The Great Riots in the UK: Vicious incidents are easy to deal with, but social divisions are difficult to resolve
2024-08-10
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Dong Yifan, Associate Researcher, Institute of European Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations
On July 29, local time, three girls were killed in the town of Southport, England, triggering the worst riots in the country in 13 years, affecting many cities including London, Liverpool, Hartlepool, Bristol, Belfast, etc. Not only did street violence, "zero-dollar shopping", attacks on mosques and ethnic minorities occur, but even Downing Street was attacked by Molotov cocktails. British Prime Minister Starmer condemned the "extreme right atrocities" that occurred in various places, and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned the riots as "shocking" and called for a criminal investigation.
The current round of riots in the UK is a catastrophic event caused by social division and discontent ignited by false information. After the girl was killed, the British far-right organization "England Defenders League" and others immediately released a lot of false information on social media, fabricating that the murderer was a "Muslim immigrant" and taking the opportunity to incite anti-immigrant and even racist sentiments among the people. This incitement immediately worked and triggered a wave of riots, which was a concentrated outbreak of the impact of immigration issues on the British social psychology.
For a long time, British society, especially the middle and lower classes, have been dissatisfied with refugee immigrants who are very different in race, skin color and religion. They believe that they have an impact on British employment, welfare, community structure and even social security. This sentiment has also been amplified and exaggerated by some right-wing politicians, and has become an important driving factor in the 2016 British referendum to leave the European Union. In recent years, the United Kingdom has also become one of the important destinations for refugees around Europe. The number of refugees smuggled across the English Channel has repeatedly set new records. Their resettlement, review, and repatriation have brought greater financial pressure and more social resource burdens to the United Kingdom. The issue of refugee immigration has become a politicized agenda after the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, especially in recent years. During the Conservative Party's rule, the extremists within the party competed to propose tougher and more controversial refugee immigration policies. In particular, the "Rwanda Plan" that the Conservative Party insisted on promoting was the result of the ruling faction within the party catering to and even indulging in extreme ideas.
In this context, as the economy and cost of living in the UK have continued to deteriorate due to geopolitical crises, energy crises and other factors in recent years, the dissatisfaction of British society and even the mentality of resorting to violence are constantly increasing, which is also reflected in the increasing hostility towards refugees and immigrants. The problem of refugees and immigrants is linked and integrated with religious and cultural conflicts, class confrontation and other issues, which continuously exacerbates the contradictions and conflicts between ethnic groups, classes and even regions, causing serious impacts on social security and even the overall environment. At the same time, some far-right politicians continue to "find hot spots" and "take advantage of traffic" to attract attention for their own political interests. Farage, leader of the British Reform Party, is one of the politicians who has worked hardest to incite public sentiment in this round of riots. It also reflects that after the end of Brexit, the British far-right and even populist forces continue to find discourse and position by amplifying social contradictions and confrontations, which has led to continued unrest in British society.
For the Labour Party, which had just started its road to power, the riots ended its honeymoon period in less than a month. It had to deal with the riots while also dealing with the mess of the Conservative Party's rule. After the UK fell into a growth trough of 0.1% in 2023, the International Monetary Fund had predicted that the UK economy would only grow by 0.7% in 2024. For the Labour Party's ambition to revive health care, infrastructure, education, and green industries by expanding government spending, the sluggish tax base caused by its weak growth directly left the government with no money to promote its policy vision. The Prime Minister's Office's statement that "Britain is bankrupt" and "a huge hole of 20 billion" also proved that the problem was huge. Today, the riots have forced the Labour government to play the role of a firefighter. At the same time, the intensification and deterioration of the political and social environment in the UK is also consuming the international community's confidence in its investment and business environment. Nigeria, Malaysia, and Indonesia have warned their citizens to stay away from demonstrations in the UK and remain vigilant.
At present, the British government has placed the response to riots and the stabilization of domestic security as the top priority. On August 5, the British government held an emergency meeting and announced the establishment of a "standing army" composed of professional police officers to strengthen police force, while strengthening criminal justice accountability for perpetrators and increasing a series of tough measures such as identification and arrest of perpetrators. Perhaps the British government's emergency security measures can gradually quell the vicious incidents, but the social divisions caused by violent conflicts are difficult to effectively heal.
Editor: Tang Hua, Jiang Xinyu, Zhang Yanling
