Knowsley, Violence, and Excuses

The increasingly worrying behaviour of The Fash, the shameless opportunism of their fellow travellers, and the inability of more of what Robin Day rightly and memorably called “here today and gone tomorrow politicians” to own the environment of hatred and prejudice to which they have consistently contributed, reached its inevitable denouement in the Merseyside suburb of Kirkby last Friday. None of those people escaped criticism. None should.

What happened can be put directly: a video was circulated showing what was claimed to be an asylum seeker resident at the Suites Hotel asking a 15-year-old girl for her phone number. There was a demonstration hostile to asylum seekers; a counter demonstration supported them. Then, very suddenly, that protest turned violent. A Police van was torched. There were injuries.

Following up with suitably shameless speed were the likes of Battersea bedroom dweller Paul Watson, accompanied by Mark Collett, so Fash he gives the Fash a bad name, or an even worse name. A refugee had tried to nonce One Of Our Girls! That’s what THEY were like. It was THEIR FAULT. And then this carefully crafted set-up began to unravel.

The BBC report tells: “Police confirmed they had been investigating reports that ‘a man made inappropriate advances toward a teenage girl’ in Kirkby on Monday” before adding “No victim had been initially identified and a man in his 20s was arrested on Thursday in another part of the country on suspicion of a public order offence, Chief Constable Kennedy said”. Do go on.

“He was released with no further action following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)”. Anyone see the dead giveaway? Let’s have that one more time: “was arrested … in another part of the country”. So whoever it was, was almost certainly not one of those refugees inside the Suites Hotel. It gets worse: one opposed to refugees suggested the violence was organised.

“Alan Marsden, who lives locally, said he attended the protest after seeing the allegations ‘on TikTok and online’ but left when it became clear it was no longer peaceful … The 59-year-old said: ‘It was bad. Kids with masks and balaclavas on turned up. There were 300 or 400 people here … It was mostly women and children until all the hooligans turned up.’"

So what we appear to have here is either a most fortuitous reason for locals to protest against asylum seekers being housed in a local hotel, or a set-up designed to give The Fash an excuse to kick off. The man alleged to have made the improper approach was not local, remember. Moving right along.

And moving thus, we come to the politicians caught with their hands awfully adjacent to the till, not least former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, who had previously peddled his “Breaking Point” poster, redolent of Nazi-era dog whistles, and who had just demonised those Scary Muslims™ on Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”).

“There is a jihadi gang in Dunkirk, who are trafficking people to the UK and who want nothing less than the destruction of the West”. Then came the violence in Kirkby. So did he stop and think? Did he buggery. He just doubled down: "Knowsley is a grim portend of what is to come”. You’ll have to excuse the spelling: the correct word is PORTENT. And it got worse.

Yes, it was the BBC’s fault. “The BBC were totally one-sided on their coverage of the disorder in Knowsley last night … The message is simple from the highly questionable Care 4 Calais group … If you object to single, undocumented men approaching underage girls - then you are ‘far right’”. We don’t know if the man was single or “undocumented”. NOR DOES FARAGE.

But he does know how to take one claimed incident and scale it up, while smearing those opposed to his view of the world. At least we could count on the Home Secretary to unequivocally condemn the violence. Couldn’t we? Er, not as such, not with Suella “Cultural Marxism” Braverman being the current holder of that office. Her response was straight out of the Trump playbook.

“I condemn the appalling disorder in Knowsley last night. The alleged behaviour of some asylum seekers is never an excuse for violence and intimidation. Thank you to [Merseyside Police] officers for keeping everyone safe”. This on top of telling the Commons of “the invasion on our southern coast”. There is no evidence to stand up that allegation. SO DON’T USE IT.

How far from “very fine people on both sides” and “Stand back and stand by” was Ms Braverman’s rhetoric? Not nearly far enough. And all the while, next to no mention of the almost continuous anti-refugee rhetoric emanating from the cheaper end of our Free and Fearless Press. All those bad faith actors telling people that refugees are our enemy - no surprise some believe them.

Once again the far right indulges in gratuitous violence and gets a free pass from irresponsible pundits and politicians. What happened in Kirkby was inexcusable FULL STOP, NO EXCUSES, NO DEFLECTION, NO GET-OUT CLAUSE, NO CONDITIONAL STATEMENT. Those who have whipped up the mob must now desist, dial down the rhetoric, and PUT A SOCK IN IT.

Meanwhile, call fascism for what it is. Root it out. Before it gets even worse.

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