No, Britain hasn’t had a civil war lately

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As you may have read when the UK experienced a series of racist and anti-immigrant riots earlier this month, Elon Musk predicted that civil war was inevitable in Britain.  

Relax, kids. Bad stuff did happen, but a civil war it ain’t, and whatever else Musk is, he’s not a political sage.

 

What did happen? 

Bad stuff, genuinely. It all started when with a knife attack on a dance class in which three young kids were killed and eight people were injured. The attacker was arrested, and a social media campaign claimed he was a Muslim immigrant. He was neither. He was the Welsh-born son of Somali Christian immigrants. 

If anyone knows what his motivation was, they haven’t gone public with it. The best guess going is that he’s crazy, and craziness is an equal opportunity employer, but good luck convincing someone of that if they’ve put their bet on immigrants being the cause of all the country’s problems. Social media blamed an immigrant with a vaguely Muslim sounding (and incorrect) name, so folks got fired up. It was all the fault of immigrants and of Islam. The government was withholding the truth. Somebody had to do something!

The first something they did was riot in the town where the stabbings had taken place, attacking a completely unrelated mosque, burning a police van, and fighting the police–and they had so much fun there that they, or versions of them in other towns, went on to riot in other cities, attempting to burn down buildings housing refugees while people were inside. They also attacked mosques, minority-owned businesses, cars, Muslim gravestones, police, libraries, reporters, photographers, camera crews, individuals who weren’t white, and whatever else was available, including trash cans. 

I saw this broken window and sign in London shortly after the riots ended. I tried to go in and ask what they meant (with my still-American accent, no one’s surprised if I seem clueless), but they were closed. The slogan appeared when David Cameron, the first in a string of Conservative Prime ministers, claimed he was going to fix Broken Britain. We could argue about whether it was, in fact, broken, but he and the Conservative prime ministers who followed him have beyond doubt left it shattered. So I’m genuinely not sure what the thinking is behind this particular sign.

In places, the rioters came with helmets and metal bars, wearing balaclavas, and generally ready for to wreak havoc. An article in Foreign Policy reports rioters yelling, “Go home,” at anyone with brown skin, or more generally, “We want our country back.”

The riots have gotten most of the publicity, but they’ve gone along with a fivefold increase of threats to Muslims–death threats; rape threats; generalized hate messages–and a threefold increase in outright hate crimes against Muslims. (I’m focusing on those because statistics are available, not because threats and attacks are only against Muslims.) Predictably, many Muslims and people of color report not feeling safe in public–which was, of course, the point. An anti-racism activist, Nazir Afzal, said, “This feels targeted against people who are black and brown. I can’t have a conversation with any person of color at the moment without finishing with: ‘Keep safe.’ ”  

 

What’s the background?

The riots make no sense until you look at the background: we have entire dump trucks filled with politicians happy to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment. In fact, they’ve built their careers on it. They’re from both the Conservative Party and, to its right, the new Reform UK. I’ll give you just a few of examples or I’ll get too depressed to go on tapping the keyboard:

  • Robert Jenrick, who’s in the running to lead the Conservative Party, called for the immediate arrest of anyone who shouts “Alluhu Akbar” at a protest. Betting sites give him the best chance to win.  So does the Telegraph.
  • The former home secretary Priti Patel got a lot of press for accusing “lefty lawyers” of keeping the government from cracking down on immigration. More recently, she’s accused the Labour government of “two-tier policing,” in which police are harder of whites than Blacks. 

Yeah, I know, but if you lot at the back of the room can stop laughing, please, we’ll go on.

Et cetera. They’ve shifted the conversation around immigration so far to the right that the Labour Party is afraid to say, Hey, this country needs immigrants. They contribute to its economy and culture, even though it’s true and would resonate with a substantial number of voters.

 

Who took part in the riots? 

