Nice one as ever Nick, but a couple of points to make from my area of work (road danger).
Firstly: It has always been the case that the right would be soft on drivers endangering, wounding or killing other road users - and the "left" wasn't much better.
Secondly, this has been evident in attitudes towards Roads Policing (now nearly absent after May's cuts). Police officers in the hazardous conditions of their work don't get support and are accused of not doing "real policing" - despite the highway environment being where members of the public are most likely to suffer death or injury from illegal behaviour. This can then extend to general criticism of police officers retiring early for health reasons like PTSD etc. I think it's been going for quite some time and isn't that recent - although I agree it may have become worse.
Definitely Lucy Connelly deserves a punishment. She clearly incited violence. And the so called ‘Free Speech Union’ led by total prick Toby Young have revealed their true colours backing her.
However, I would say that for someone with no previous convictions (true?) the sentence was too harsh. She plead guilty. People may write stupid and illegal things in the heat of the moment. Wouldn’t a fine and their name in the paper be sufficient punishment?
Sadly, I suspect you've just neatly expressed one of the reasons why America is in such a bad state and, ironically, spiralling down into authoritarianism.
What is delaying the assessment of the immigrants who are housed in hotels? We know that 90% of them gain the right to asylum when they are assessed so why the delay. I accept that the Tory government deliberately failed to assess them for political reasons but Starmer has been in power for a year now and should have assessed most of the immigrants. I accept that there will be criminals amongst them, and people, men, whose cultural backgrounds encourage them to think that unaccompanied females are fair game, but we should be able to identify these people and deport them to their country of origin (or lock them up until they realise they will not be released until they identify their country of origin (the Australian government did this very successfully with illegals from Indonesia)). Those with family members already established (legally)in Britain should be released into their family groups as a matter of urgency. There is nothing we can do about Farage and the right wing except deprive them of the opportunity to make any situation worse. Censorship of Social Media is the ultimate solution but is fraught with possibilities that it will be badly used in future.
The trail of deceptions and economic incompetence will continue to surface for ever. The release of the files on Afghan involvement in British army operations is disgraceful and would shame them, if they had any shame.
It is surely an indication of how dire things have become that it is only (part of) the left that is standing up for law and order. Maybe the left also has to re-think immigration. We might know that the problems of the housing, health and education systems are about taxes and not about migrants. And we might know that in the long run the British economy desperately needs migrants. And we also know that 'asylum' is a defunct and mangled term: much 'asylum seeking' is economic migration, simply because it is the only (potentially) legal route, and that makes people smuggling so profitable. It is difficult to imagine a worse way of managing migration. Politically, it is easy for every racist bigot to attack the current system and sound 'reasonable'. In such a climate, isn't patting ourselves on the back for our continued (mostly theoretical) commitment to liberal principles and cosmopolitan humanism exactly the response the fascisphere wants. Its easy for Farage and co to argue 'They don't care about YOU' (as if they ever did). So what would be a humane immigration policy that would work in practice, be sellable to reasonable people and cut off the oxygen supply to the racists bigots and fascists?
I grew up in Epping and can confirm that 70% of the people there are highly racist. I counted the days until I could go to university and leave the place.
The right has always abandoned law and order when it feels under threat, and it rarely applies law and order to itself. There are more example in history than we have time to read, but here are three : Poland under PiS (political capture of the law courts, politicised police); Pinochet's Chile (both of those plus a reign of terror through disappearances and illegal places of torture); Adolf Hitler's Germany (all of that, plus Kristallnacht, concentration camps, murder of opponents and even of allies. Pre-1939 - I won't even start on the war years). I think many are surprised it should happen in the UK, but less so if you've been paying attention to the past decade (which I know you have). The fact that media influencers, and even supposedly respectable writers like Alison Pearson are egging on the mob is scary, and I hope the police will be able to do their job anyway.
Congrats on another excellent article full of pertinent foreboding. However, I don't agree that Neil Basu, in his interview in the Guardian (linked) argues that "The men who slaughtered innocent civilians weren’t answerable for their actions". The former counter-terror head of the Met said police could prepare for more domestic terrorism activity in UK when people were upset about things that happened abroad. That is true (an irrelevant example is the urban legend that maternity wards plan for more babies 9 months after extended power cuts) without any inference that the people who choose to take action are not responsible for what they do. I agree that many other people have argued as you suggest about the responsibility of people who committed various crimes.
Maybe we ought to re-visit John Calhoun's 1968 experiment with mice (Universe 25) and re-assess its conclusions vis a vis today's world of eight and a quarter billion people (projected to be 10.1 billion by 2100. In 1950 it was two and a half billion, by comparison). It could explain a lot.
Very astutely written essay Nick. Describes the increasingly hatemongering racism of the right - Badenoch & NF are almost indistinguishable bedfellows
Important comparison, elegantly expressed. Just when you think all hope is lost along comes Nick to confirm it.
In Epping, as in Southport, there was of course previously no violent crime...nonsense of course
Hadush Kebatu sounds rather like Donald Trump. But Trump seems pretty popular with the kind of people that you are focusing on here.
Nice one as ever Nick, but a couple of points to make from my area of work (road danger).
