FOLLOWING days of racist far-right rioting and violent disorder in towns and cities across much of England, fueled by misinformation propagated by social media, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed that those involved in the shocking scenes would come to "regret" their actions.
The riots, whose participants were shamefully described by at least one BBC reporter as "pro-British protesters", created terror on the streets and in particular targeted members of the Muslim community or anyone who did not appear to be sufficiently white and English.
In an especially frightening development, the English nationalist fascist rioters attempted to set fire to hotels in Rotherham and Tamworth which were being used to house asylum seekers, while blocking exits to prevent the occupants from trying to escape the burning building.
While chanting “get them out,” and “we want our country back,” rioters attacked police officers attempting to form a cordon around the building.
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At least 10 police officers were injured, one of whom was knocked unconscious.
In Middlesbrough, mobs attacked the homes of immigrants while chanting "Smash the p***s", using an offensive racist slur, they also blocked a busy intersection, stopping traffic and checking whether the vehicles contained white English people.
In a televised address on Sunday, Starmer pulled himself away from his holidays, and flanked by a pair of the same flags being brandished by the rioters, announced: "I won’t shy away from calling it what it is, far right thuggery," as he shied away from calling it what it is. English nationalist racist Islamophobia.
Starmer vowed that those participating in the violence, including those “whipping up this action online”, would “regret” it.
The riots came after far-right figures including so-called “Tommy Robinson” (below), whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, whipped up racist and anti-immigrant sentiment online following the horrifying murders of three young girls in Southport on Monday.
The alleged murderer was born in Cardiff and comes from a Christian background but the likes of Yaxley-Lennon and far-right attention seeker Laurence Fox shared a Muslim sounding name on social media, falsely asserting this was the name of the alleged attacker.
Neither Yaxley-Lennon nor Fox had much to say a couple of weeks previously when a white English former soldier murdered three women in the town of Bushey.
Yaxley-Lennon is so much of an English patriot that he lives in Spain on an Irish passport, he fled the country last week following the riots he allegedly instigated in London when it became clear he was about to be arrested for contempt of court.
He is currently hiding out in a luxury resort in Cyprus from where he is bleating that it's not safe for him and his family to walk the streets of England. Someone call Alanis Morrissette and tell her we've got her a new verse for her "isn't it ironic" song.
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In his address, Starmer said: “Be in no doubt, those that have participated in this violence will face the full force of the law.
“The police will be making arrests. Individuals will be held on remand, charges will follow and convictions will follow.
“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves," an apparent reference to Yaxley-Lennon.
Many in Scotland are growing increasingly frustrated with the media framing of these racist riots as “British”.
There have so far been no reports of any riots in Scotland or Wales, yet violence predominantly in England with a smaller isolated outbreak in Northern Ireland is routinely being described by the media as British.
The same thing happened in the summer of 2011 when riots broke out across England, that time the rioters largely came from socially deprived minority ethnic communities in English cities.
These riots were sparked off by the police shooting and killing of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old man of mixed Irish and African-Caribbean descent from the troubled Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham in North London.
Then as now, there were no outbreaks of violence in Scotland, but the media portrayed the unrest as a 'British' issue, not as an English one.
Nigel Farage (below), who at the time was a Ukip MEP and well on the way to becoming a regular fixture on the BBC, appeared on the BBC in order to demand that the army be brought in to deal with the rioters. Now he's calling for "a more honest debate" about the "deeper long-term problems" which have led to the riots.
One of those "deeper long-term problems" is the normalisation by the BBC and the British media of the talking points and tropes of the hard right, all too often personified in the gurning figure of one Farage, who has done very well for himself out of demonising migrants and asylum seekers.
Both Labour and the Conservatives fought an election campaign in which they vied with one another over who could be tougher on immigration, and now we have anti-immigration riots breaking out across England. It's hardly surprising.
Much of the blame for the violence lies with the Conservative Party and the right-wing press for stoking up hatred and fear of migrants, but the Labour Party bears its share of responsibility for pandering to and enabling those right-wing racist scare tactics instead of countering and challenging them.
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf hits back during BBC interview on far-right riots
This wave of violence will die down, but the hate and misinformation currently sweeping across England ultimately derives from a very well funded right-wing media ecosystem which has been created by billionaires seeking to get people to blame immigrants and asylum seekers for the breakdown in public services rather than the ultra-rich who use every available loophole to evade paying their proper share of taxes.
The British media and political parties need to take a long hard look at themselves and their role in normalising the tropes and talking points of the far right and bringing them into the mainstream.
This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
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