In a genteel seaside resort town more than 10 days ago three little girls, Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, were murdered at a dance party. Many more were injured. Those families are grieving in a way that is unimaginable for most of us. To lose a child in violent circumstances is any parent’s worst nightmare. My heart is with them in Southport.
A 17 year old has been charged with murder and attempted murder. It is right that the criminal justice system does its work.
Yet when the nation’s focus should be on the terrible events at that Taylor Swift party and ensuring justice is done, racist thugs and criminals have stirred up and committed appalling acts of violence, first in Southport and then in towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland. Community assets such as a library and a citizen’s advice bureau have been torched, shops have been looted, mosques have been targeted and Muslims and ethnic minorities have been attacked.
While the thugs and racists stir up trouble, communities are resisting by showing their strength. The neighbours keeping the flowers alive in the bouquets laid for the girls in Southport, the people who swept up the mess after the riots in Sunderland, who stood to protect the mosques in Liverpool and Darlington and who are raising thousands to replace the books in the burned out libraries. And now the huge shows of peaceful strength in cities across the country.
These are examples that demonstrate the best of Britain: we are stronger when we understand what we have in common rather than focusing on that which divides us.
Initially the violence was stirred up by misinformation, spread by keyboard warriors who thrive on division. But as it became clear the thugs have been targeting people because of their race or religion, no one can claim they don’t know what has been driving the violence.
I share the relief of many in Thanet that disturbances have not happened here. And it’s good when people tell me they believe we as a community are better than that. But we must be eternally vigilant and guard against the language and intolerance that inspires such violence.
There is literally no “legitimate concern” that justifies the violence and carnage that we have seen over the last week. It helps no one, least of all the grieving families of the little girls in Southport.
There are real issues with crime, especially knife crime, that blights communities and destroys families of all ethnicities. This government was elected on a platform to tackle them: banning zombie knives, addressing youth crime and pledging to halve the rate of violence against women and girls.
Reducing crime was made harder by the events of this week. Police have been attacked when we need to recruit more of them.
People who have been born here or lived here for years, who value the British values of tolerance and mutual respect, who ask for nothing but the chance to live peacefully and safely, have been in hiding in fear this week. That is a mark of shame.
Many residents have been in touch with me, anxious about what these events say about us as a country as well as about the issues of crime in our community. I say to them and to everyone in Thanet: if you want to build a stronger community where everyone is safe, with less crime and greater understanding between people, that is possible. People have responded with humanity in the face of violence. The determination among Thanet residents to build a strong community is similar and is the reason I am hopeful for our community and our country.
Good that our new MP welcomes the various large turnouts of people disgusted by the neo-Nazis and racists. This cannot be left solely to the Police and state prosecutions. Public turnouts help isolate these characters and dissuade any others from joining in. The statements from the head of the Met Police were well thought out and worth reading. There is no place for racism or the phoney patriotism of these rather nasty characters.
YAWN!
For once I agree with you (and Polly!) totally.
Completely agree with Polly (who couldn’t?) These thugs must face the consequences of their actions.
Thank you for your words ,we will all sleep safely in our beds from now on.
It’s an insult to the memory of the three little girls and the survivors of the mindless evil attack for yobs to use the tragedy as an excuse to cause mayhem in towns and cities across the U.K.
it’s good many arrest have been made but it’s a pity Nigel Farage
Is not one of them for inciting the unrest.
Are you the brother of Ben? Because you are making as much sense as the Flowerpot men. What has Nigel Farage to do with the rioting?
Has he condemned it, and congratulated the police & the courts for the swift arrests and sentencing? It’s a genuine question (I don’t know).
You don’t know? Well he has condemned the violence! Maybe some people on here including parachute Polly should start asking some of those sucked into the riots why they did. It? Still easy to say when those in a position of power look through what is happening in this country with rose coloured tinted spectacles and a security of a home, job or pension. and are quick to condemn! Finally it is distressing what has happened over the last week and I condemn the violence. That has happened. Wish you well Peter
There is NEVER a legitimate excuse for violence and intimidation. No rose tinted specs are needed to see that much.
Did you miss his Address to the Nation, where he speculated as to the nationality of the alleged murder? Didn’t you hear the bit where Farage pondered as to whether the boy was on a secret watch list?
We spent much of the past week walking in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, so only briefly checked the news.
I’m anti migrant , against violence along with millions of others I suspect.
Anon, What does being “anti migrant” actually mean? Are you anti all migrants? Does this apply to all migrants in the past? Are you selective in your anti migrant position?
Illegal, white , black brown , yellow or gay if they are illegal I’m against. And those that stowed away on ships are definitely illegal, they put the lives of fare payers and crews in danger.
I’m proud to be English, and I love my country.
I’m also proud of my Jewish and Spanish heritage, and I’m proud of the fact that I was raised by a wonderful black West Indian stepdad in a part of London where all races and creeds (largely) got along, and were welcomed into the community.
The two things aren’t mutually exclusive, folks. Fortunately, love, peace and harmony is, once again, conquering all.
