Sunderland: Britain’s Streets Echo with Anger: A Nation Divided

This is England: Overturned car set alight and beer barrels and stones thrown at police amid face-off with hundreds of demonstrators

Clashes between police and rioters led to three injured officers being taken to hospital, though one had since been discharged, Northumbria Police said.

Beer cans and stones were thrown at police in riot gear outside a mosque, and there were other clashes between officers and demonstrators around the city.

Eight people have been arrested for a range of offences, including violent disorder and burglary.

Northumbria Police Ch Supt Helena Barron said officers had been met with “serious and sustained” levels of violence, which was “utterly deplorable”.

She said a full investigation was underway to identify those responsible for any criminal behaviour linked to the protests.

Oh, what a sorry spectacle we find ourselves witnessing. The streets of our green and pleasant land now reverberate not with the cheerful bustle of daily life, but with the angry howls of a populace pushed to the brink. It seems we’ve traded our stiff upper lips for snarling mouths, our sense of fair play for a thirst for vengeance.

The tragic murders of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, Bebe King, and Elsie Dot Stancombe in Southport have cast a pall over our nation that even our famously gloomy weather can’t match. But rather than unite us in grief, this horror has become the spark that ignites long-simmering tensions. How quickly we’ve gone from “Keep Calm and Carry On” to “Pick a Side and Shout it Loudly.”

The Stages of Societal Grief: Britain’s Dangerous Dance with Authoritarianism

As we stand amidst the chaos engulfing our nation, it’s crucial to understand that what we’re witnessing is not merely civil unrest, but a macabre dance, one that sees groups and agenders exploiting this tragedy claiming it as their own as we all enter stages of societal grief. The tragic murders of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, Bebe King, and Elsie Dot Stancombe have plunged us into a collective mourning that follows an eerily familiar pattern – one that threatens to reshape the very fabric of our society.

Let us consider the five stages of this societal grief:

1. Collective Denial: An initial refusal to accept the tragic reality of the event, with society clinging to a sense of disbelief.
2. Mass Anger: As denial fades, widespread frustration emerges, leading to anger directed at specific groups or society as a whole.
3. Political Bargaining: A stage where attempts are made to resolve the crisis through changes in behaviour or policy, often involving negotiations or concessions.
4. National Depression: A period of collective grief, where society begins to confront the harsh reality of the loss and its impact.
5. Societal Adaptation: The final stage, where the nation must adapt to the new reality, including the acceptance of authoritarian laws aimed at preventing future unrest.

We’ve stumbled past the first stage of ‘Collective Denial’, where we collectively gasped, “Surely, this can’t be happening in our Britain.” Now, we find ourselves firmly entrenched in the second stage: Mass Anger. Our streets echo with the roars of the enraged, the air thick with the acrid smell of burning police stations and the bitter tang of tear gas. It’s as if we’ve traded our reputation for polite queuing for a penchant for petrol bombs.

As if this weren’t enough, we’ve been treated to a grotesque sideshow: a masked attacker on a motorcycle stabbing a British army officer in broad daylight. It’s as if we’re living in a particularly grim episode of Black Mirror, isn’t it? But fear not, citizens! The police assure us it’s not an act of terror, just potentially related to the attacker’s mental health. Well, that’s a relief, isn’t it? I’m sure that distinction will be a great comfort to the officer currently enjoying the culinary delights of hospital food.

And then, as predictable as rain at a British picnic, came the riots. We all saw it coming, didn’t we? Like vultures circling a carcass, various groups swooped in to exploit the tragedy, each with their own agenda. Far-right agitators, anarchist provocateurs, and opportunistic looters – all united in their desire to pour petrol on the flames of our national bonfire.

The country seethes with anger – some of it justifiable, much of it misdirected. It manifests on our streets in ugly displays of tribalism, with anyone who doesn’t fit a particular mould becoming a target. We’ve become a nation of amateur phrenologists, judging threat levels based on skin colour and religious attire. It’s as if we’ve collectively decided to regress to a more primitive state, where reason is discarded in favour of raw, unthinking emotion.

Political Bargaining

But it’s the looming third stage – Political Bargaining – that should send a chill down our spines. For in our case, it’s not the grieving masses doing the bargaining, but our political leaders. In this time of crisis. They’re doing what they do best: exploiting tragedy for their own ends. Prime Minister Starmer, that paragon of Labour values, has decided that the best response to civil unrest is to create a new “national capability” to tackle violent disorder. Because nothing says “workers’ rights” quite like a shiny new tool for state oppression, does it?

As Starmer stands at his dispatch box, promising a new “national capability” to tackle violent disorder, one can almost hear the ghost of Orwell whispering, “I told you so.” It seems our Labour leader has discovered a curious form of socialism – one that involves trading civil liberties for the illusion of security. How very… conservative of him.

