Is the UK descending into mob-rule and thuggery? Did we just have a Krystallnacht moment? We like to portray ourselves as a caring, generous, and willing to extend help towards anyone in need of it kind of nation, irrespective of colour or creed, but how much of this is really true?
Our politicians proclaim “We stand shoulder to shoulder with the Ukrainian people against a brutal, murderous Russian regime”, but how many of us resent the amount of money and arms we have sent so far? Shouldn’t we be spending money on protecting our own boarders, not just from scheming Russians that seek to invade us using electronic warfare, digital propaganda, and fake news, but from asylum seekers who turn up on our shores, don’t use the proper channels, but can pay people smugglers thousands of pounds to enter the UK illegally?
Why do we give so much money in foreign aid to countries that don’t even need it, whilst many in our own communities go without?
If we are completely honest with ourselves, many of us have been, at least in part, seduced by these kind of arguments. Believing that others, outsiders usually, are somehow benefiting from a perceived resource that rightfully belongs to us. The taking as gospel disinformation of dubious origins to be truths, resulting inevitably in violence. Violence against asylum seekers who are asking for our help, violence against police officers who have sworn to serve and protect, and ultimately violence against anyone who happens to be of a different opinion, colour, or belief.
No doubt as a result of the riots the government will begin to re-think its policy on how and where we process asylum seekers. Which may in turn lead to a swift reduction in the backlog of those living in hotel rooms waiting for appeals, and the arrest and removal of those who have absconded into local communities.
But doesn’t this raise other glaringly obvious questions such as: should people who are themselves in receipt of tax payers generosity be violently protesting about others who are given the same help? The two are not mutually exclusive indeed events of the past few weeks may well trigger reform to a welfare system so desperately in need of it.
Reform may include: penalties for work-lessness amongst the long term unemployed and sanction’s on those in receipt of sickness benefits but are deemed able to work.
Immigration solves the problem of skills and labour shortages and our economy can only benefit from it. Of course checks and balances should always be maintained. People who enter the country illegally should be treated courteously but swiftly removed. The taking of photographs and fingerprints, though controversial, could be used to bar illegal entrants and prevent them from re-entering the country legally or otherwise for a set period of time.
In retrospect the events of the last few weeks didn’t quite reach krystallnacht proportions, but it would be foolish to not recognise how close it came.
The kind of multi-cultural society that exists in the UK, although fragile at times, can be and should be held up as an example to other modern democracies. Mob-rule should never dictate the kind of help and support we extend to others.
A Black Perspective 