, said the Conservative party had crossed a line by releasing a dossier criticising Labour for its links to Jacqueline McKenzie, a partner and immigration lawyer at Leigh Day who has represented people challenging asylum decisions.
After the circulation of the dossier, McKenzie said she had been subjected to abuse including threats to drown her “like an asylum seeker” and to leave dead bodies at her property.
The Conservative party said in response that lawyers should not be “exempt from criticism” and hit out at those it said had engaged in “abusive late legal challenges to frustrate removals”.”
Suella Braverman was warned ‘hate speech’ could inspire far right
This article is more than 1 year old
Mark Townsend, The Guardian, 6th November 2022
“Senior lawyers had told home secretary about risks of inflammatory rhetoric long before she referred to asylum seekers as an ‘invasion’
The home secretary, Suella Braverman, who last week caused outrage by referring to asylum seekers entering the UK as an “invasion”, had been warned by government lawyers that inflammatory immigration rhetoric risked inspiring a far-right terror attack.
Braverman’s comments came just one day after a man with links to the far right threw firebombs at a Dover immigration centre. On Saturday, counter-terrorism police announced they had found evidence that the attack was motivated by an “extreme rightwing” terrorist ideology.”
Petrol bombs thrown at immigration centre in Dover
This article is more than 1 year old
“Police confirm suspect died after throwing two or three petrol bombs at site in Kent
Matthew Weaver, The Guardian, Sun 30 Oct 2022
A man threw petrol bombs attached with fireworks at a new Border Force immigration centre in Dover, police have confirmed, adding the suspect was found deceased nearby.
The attacker, a white man in a blue-and-white gingham shirt, drove up to the centre in a white Seat sports utility vehicle. He threw three petrol bombs, one of which did not go off, according to a photographer for Reuters. The suspect was identified and located at a nearby petrol station where he was confirmed dead, police said.
The incident has prompted a call for politicians to stop using anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Clare Moseley, the founder of the campaign Care4Calais, said she was concerned recent rhetoric by ministers may have been a factor in the attack.
She said: “We are seeing an escalation in hate on social mediaand threats against our volunteers. The rhetoric from this government’s ministers is shocking and divisive. They call refugees in Calais ‘illegal immigrants’ despite extensive evidence they are genuine refugees in desperate need of help.””
Man faces terror charge over alleged attack at immigration law firm
This article is more than 3 years old
Diane Taylor, The Guardian, 23rd October 2020.
“Cavan Medlock charged with preparing act of terrorism over incident in Harrow last month
A man accused of carrying out a racist attack at a firm of immigration lawyers has additionally been charged with preparing an act of terrorism in relation to the alleged incident.
Cavan Medlock, 28, from Harrow in north-west London, allegedly visited the offices of Duncan Lewis Solicitors in Harrow armed with a large knife and threatened to kill a member of staff last month.
The prosecution alleges Medlock planned to take a solicitor hostage and display flags of Nazi Germany and the US Confederacy in the firm’s office windows to inspire others to carry out similar offences. He allegedly blamed lawyers at the firm for preventing the removal of immigrants from the UK.
Days earlier the home secretary, Priti Patel, had claimed activist lawyers were frustrating the removal of refused asylum seekers from the UK.”
‘An activist blob’: Tory party attacks on lawyers – a timeline
This article is more than 11 months old
Rowena Mason, The Guardian, 16 Aug 2023
“Critical language used to blame lawyers for thwarting immigration policy dates back to Boris Johnson era
Conservative attacks on “lefty lawyers” blamed for frustrating the government’s immigration policy date back to the era of Boris Johnson’s government, with Priti Patel as home secretary. However, Rishi Sunak and his senior colleagues have not shied away from this language either.”
Some key links from the article:
PM renews attack on 'left wing' criminal justice lawyers
'Hostile environment': the hardline Home Office policy tearing families apart
This article is more than 6 years old
Amelia Hill, The Guardian, 28 Nov 2017
“Theresa May has relentlessly pledged to make life as difficult as possible for illegal immigrants, but the harsh measures are also wrecking the lives of people who have a right to be here
It is a boast that Theresa May has been repeating for the past five years. “The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants,” she said in 2012 when, as home secretary, she was challenged on why annual net immigration, then running at about 250,000, was stubbornly above the Conservatives’ controversial “tens of thousands” target.
It was, the Telegraph noted, a rare moment when a politician who otherwise chose her language with “feline delicacy”, avoiding “a few stray words or a rash promise”, allowed it to become “uncharacteristically vivid”.
Despite her “safety-first” approach to public statements, May obviously liked that vividness. She has taken to repeating the phrase on demand. In August, it was chosen as one of her most powerful quotes. Perhaps she feels it deflects the reality of the situation: despite the recent 84,000 fall in annual net migration to 248,000 – much of it due to the return home of highly skilled EU nationals insecure about their post-Brexit status in the UK – her target is still nowhere in sight. This is not due to any lack of effort on May’s part: during her six years as home secretary, she presided over seven immigration bills and 45,000 changes to the immigration rules.”
And now, let’s not forget the press
UK press is the most aggressive in reporting on Europe’s ‘migrant’ crisis
Mike Berry, Iñaki Garcia-Blanco, Kerry Moore, The Conversation, March 14, 2016
“Hard line
But the most striking finding in our research is how polarised and aggressive British press reporting was compared to that of other countries.
In most countries, newspapers, whether left or right wing, tended to report using the same sources. They also featured the same kinds of themes and provided similar explanations and solutions to the crisis.
But the British press was different. While The Guardian and – to a lesser extent, the Daily Mirror – featured a range of humanitarian themes and sources sympathetic to the plight of refugees, the right-wing press consistently endorsed a hardline anti-refugee and migrant, Fortress Europe approach.”
Croydon Assault and the Reporting of Asylum
John Jewell, Cardiff University, April 10, 2017
Meanwhile, while everybody focuses on the blackshirts, at some point we need to ask why thousands of asylum seekers are living - or should I say, subsisting - in hotels. Not only have the media and the political class stoked hatred against them, they have put them in easy harm’s way.
Interesting that corporates have been oddly silent in the UK this time, unlike during Black Lives Matter - bit close to home, and specific, and a bit, eek, controversial. And those black shirts all buy goods and services after all - balaclavas, for example.
I’m reminded of the racist far-right marchers in the US who all processed down US Main Streets with Tiki torches from Target. The manufacturers issued a statement, btw.
And yes, I‘m right there with an ongoing battle between civilization and its discontents - but even that has a much deeper anthropological and historical bent. Not least, Freud is writing during the rise of the Nazi party.
I do love Kemi’s title of the ‘Minister for Gaslighting’ in Black newspaper, The Voice.
With that said - Labour, at least historically, have not been blameless in this. And there is a significant danger that their rhetoric can shift in this direction if they do not take its obvious consequences extremely seriously.