Some participants were–as the papers put it cautiously–linked to the now-defunct English Defense League, which held that Muslims couldn’t be truly English. Some were Nazis, complete with swastika tattoos and straight-arm salutes. Others may have been football hooligans–a category of troublemaker I’d never heard of before I moved to the UK. They’re basically guys who like football and like a fight, so wouldn’t it be efficient to combine the two? I’ve been told–and it does seem to be true–that the British will organize a club for just about anything, and this is an example: they organize themselves to go out and get in a fight with people who support an opposing team. 

So here was the prospect of a fight. Whee. Let’s go join in. 

Are football hooligans inherently racist? A government site says no, they reflect the communities they come from, so some are and some aren’t.

Not all the rioters were there because they’re racists or hate immigrants, though, and I find that oddly reassuring. They wandered by, saw a riot, and were angry enough that rioting seemed like a great idea, so they joined in. Or saw looting going on and wanted some stuff. As one participant put it, “People just like rioting.”

Listen, fourteen years of Conservative governments have shattered not just the country but a lot of people’s lives. Let’s not be surprised if they’re angry. That wasn’t the cause of the riots, but it does seem to have been part of the picture.

Social media is another part of the picture, and was used in two ways: first to stir people up in general and second to let people know about specific riots. So although the articles I’ve read talk about the British far right as fragmented and can’t pinpoint any organizations responsible for the riots, it does sound like some non-organizations were effective in calling their non-members together. 

According to a former head of MI6’s Russia desk, Russia was involved in instigating the riots. How accurate that is I don’t know. He’s a former-head, not a current one. Tuck the thought in your pocket as a possibility, not a fact.

 

Counter-demonstrations

The day after the first riot, in Southport, neighbors from multiple backgrounds came out to clean up, to rebuild and raise money to rebuild the mosque that had been attacked, and to show solidarity. Any number of them were quoted as saying that the rioters weren’t from around there. 

There’s your first shred of hope for the day.

In Liverpool, an imam prepared for an expected riot by stocking up on burgers, chips (that’s British for french fries; you’re welcome), and cold drinks. About thirty people showed up ready to riot and were met by a couple of hundred who were there to protect the mosque–again, from many backgrounds. The imam crossed over to the thirty, handing out food, drinks, and when possible, hugs. Some people refused to talk with him, but with some he managed a dialogue.

There’s your second shred of hope for the day. 

The rioting lasted about a week and seems to have been stopped by a combination of arrests, with threats of heavy sentences, and large anti-racist counter-actions. There’s your third shred of hope. 

The anti-racist demonstrations really took off after it became known that a list of organizations supporting refugees had been circulated. The organizations on list either were or were believed to be targets for the next set of riots. Many of them were lawyers, and given Suella Braverman’s campaign against “lefty lawyers,” it wasn’t not irrational to think they’d be a target. 

Thousands of people showed up in multiple cities to protect them. 

Your fourth shred of hope is this: On Twitter, someone called RS Archer (@archer_rs) wrote, “I’m a lurking member of some far right discussion forums and they are VERY unhappy. They lament the lack of public support and recognise the fear generated by the high number of arrests and swift convictions. Also a lot of anger toward Farage [the most visible politician in Reform UK] who is seen as abandoning them.”

Who is Archer? No idea. Does he know what he’s talking about? I can’t say. It’s a shred. I won’t tell you it’s more than that, but I’m not above being glad of what it might tell us.

But with or without that fourth shred, sorry, Elon, we don’t have a civil war today and my reading is that we’re not on the edge of one either. We do have some ugly stuff happening, and we do have a problem, but I think we need to discuss the definition of civil war. Once we work that out, we can talk about what it takes to start one. 

Or not. I don’t believe we have the ingredients in stock, but even so I don’t want to hand you a blueprint. 

48 thoughts on “No, Britain hasn’t had a civil war lately”

  2. I don’t think Elon Musk intended a prediction as much as he was conveying a Hope in line with his own politics. He could have pontificated and stirred unrest elsewhere via his X site had his wish come true. He’s one of those people with a natural affinity for evil. Hugs

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  3. Excellent commentary 😀👏 It’s amazing how quickly the riots evaporated after the carnage they caused.