But let’s not forget the real villains in all this: those dastardly social media companies! Yes, according to our esteemed PM, it’s their fault for not clamping down on misinformation. Never mind that his government’s policies might have contributed to the underlying social tensions. No, no, it’s much easier to blame Mark Zuckerberg for the ills of British society. Perhaps we should rename the Home Office to the Ministry of Truth and be done with it.

The irony, of course, is that while Starmer postures and preens about clamping down on social media misinformation, he’s busy peddling his own brand of comforting lies. The notion that we can legislate away social unrest, that we can solve deep-seated societal issues with a bit of authoritarian flexing, is perhaps the most dangerous misinformation of all.

Meanwhile, as the far-right whips up a frenzy and Muslims stand guard at their mosques, our government’s response is to… light up 10 Downing Street in pink. How touching. Nothing says “we understand your pain” quite like turning the seat of government into a giant Battenberg cake. One wonders if they considered projecting a giant sad emoji onto Big Ben for good measure.

Let’s be honest, shall we? Since the financial crash of 2007, we’ve been living in a perpetual state of unease. Our lives have become a relentless parade of austerity cuts, economic gloom, wars, and disease. It’s as if we’re characters in some apocalyptic novel, each day bringing a fresh weight of despair. The news has become less of an information service and more of an exercise in masochism. One almost expects to see Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death riding down Oxford Street on their next shopping trip.

While we careen through the stages of societal grief, you just can’t help but wonder what’s next. Perhaps we’ll skip Political Bargaining altogether, you know they want us to go straight to our particularly British form of depression – the one that involves excessive tea consumption and passive-aggressive tutting, that’ll change things, as if it ever did…

Yet, as we teeter on the brink of this Orwellian bargain, we must remember that the social issues that have led us to this point won’t vanish with the clean-up after the riots. They’ll still be there, festering beneath the surface, while our hard-won freedoms may not be.

But take heart, dear readers. For in these dark times, we can always count on our religious leaders to provide a beacon of hope. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian leaders have come together to call for unity and rejection of hatred. It’s heartwarming, really, in a sort of “Kumbaya” meets “The Blitz” kind of way.

Nothing brings people together quite like the shared experience of being blamed for society’s ills by angry mobs. One almost expects to see the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi, and the head of the Muslim Council of Britain linking arms and singing “We Shall Overcome” outside Parliament. But then again maybe we could all do with a little Christian charity.

So here we stand, a nation at a crossroads. Will we choose the path of healing, of addressing the root causes of our societal ills? Or will we continue down this road of division, hatred, and increasingly ridiculous government initiatives?

It is a bitter irony that those who claim to act in the name of Alice, Bebe, and Elsie have only succeeded in compounding the tragedy. Their actions have not only dishonoured the memory of these innocent children but have also placed an unbearable burden on a community already struggling under the weight of unimaginable loss.

In these dark times, we must resist the siren call of simplistic narratives and easy answers. The path forward lies not in riots or recriminations, not in the erosion of civil liberties or the expansion of state power, but in a clear-eyed examination of our society and a commitment to addressing the root causes of violence. Anything less is a betrayal of Alice, Bebe, and Elsie, and all the innocent lives cut tragically short.

So, dear readers, as we watch our political leaders attempt to bargain away our freedoms, remember this: the true measure of a society is not how it behaves in times of peace and prosperity, but how it responds to tragedy and upheaval. Will we allow fear and anger to drive us into the arms of authoritarianism? Or will we have the courage to face our problems head-on, preserving the very liberties that make our society worth defending?

The choice, as always, is ours. But let us make it wisely, lest we find ourselves in a Britain where the cure proves far worse than the disease. After all, what good is order if it comes at the cost of all that makes life worth living?

One thing’s for certain: the coming weeks and months will be crucial in determining whether Britain can emerge from this crucible stronger, or whether we’ll simply add this to the long list of things we don’t talk about in polite company, along with politics, religion, and what exactly goes into a proper English breakfast.

In the meantime, I suggest we all stock up on tea and biscuits. If nothing else, they’ll provide comfort as we watch this tragicomedy unfold. And who knows? Perhaps by the time we reach the bottom of the biscuit tin, we’ll have remembered how to be a civilized society again. One can only hope. If not, at least we’ll be well-prepared for the next round of societal upheaval. After all, there’s no crisis a good cuppa can’t at least momentarily soothe. It’s going to be a very warm summer…

Paul Knaggs

Editor, founder, Labour Heartlands, Citizen journalist. LeFT wing political refugee. Fighting a constant struggle with dyslexia that’s overcome with a burning desire to speak out against the corrupt political system and the social injustices it creates. Advocate for Free speech and open, accountable, democracy. #GTTO