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As terrible details of the right wing riots continue to dominate the news, our Editor Phil Parry again looks at the disturbing historical parallels.
Regrettably the appalling right wing violence today has a historical context.
More and more UK towns and cities are ablaze with police condemning a “staggering” level of violence.
Downing Street is expected to hold a COBRA emergency response meeting today after thugs tried to storm hotels housing asylum seekers on the sixth day of disorder.
The meeting was due to involve relevant ministers and police officials, who will discuss the response in the coming days to ensure there is no repeat of the violent scenes.
More than 140 people have been arrested so far across the UK, and in Middlesbrough alone, officers arrested 43 people.
More than 300 people marched in the town carrying a banner saying: “Tom Jones is Welsh, Axel Rudakubana [the Southport stabbings suspect] isn’t” while chanting “we want our country back” as they made their way through the town centre.
Many of the protesters have taken offence at the claim that they are members of the far right, and to chants of “Nazi scum” from counter-protesters.
On the other hand shouts of “Muhammad is a paedo” and “Oh, Tommy Robinson” from their own side at one demo, would seem to undermine that professed innocence.
Mr Robinson has repeatedly spread the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory claiming that Muslims are being brought into Western countries to outbreed and ‘replace’ whites, and is effectively egging on the rioters through social media posts.
Sadly all of this trouble has a historical background, some of which can be learnt from.
Keir Starmer is an expert on the judicial side of dealing with disturbances. He was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) when the so-called ‘London riots’ broke out in August 2011.
Let’s look back at some of the details.
After Mark Duggan was shot dead by police, rioting spread over the next few days across much of London and into other inner cities including Bristol, Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Liverpool, Derby and Nottingham.
Around 3,000 people were arrested with more than 2,000 going on to face criminal charges and prison sentences.
There was also violence (although not on this scale) when the National Front (NF) marched through cities in the seventies.
Unfortunately the group’s public profile was raised through street marches and rallies, which often resulted in violent clashes with anti-fascist protesters, most notably the 1974 Red Lion Square disorders and the 1977 Battle of Lewisham.
So there is nothing new under the sun (and the police will be hoping for rain!), although that is of little consolation to all the innocent people who have been affected…
The memories of Phil’s decades-long award-winning career in journalism, as he was gripped by the rare disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – more evidence has emerged of how hostile states are harnessing new technology, even as The Eye experience unprecedented levels of ‘hacking’ designed to monitor our investigations.
