The perception that the United Kingdom is one of the best integrated multicultural societies in the world has been seriously affected by the images of Hundreds of angry white men, armed with sticks, Molotov cocktails and white flags with red crosses of England, who set cars on fire, looted shops and shouted slogans such as “stop the boats” and “get rid of the immigrants.”
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The origins of this multiculturalism date back to the 17th century, when the British Empire began to consolidate, eventually encompassing a quarter of the world’s population and territories on all five continents. It was further strengthened after the Second World War with the arrival of a significant influx of non-white immigrants to the United Kingdom.
A source of pride for many Britons, the idea of a well-established multicultural society is today called into question by the gruesome scenes of the last two weeks in a dozen cities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland with a series of violent protests by far-right, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant groups, in reaction to a tragic incident in Southport, a coastal town in north-west England, where three girls were brutally stabbed to death by a 17-year-old boy.
The fuse that lit the powder keg was a wave of misinformation on social media, fueled by far-right groups, who claimed that the perpetrator, Axel Rudakubana, was a radical Muslim immigrant. The reality, however, is that Rudakubana was born in Cardiff (Wales), to Rwandan parents, and is a minor with a degree of autism.
Two of the main targets of this outbreak of violence have been hotels housing asylum seekers who have arrived in British territory via the English Channel and Muslim mosques.
“Enough is enough, get out of our country!” and “Christ is King!” became the rallying cries of protesters who clashed with police and looted shops in multiple towns.
“We are fed up with these people coming to harm our country, wanting to receive the benefits that are due to us and killing our children,” explained in a discussion forum on the social network TikTok a follower of Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and who founded and leads the English Defence League (EDL), and is accused of being one of the main propagators of this disinformation.
With a fan base of 875,000 on X, Robinson played a crucial role in amplifying the rumours. And billionaire Elon Musk added fuel to the fire by claiming that a “civil war is inevitable” – a comment that was branded “irresponsible” by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
We are fed up with these people coming to harm our country, wanting to receive the benefits that are due to us and killing our children.
On the streets of London, Liverpool, Sunderland, Bristol and many other cities saw overturned vehicles, buildings set on fire, including a police headquarters, and violent clashes between protesters and police forces. More than fifty police officers have been injured and nearly 600 people have been arrested.
The outburst came as a surprise to newly appointed Prime Minister Kier Starmer, whose centre-left Labour government took power a month ago after winning the general election on 4 July, ousting the Conservative Party, which had been in power since 2010.
On Monday and Thursday, the 61-year-old British leader, who has a career as a human rights lawyer, called his first two emergency meetings of the so-called Cobra security cabinet, which is dedicated to dealing with serious situations in this country of 67 million inhabitants. Starmer’s order was clear: “Stay on high alert for any new outbreaks of unrest in the country.” He warned that he would apply the full weight of the law against those who promote violence physically or through social media. He also announced the creation of a “permanent army” of specialized police officers to handle the disturbances.
The situation remains tense, as authorities have identified at least 20 possible rallies and counter-demonstrations planned for the coming days.
Some 150 people have already been formally charged. Several of those arrested have gone through an accelerated trial process and have already received sentences of up to three years in prison. And according to London Police Chief Commissioner Mark Rowley, many of those arrested had criminal records.
A recent survey by the firm YouGov found that 7 percent of respondents support violence and one in three Britons (34%) support protests.
The perfect cocktail
“This was a perfect cocktail, combining elements such as the effect of the conservative government’s hostile policy against migrants over the last fourteen years, the rise of an extreme right-wing anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic policy, which has been gaining ground in recent years, and the spread of fake news on social media,” Paul Donovan, an experienced journalist and local political analyst, explained to EL TIEMPO.
This was a perfect cocktail, combining elements such as the effect of the conservative government’s hostile policy against migrants.
“What’s new now is that “In the past, anti-immigrant and racist comments were made sotto voce, because we Brits are politically correct. But now they are shouted out loud,” Donovan noted.