    It’s also good to see the far-right running for cover. Your 4th ray of hope is right. The extremists seem to have thought they’d be popular. But they’ve realised that, according to polls, they’re hated and seen as a menace. And yes, Farage and Tice, amongst others, have thrown them under the bus. Ironically I’ve heard people calling for these thugs to be deported to Rwanda.

    But now there is much work to be done. Alot of damage has been done to social cohesion, and we have to find a way to bring people together.

    And another irony, as you point out, is that Britain desperately needs immigration 😀

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    • The ray of darkness that I didn’t get into is that the opponents of immigration are still dominating the national conversation and politicians, including those of our shiny, new Labour government, are running scared. Economically speaking, the country does need immigrants. Culturally speaking, everyone benefits. Politically speaking, though? Eeek! You can’t say that in public! And until we do, I don’t think we’ll be able to do what you’re saying, bring people together. It’s terrifying how easy it is, in difficult times, to get people to hate someone.

      Or maybe it works the other way around–we bring people together and that shifts the conversation. Let’s hope.

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      • I agree with you 😀

        But the irony is even the right-wing parties don’t dare stop immigration. They’re making people’s lives miserable over this, but that’s been going on for years(I recommend Colin Yeo’s book Welcome to Britain).

        The reality is even Farage has said he wouldn’t stop immigration, just net migration. But seeing that 500,000 people leave the UK annually, that’s still 500,000 newcomers at least.

        But I’ve said for years, the biggest challenge to social cohesion is the British media. And now social media has shown its poisonous side. Ideally we could have better regulation. But if not, we’ve got to find a way for people to get to know each other. Some northern English towns are completely divided racially with little contact. That needs to change.😀

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        • I’m the granddaughter of immigrants–not to Britain but to the US. And come to think of it, I’m an immigrant myself, although not one of the ones anti-immigrant folks get steamed up about. But all that makes me aware that if a country creates routes for people to become part of a culture, they will, to varying extents, bringing the gifts of their culture with them.

          If we create legal routes for immigrants, we’ll cut down on the number of people desperate enough to take on the Channel crossing. But even if we do that we–the world, that is, not any one country–has to find ways to cope fairly with the number of people displaced by wars and violence and climate disaster, who have no place to go. What do we expect them to do? Right now, everyone wants them to be someone else’s problem. Or no one’s problem.

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          • I agree😀 I also have a lot of immigrant background and have lived in the USA, UK and now Norway

            The irony in Britain is we have so many unfilled jobs that asylum seekers would gladly do if they were allowed.

            Meanwhile, a large % of the rioters haven’t done a day’s work in their lives. Or they’re ‘self-employed’ which often means black market jobs and benefits. Hence their quick availability on weekdays to travel half the country.

            We need to find a way to engage with the large numbers of these people who feel neglected by successive governments and stuck in a rut. And we’ve got to integrate the asylum seekers(they’re desperate to get out of these hotels and find a home)

            These are not easy fixes, but we’ve got to try😀

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            • Agreed on no easy fixes–and most definitely on letting asylum seekers work. It’s crazy to leave people in limbo. As for the demographics of the rioters, I really don’t know. I do know that people have good reasons to be angry, and it’s easy for someone to come along and channel that anger at a powerless group. How many times to we have to see that happen before we get wise to it?

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  4. When violence and criminality along with rioting is your only answer you lose. This was inspired by forces that have no regard for the UK or it’s people. We give just stop oil protesters 5yrs for stopping traffic and trying to save the planet and lesser terms for rioting, looting, threats to life, arson and for terrorising local communities. It says all we need to know. Musk and co need to not interfere with what’s happening in the UK.

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  6. Pingback: No, Britain hasn’t had a civil war lately – It's Only Words

  7. Don’t listen to Elon, he is in outer space when it comes to politics. Racism and hatred will always be present in society. As a US citizen living abroad and having traveled all over the world I have witnessed it first hand and it is all ugly. It comes mostly from ignorance and nationalism. I am optimistic though. Just watch the DNC convention in the US. The fascist RW white Christian nationalists are being defeated. There could be more violence when Trump loses but it is expected and being prepared for. Britain needs to follow the US example and call out and vote out racist politicians and prosecute people who commit the violence and insight the violence with lies and racist tropes.