Firstly: It has always been the case that the right would be soft on drivers endangering, wounding or killing other road users - and the "left" wasn't much better.
Secondly, this has been evident in attitudes towards Roads Policing (now nearly absent after May's cuts). Police officers in the hazardous conditions of their work don't get support and are accused of not doing "real policing" - despite the highway environment being where members of the public are most likely to suffer death or injury from illegal behaviour. This can then extend to general criticism of police officers retiring early for health reasons like PTSD etc. I think it's been going for quite some time and isn't that recent - although I agree it may have become worse.
That is a very good point. Same also applies to tax avoidance of course!
Largely agree, but wasn’t the Lucy Connelly thing outrageous on free-speech grounds? A terrible thing to say, to be sure, but criminal?
Maybe I’ve just lived in the US too long.
Not really David John Stuart Mill and all other liberal defenders of free speech have always drawn the line at incitement to violence
Definitely Lucy Connelly deserves a punishment. She clearly incited violence. And the so called ‘Free Speech Union’ led by total prick Toby Young have revealed their true colours backing her.
However, I would say that for someone with no previous convictions (true?) the sentence was too harsh. She plead guilty. People may write stupid and illegal things in the heat of the moment. Wouldn’t a fine and their name in the paper be sufficient punishment?
Sadly, I suspect you've just neatly expressed one of the reasons why America is in such a bad state and, ironically, spiralling down into authoritarianism.
What is delaying the assessment of the immigrants who are housed in hotels? We know that 90% of them gain the right to asylum when they are assessed so why the delay. I accept that the Tory government deliberately failed to assess them for political reasons but Starmer has been in power for a year now and should have assessed most of the immigrants. I accept that there will be criminals amongst them, and people, men, whose cultural backgrounds encourage them to think that unaccompanied females are fair game, but we should be able to identify these people and deport them to their country of origin (or lock them up until they realise they will not be released until they identify their country of origin (the Australian government did this very successfully with illegals from Indonesia)). Those with family members already established (legally)in Britain should be released into their family groups as a matter of urgency. There is nothing we can do about Farage and the right wing except deprive them of the opportunity to make any situation worse. Censorship of Social Media is the ultimate solution but is fraught with possibilities that it will be badly used in future.
Very good piece Nick. If I could double my subscription I certainly would.
Well there is something a "founding subscription". Just saying!
I'll look into it!
Numbers. Also under the last government the civil service was diverted to work on Rwanda rather than applications
The trail of deceptions and economic incompetence will continue to surface for ever. The release of the files on Afghan involvement in British army operations is disgraceful and would shame them, if they had any shame.
It is surely an indication of how dire things have become that it is only (part of) the left that is standing up for law and order. Maybe the left also has to re-think immigration. We might know that the problems of the housing, health and education systems are about taxes and not about migrants. And we might know that in the long run the British economy desperately needs migrants. And we also know that 'asylum' is a defunct and mangled term: much 'asylum seeking' is economic migration, simply because it is the only (potentially) legal route, and that makes people smuggling so profitable. It is difficult to imagine a worse way of managing migration. Politically, it is easy for every racist bigot to attack the current system and sound 'reasonable'. In such a climate, isn't patting ourselves on the back for our continued (mostly theoretical) commitment to liberal principles and cosmopolitan humanism exactly the response the fascisphere wants. Its easy for Farage and co to argue 'They don't care about YOU' (as if they ever did). So what would be a humane immigration policy that would work in practice, be sellable to reasonable people and cut off the oxygen supply to the racists bigots and fascists?
I grew up in Epping and can confirm that 70% of the people there are highly racist. I counted the days until I could go to university and leave the place.
What is an 'influencer'?
LOL. If only we could all say that. The world would be a far better place if that were so.
The right has always abandoned law and order when it feels under threat, and it rarely applies law and order to itself. There are more example in history than we have time to read, but here are three : Poland under PiS (political capture of the law courts, politicised police); Pinochet's Chile (both of those plus a reign of terror through disappearances and illegal places of torture); Adolf Hitler's Germany (all of that, plus Kristallnacht, concentration camps, murder of opponents and even of allies. Pre-1939 - I won't even start on the war years). I think many are surprised it should happen in the UK, but less so if you've been paying attention to the past decade (which I know you have). The fact that media influencers, and even supposedly respectable writers like Alison Pearson are egging on the mob is scary, and I hope the police will be able to do their job anyway.
Congrats on another excellent article full of pertinent foreboding. However, I don't agree that Neil Basu, in his interview in the Guardian (linked) argues that "The men who slaughtered innocent civilians weren’t answerable for their actions". The former counter-terror head of the Met said police could prepare for more domestic terrorism activity in UK when people were upset about things that happened abroad. That is true (an irrelevant example is the urban legend that maternity wards plan for more babies 9 months after extended power cuts) without any inference that the people who choose to take action are not responsible for what they do. I agree that many other people have argued as you suggest about the responsibility of people who committed various crimes.
So perceptive. Many thanks
Thank you Jean!
Maybe we ought to re-visit John Calhoun's 1968 experiment with mice (Universe 25) and re-assess its conclusions vis a vis today's world of eight and a quarter billion people (projected to be 10.1 billion by 2100. In 1950 it was two and a half billion, by comparison). It could explain a lot.