Appreciate your measured views but I am afraid there are deep seated issues in many parts of the UK which are getting worse by the day. I can recall issues from parts of London that Isurfaced up to 40 years ago but the powers that be didn’t and don’t want to know and that spans the whole political spectrum!!
No one who ever they are should be allowed to enter the U.K. illegally but smashing up shops and looting is not going to stop the boats crossing the Channel.
When you see nearly identical headlines and stories across the mainstream media with ‘far right’ used as a weaponised propaganda term and talk of social media and free speech clamp downs, you know there is allegedly a bigger game at play here. What was far right fascism, was the covid lockdowns and attempted forced unsafe experimental covid jabs. Didn’t see Polly speak out on that one.
As Ms Billington was neither a Thanet councillor nor a Thanet M.P. until very recently, it is unlikely that anyone not living in the area where she was previously a councillor would be aware of anything she or other councillors said at local council meetings.
Yet again, another Government hiding behind being tough but not engaging at all in the reasons for this riotous mess.
Starmer and pals just want to takeawy a PR win by quelling ‘thugs’ and anti-fascist ‘thugs’ with draconinian sentences to people who have pleaded guilty.
What will transpire if someone challenges their guilt and demands a hearing?
It is both unfashionable and problematic that on the face of it we have an uprising of white working class people. Of course racism is wrong but that’s all that they have been told by both Labour and Tories for at least the last 4 decades.
There are people of all colours who have been abandoned by the state, have no meaningful inward investment stranded for generations in sink estates and parts of the country that have poor everything now, including the basics of decent housing, health and welfare and education. They are being taxed on every aspect of their lives, decent people, in poorly paid and insecure jobs trying to make ends meet to meet the needs of our future generations.
They get blugeoned by tally men, bailiffs and even criminalised by the BBC. They are trying to exist in a very sick vortex of having the wealthy pour unobtainable lifestyles into their media and magazines, the bourgeoisie insisting that social mobility comes through having sharp elbows, meriticracy and in many cases families who die off and leave them unearned wealth too. Aren’t they all very lucky.
The majority of people in this country are increasingly unable to live passably. So until this all gets addressesed not just with platitudes but with action to remedy the fundamental issues and allow people to raise them coherently instead of echoing the soundbites that the media and politicians expect them to suck up the problems that have transpired in over the last several days will occur again and again.
On the issue of being hopeful for our Thanet community that doesn’t touch the sides of the core problems. Thanet is undergoing some very fast changes to popultion on the back of rotten to the core services. As with the Converter Station at Minster and the spread of indifferent housing without essential building up of infrastructure the public are being ignored/
I will add that the wonderful Baronness Louise Casey has been very clear that our Police force is in a serious state of health, institutionally racist, misogynist, corrupt and more. Respect for the Met in particular is at an all time low.
https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/met/about-us/baroness-casey-review/update-march-2023/baroness-casey-review-march-2023a.pdf
Blimey. Bet you’re fun at parties.
Very well said!
I think we all condemn the rioting whatever our political persuasion, but me must also condemn ensiightment to riot and indictment to murder. Wil Pilly also condemn the words of the Labour councillor telling people to slight the throat of those deemed “fascist”? We don’t have a British Fascist Party, we just have those who name anyone right of their Politicis a Fascist, which in turn could make someone of unsound mind think it acceptable to slit the throat of someone referred to as a fascist by others.
It much like crying witch ……..
The rioters were mostly people who were low achievers, in low paid, or no jobs! They are envious of migrants and people of colour who have done well in this country. Thats why they looted small businesses, and justified it by attacking people who were not “White”. In the Times this morning on page 8. is a piece on government figures stating “The UK economy has created 1.5 million new roles since before the pandemic. Since 2019 there has been an increase of 488,000 jobs filled by Indian workers, and 279,000 roles taken by people from Nigeria”. Further on it states many of these jobs were vacancies after EU citizens returned home! The question is why were these jobs not taken up by UK citizens?
Do you have a theory or are you genuinely asking the question?
SeeSee, I genuinely would like to know why British people are not taking up the jobs that migrants are more than happy too! I grew up in the 40’s and 50’s and there was plenty of work after the war, which is why tens of hundreds of thousands of people were recruited from the then colony’s, especially the West Indies. I was in the army (circa 1960) and as national service was ending in 1963, thousands of people were recruited from India, Fiji, and other former colonies into the services! So why are these idle, low life’s rioting against migrants, who are happy to work here, and who are contributing so much to the economy? I recently had surgery, and of the 3 people who did it, none were from Britain originally, or had English as their first language! I was more than pleased the surgery was completed on time, and successfully!
Probably the work pays too little compared to getting benefits for doing nothing I would guess. Whereas those Indian and Nigerians will happily work for whatever is on offer and complain less about conditions. Its always been a win for business owners.
The rioters will not have employment statistics on their mind, doubt they have the mental capacity to have been thinking about successful migrants. Its racial tension and anger from the murders that caused the violence. Comparisons can be drawn from BLM riots and even worse 10 years before the riots over that other criminal getting shot by police. Both made even less sense.