UK: where is the far right's hatred coming from?

The violent riots are making a necessary debate more difficult, Berlingske laments:

“The violence that has ravaged England over the past week makes it harder to have a sensible and action-orientated discussion about immigration in the UK. Because anyone who criticises the country's immigration policy can now all too easily be linked to the violence, even if they have nothing to do with it. In other words, the violence has already tarnished the reputation of criticism of immigration in the UK, even criticism that is purely political in nature. And there is something to criticise.”

Columnist Andrius Užkalnis criticises England's contradictory attitude towards immigrants:

“The English live at the expense of immigrants, but don't want to see them. The country dismantled the world's largest empire seven decades ago but never solved the problems with people who came or were shipped in from all over the world, and now the ugly wounds have opened up. The lazy inhabitants of old England wanted foreigners to work for them (including many Lithuanians and other Eastern Europeans who started arriving there en masse in 2004). At the same time, however, they wanted these foreigners to remain invisible.”

Kurier frets:

“The US learned that violent right-wing extremists can pose a real threat to democracy when they stormed the Capitol three years ago. This danger is no longer confined to football hooliganism or right-wing fantasists. Societies where social isolation affects not only migrants but also the local youth provide a fertile breeding ground for racist hate speech. This represents a serious danger, and not just for Britain's oh-so-solid democracy”

De Volkskrant columnist Hassan Bahara praises the crackdown announced by the new British government:

“Rather than frantically searching for 'underlying discontent' among far-right rioters, the new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is taking decisive action and using clear language. ... Starmer even gave right-wing extremist fanboy Elon Musk a slap on the wrist for his rant on X. ... Good to see that Britain finally has a leader who doesn't immediately capitulate to the self-proclaimed 'true' people.”

Fake news posted on social networks is stoking violence among the far right, Público comments:

“Another weekend of far-right violence in the UK, another week in which the bonfire of lies has set the streets and networks ablaze, spreading dissent and the message of cruelty and selfishness that is the far right's moral core. ... It's no coincidence that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called on social networks to take responsibility. ... By disengaging from news and the search for truth that is at the heart of journalism, today's reading public is leaving the field to populists whose lies are fueling violence on the streets of Britain.”

The rioters have high-profile supporters on the far right, The Sunday Times explains:

“The far-right movement has metastasised online. A false claim on a news website that the Southport stabber was an asylum seeker on a security watchlist was shared by Andrew Tate, the misogynist influencer, and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the former English Defence League [a right-wing extremist and Islamophobic party] leader. ... The speed with which misinformation can circulate and groups form on social media and WhatsApp poses evolving challenges for policing. Another is the fact that some mainstream politicians on the right have given succour to the grievances now being aired in bloody style.”

This kind of mob can grow rapidly, warns In:

“Initially, the far right receives support from all those parties that are supposedly on the constitutional side of the spectrum but which adopt the far right's agenda and rhetoric, racism and anti-immigration policies. ... Then it is backed by those governments who believe that the answer to the rise of the far right is to put its policies into practice by normalising hate speech, thereby giving them more legitimacy. And, of course, they are supported by all those media outlets that are quick to reproduce nationalism, racism and xenophobia because they believe it 'sells well'.”

Right-wing extremists are exploiting the frustration in the country, complains De Standaard:

“Since Brexit, illegal migration across the Channel has increased, partly because the British can no longer send migrants back to France. On the other hand, legal migration from Europe has ceased, leading to labour shortages in the construction, healthcare, agriculture and hospitality sectors. The far right is exploiting the Southport tragedy to unleash all the pent-up violence among the frustrated. The fact that some British Reform UK politicians, including Farage, fuelled this hatred by confirming misinformation about the perpetrator makes them complicit in the wave of violence.”

Labour must now take decisive action against the right, says The Observer:

“Starmer struck exactly the right tone in labelling the week's events as an assault on the rule of law, and announcing an initiative to coordinate intelligence and action between police forces across the country. The government must also ensure that social media companies fulfil their legal obligations to prevent the spread of misinformation and further incitements to violence. And given the clear anti-Muslim hatred evident in the violence, the police must be properly resourced to provide mosques with the security they need.”

According to Cumhuriyet, to prevent a fascist movement from turning into a broad-based political party it is crucial to create

“a strong, active movement against Islamophobia and adopt a multi-layered approach against racism. The fact that anti-fascist forces have taken to the streets against the fascists is promising. ... Social democratic governments have long believed that they could stop this form of fascism by sending in the security forces. However, given the institutionalised racism and sexism among police and the ease with which the fascist movement can infiltrate the police force, this is an illusion.”