For a few weeks after the general election, it seemed that politics had grown-up at last in this country. Issues such as housing were being discussed in a serious manner, while the junior doctors pay dispute was swiftly resolved. It was all the more depressing then, to see a return to toxic culture wars and the accompanying online misinformation and innuendo that accompanied it, after the terrible tragedy in Southport on 29 July. That the ensuing riots were wrongly described for a while as protests didn’t help anything either.
I am sure that I was not the only person in this country who became sick and tired of hearing the racist thugs rioting in our streets in early August being described as protestors. They were not protestors.
The riots were stirred up by a torrent of misinformation online, not least the untruth about the religion of the accused, who is clearly not a Muslim or an asylum seeker for that matter.
For a protest to be legitimate, there has to be a legitimate reason for it. Clearly, if the purported reasons for unrest are based on misinformation and lies, then there can be no legitimate reason for what is taking place.
And then we have the issue of violence. How on earth can violence to innocent persons and property ever be justified, whatever the reasons? It can’t be.
As for the rioters shouting that they want their country back, is it really ‘their country’? Are they really patriots, in that they work to help people around them and the country in general?
Patriotism
Surely, we need to redefine what patriotism really means. We must move away from any thoughts that getting drunk, waving a flag around and burning down a library is somehow patriotic. Real patriots are those who work hard, respect others and help those around them when they need it.
How did it help?
Then we come to the question of how on earth the poor families of the three girls horrifically murdered in Southport were in any way helped by the burning down of a children’s library in Liverpool, or a foodbank being set fire to. How are the families helped by Hay’s Travel shop in Sunderland, a company based in the city, which employs 500 people having their windows put in? The riots can only have amplified the deep pain the bereaved families were already going through.
Blame?
Blame for the riots does not only lie with the rioters of course. It must also lie with those in positions of power and influence who have used lies, half-truths and baseless innuendo to stir up the thugs and hooligans. In the last two weeks we have seen numerus examples of this: Firstly, we had a woman called Bernadette ‘Bonnie’ Spofforth posting misinformation to X/Twitter within hours of the terrible tragedy in Southport, without a scrap of hard evidence to back up what she was saying. On 8 August, it was reported that Spofforth’s original message on X at 4.49pm on the same day of the attack read: “Ali Al-Shakati was the suspect, he was an asylum seeker who came to the UK by boat last year and was on an MI6 watch list. If this is true, then all hell is about to break loose.”” It was also noted on 8 August that the MailOnline was reporting that Spofforth’s post was “deleted an hour after it surfaced but that the incorrect information had already been widely repeated by social media personalities such as far-right activist and English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson and misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate”. Spofforth has since said that she is mortified about spreading the falsehoods and freely admitted that it was a mistake. It was then reported on the evening of 8 August that a 55 year-old woman had been arrested for sharing inaccurate information about the identity of the Southport attacker and that police had issued a “stark reminder” about the dangers of posting on social media.
This was soon followed by Nigel Farage effectively amplifying baseless conspiracy theories about the Southport killer’s identity in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. Indeed Conservative leadership contender Mel Stride, was reported to have told Sky News on 8 August that “comments made by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage ‘helped fuel conspiracy theories’ about the Southport killings” . It was of course, later revealed that Farage had used Andrew Tate as the source for the baseless conspiracy theory he was peddling. Indeed it has been noted that Nigel Farage had said he had been referring to claims made by influencer Andrew Tate when he had asked whether the alleged Southport attacker was known to security services and that “in a video posted on July 30, the day after the attack that killed three young girls, Reform UK leader Mr Farage said there had been ‘reports’ that the suspect was being monitored by the security services”. The report goes on to note that, “referring to the police description of the attack as a non-terror incident, he added: ‘I just wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us. I don’t know the answer to that. I think it’s a fair and legitimate question.’” That an elected MP would act in such an irresponsible way is surely a sad reflection of the times we live in, but there can be no excuses for such behaviour.
Nigel Farage and Elon Musk have both amplified baseless misinformation about a non-existent ‘two-tier’ policing policy in this country while Conservative leadership contender Robert Jenrick has been accused of trying to stir up trouble and making unwise and insensitive comments, by fellow leadership contender Mel Stride. Meanwhile Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, has been reported as trying to stir up trouble, while outside the country escaping a contempt of court charge, by suggesting that people “’get there and show your support. People need to rise up.’” Quite how ‘rising up’ and burning down libraries and other community facilities helps solve any problems in this country is beyond me.
Be wary
Doesn’t all this toxic misinformation just show how and why we should be wary of believing any right-wing rhetoric online or anywhere else? Far too much of it is both toxic and untrue. And we must never believe that those peddling lies and innuendo are on our side and want the best for our country. They don’t. They only want the best for themselves. The right has shown yet again that they have no solutions to the many problems we face as a country; they never do. They have little or nothing useful to say about health, education, the environment, transport, social care or any of the other problems we face. It can only be hoped that from now on people will be less willing to believe baseless rumours and lies, demand hard evidence from politicians and public figures when they are making statements and only take notice of those who have real solutions to our only too real problems.
It would be nice to think that the appalling riots could be a turning point.
Following 14 long, depressing years of Tory government, it was refreshing for a few weeks after the general election in July for politics not to be dominated by futile, hate-filled culture wars, but by constructive discussions about things that really matter; housing, the NHS, education, transport and the environment among other things. The riots of course acted as a distraction from talking about these issues and the problems and solutions connected to them. The rioters and those who incited them, have no answers to our problems. It is to be hoped that now we can put the riots behind us and can return to more fruitful and constructive conversations about how we solve our real problems.
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