So much for Britain sliding into civil war, eh, Mr Musk ? Pretty much a whole nation was braced yesterday evening for the worst civil disorder in a decade or more. Fair to say, too, that some were also hoping, for their own malign reasons, for chaos, mayhem, and even death.
The rumours were of 100 far-right protests and about 30 counterdemonstrations , the hard-pressed police sandwiched in between, and with the inevitable violence and heartache to follow, as before. We expected towns and cities trashed, and their reputations with it, community relations destroyed, Muslims cowering in fear and baying mobs picking on anyone of colour for a beating. Mob rule.
But it did not turn out like that, or anything like it. In fact, it was a rout for the far right in the best possible way – a peaceful one where they were overwhelmed by folk who despise what they stand for, as much as their incoherent claims make any sense at all. The turnout of anti-fascist citizens, many people who’d ordinarily go nowhere near a political demo and actually regard themselves as simply decent people who are appalled by Islamophobia and other racism, was really a historic moment.
Britain really is not what we saw over the last week, and the reasonable, tolerant, democratically-minded centre held . The rule of law was upheld. Muslim communities under siege and trying to defend their homes and mosques did not give the propagandists of the far right what they wanted. They abided by the requests of wise community leaders – “don’t give them TikToks”, and other video clips out of context to be used for propaganda, that seek to prove a false equivalence between racist attackers and law-abiding people whose skin colour and faith happens to be different.
It was, if it is not too fanciful, one of the nation’s finest hours . It was a moment when England and Northern Ireland, the two parts of the kingdom most violently assaulted, instead joined trouble-free Scotland and Wales, and there the night was passed without serious harm to anyone.
The fascists were, frankly, humiliated , often a handful marooned in a windswept roundabout or in a corner of a High Street, protected by our brave coppers, surrounded by their fellow Britons demonstrating that “we are many, you are few”. Indeed they are, and a criminal few as well. The Metropolitan Police commissioner Mark Rowley says that 70 per cent of those arrested have criminal records.
In his words: “They are not your average man on the street. They are thugs and criminals , they are not patriots or protesters and they are being held to account.”
It was a bad night for the likes of Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk , as well as anybody else seeking to find proof that Britain’s multicultural society is about to disintegrate in interracial conflict. It didn’t. We don’t want conflict – we want to live in peace with our neighbours.
How did it happen? No doubt the severe penalties dished out for client disorder, arson and looting served as a deterrent for some. It was a weekday evening, which is not the rioters’ usual ideal time to cause havoc. But most of all it was because a vast sea of people sought to take back control of the streets, as the aerial footage from Walthamstow showed so graphically. The far right were crowded out by people who wanted to stop them causing trouble by occupying their meeting points. There was, literally, no room for racism.
The far right have emerged from these events weaker, not stronger , their cause exposed for the nihilism it is, and their leaders on the wrong side of public opinion and of history. We might even dare to hope that some of the demons unleashed in the 2016 Brexit referendum have been tamed, and some wounds now starting to heal.
At any rate, after what parts of the country have been through since the troubles began after evildoers tried to exploit the unbearable agony of those families in Southport, it was time to say: enough is enough.
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