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    • I hope you’re right about the next election. The polls give me hope. The fact that the Republicans and far right are prepared to undermine any result they don’t like worries me. I’ve never had such a long, hard look at a group of people who think anything’s all right as long as they win. It’s chilling.

      It’s not really the point, but have the Christian nationalists noticed that Christianity isn’t a nation?

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      • “My kingdom is not of this world.”–Jesus

        I think people in the US now accepting “Christian nationalists” as a label aren’t even aware that that used to be the name of a political party with which they would probably have had little sympathy, in a different country. More of “Well, I’m a Christian and I’m not a globalist.”

        One of the denominational differences that matter is that Catholics are free to believe that Jesus was turning the rulership of this world over to the Pope, but Protestants have to admit that an attempt at global government, even by the leader of a church, was a very bad thing.

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  8. It is truly awful to see how incendiary hatred can be and how quickly misinformation and propaganda devolves into danger. Unfortunately we have a lot of people (Musk among them) who are salivating over the prospect of events like these becoming a sustained situation and they know how to use social media to amplify their hateful agenda and get people all whipped up into a powder keg that they can spark into something explosive. We all have to do our best to ensure they fail time and again in this endeavor.

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  9. “We are more alike than we are different.” Yeh. Unfortunately.

    Glad to read the hopeful notes you ended on We have just ended a hopeful week too.

    One of the highlights several years ago was when Trump and the Magats had a rally at Mt Rushmore and the natives from the nearby Sioux reservation showed up with their own rally. The magats began screaming at them ::Go back where you came from!” The indigenous peoples pointed out that they WERE where they came from, and invited the Magats to take their own advice.

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  10. When trying to understand either Musk’s or Gates’ thought processes I keep coming back to the alienation process. Being told you’re on the borderline of schizophrenia or autism or whatever sounds alarming at the moment does not build trust or respect for “average” people. It could easily build a belief that only geeks have any business trying to think, and “the normies” are just walking tissue banks to experiment on. Donating food is the only way they need to show public spirit because food is all the walking tissue banks have any right to want.

    We might want to think about the ways we as societies show empathy and respect to gifted children.

    Pris cilla King

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    • Interesting comment, and you remind me that even before people talked about autism or anything vaguely related to it, there was a belief making the rounds that a technological/business/scientific elite would do a better job running the world than anyone else available. As if being good in one field means you’re automatically good in another one. As if being smart is the same as being wise, never mind compassionate. So I’m with you on this, but I think we might want to expand it beyond the gifted to the powerful in general. It’s easy to separate from the hordes below you and see them as so many widgets to be used or manipulated or kept from rebellion.

      Like

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  11. It sounds increasingly like our last big riot. Actual violence by troublemakers, blame thrown at people who don’t think of themselves as very “far right.” (I heard a podcast where various Midlanders said indignantly that they didn’t consider themselves right-wing at all.)

    Back here we have typical tacky tourists (who were waved into the Capitol building before the riot began) being turned into martyrs, enabling the Rs to keep on ignoring how the Ds won fair and square in my otherwise R-dominated precinct. And, apparently, counting on sympathy for the triracial woman to outweigh the fact that her experience has been as part of what’s agreed to be the worst administration in living memory. And utterly rejecting what seems to be the last sane, moderate D who knows what year it is.

    (Sorry…my candidate just threw me to Trump. I feel a bit like a Scottish dissident when the Kingdom was United. I’ll stop now.)

    Pris cilla King

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    • Personally, I’d love to have seen Sanders run instead of Biden back when that was possible, but whoever runs against Trump, I’d vote for them, even if it was my dog. He–and more so, the people around him–are dangerous and I their focus is on nothing but power. They’ll do whatever it takes to get it and keep it–the thousand-year Reich, which you may recall didn’t work out so well on the last try. I’m genuinely frightened for the country.

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