This trend had already begun to be felt in the victory of the referendum on the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union in 2016, heavily supported by the rejection of migration arriving from the continent to British territory and skillfully managed by the member of Parliament and leader of the far-right Republic party, Niger Farage, and the former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
In 2017, following the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack – which left four dead and 50 injured – Farage said that multiculturalism had led to the presence of terrorist sympathisers.
As early as 2011, Farage and former Prime Minister David Cameron had shared the idea that multiculturalism allowed “segregated communities” to behave in ways that were at odds with British cultural norms.
And Suella Braverman, a former home secretary in one of the most ethnically diverse cabinets in UK history, told a US think tank in 2017 that multiculturalism was a “misguided dogma” that had “allowed people to come into our society and live parallel lives in it”.
These criticisms of the multiculturalism of recent governments contrast with the approach taken in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Kieran Connell, Professor of History at Queen’s University Belfast and author of Multicultural Britain: A People’s History, due out later this year, Connell recalls that the Race Relations Act 1976 mandated that local councils take proactive steps to build “good relations” between different racial groups. And in the years that followed, local councils did just that, particularly in education.
Anti-immigrant and racist comments used to be sotto voce, because we Brits are politically correct. But now they are shouted out loud.
But these ideas have been changing, as has the political picture. Although Labour won the general elections on 4 July with an absolute majority in Parliament, 412 seats against 121 for the Conservatives, For the first time, the far-right Republic Party, led by anti-immigrant Niger Farage, won five parliamentary seats.
“This is a legacy from the Tories,” says Sara Khan, an independent adviser to former prime minister Rishi Sunak on social cohesion and resilience until May, who served as counter-extremism commissioner in the governments of Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
In fact, former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who governed until July, He made “stop the ships” one of the five key priorities of his mandate. One of the tools to achieve this was a controversial Illegal Migration Act of 2023, which aims to “prevent and deter illegal migration.” It also tightened requirements for legal migrants with rules such as the one issued in April, which increased the salary requirement for a skilled worker visa to 38,700 pounds (202 million Colombian pesos).
More than 120,000 people are estimated to have crossed the English Channel from France to British shores in flimsy boats, of whom 84,000 have sought asylum and have been placed in state-funded hotels and shelters at a cost of £4.3 billion a year ($5.4 billion), according to estimates by the Independent Commission on Aid Impact.
This anti-immigrant wave is not a British singularity, as the recent elections to the European Parliament made clear. and the advances of the extreme right in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Norway. And it should be noted that on Wednesday thousands of people took to the streets in cities and towns to reject anti-immigrant violence with signs such as ‘Hate is not welcome here’ and ‘Stop the extreme right’, among other messages.
As the British government attempts to restore order and counter disinformation, the nation faces a monumental challenge. Hatred and violence fueled by digital lies have proven to be a devastating combination, and the path to reconciliation and peace remains uncertain.
Fear in ethnic minorities
“Seeing that mob in front of the hotel, armed with sticks and shouting at us to leave, made me feel very scared and helpless,” María, a Latin American woman who is in a shelter for asylum seekers in Darlington, a small industrial city in the northeast of England, almost 400 kilometers from London, told EL TIEMPO.
Fortunately for her and the other migrants at the centre – including some Colombians – the incident did not escalate to a serious incident because of the timely intervention of the police. The matter has reached the point where several multicultural workers at the state-run National Health Service (NHS) have been attacked because of their ethnic origin, confirmed the head of the service, Amanda Pritchard.
King Carlos III spoke out for the first time on Friday about the outbreak to “thank” the police and emergency services for their actions during the clashes and contrasted the violence encouraged by “the criminality of a few” with the “compassion and resistance of many”; he also expressed his hope that “the shared values of mutual respect and understanding continue to strengthen and unite the nation.”
MARIA VICTORIA CRISTANCHO – FOR THE TIMES – LONDON
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