This is what a lack of trust looks like...

The murder of three young girls and the injuries sustained by other girls and the mums who did their best to fend off a knife wielding attacker at a dance event in Southport on Monday 29^th July have left us in a state of shock: What’s happening in Southport? Everything we know about stabbing that killed three children - Independent | 31.7.24. We have two grandchildren. Our granddaughter attends a range of activities. No one expects their daughter or granddaughter to attend an event and end up being murdered by a knife attacker. No one expects their daughter or granddaughter to attend an event and witness unbelievably horrific scenes that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Our thoughts and sympathies go out to the young girls and mums who had to witness this horror, the relatives of those killed and injured, and the wider community of Southport.

I could have commented on this yesterday but, we were still trying to process the horror of what happened. Also, we're still trying to understand the motive of the perpetrator for planning and carrying out this sickening attack. All everyone knows so far is that we've been told the attacker was born in Wales to parents originally from Rwanda, and was living in a village close to Southport. As we've been told that the perpetrator is 17 years old, as he has not reached 18, the age of legal adulthood, his name cannot legally be released. This seeming lack of information about who the murderer is and his motives has prompted a massive amount of speculation, rumour and misinformation. When you have speculation, rumour and misinformation in a social and political climate where trust in politicians, the media and other institutions is eroding away faster than ever before, things are not going to end well.

After the community held a peaceful vigil on the evening of Tuesday 30^th July for the three murdered girls and those who injured, a number of self styled 'patriots' held a 'protest' outside a mosque in Southport. The justification for the protest was the widely held belief that the attacker was a Muslim, motivated by Islamic fundamentalist beliefs. Rwanda is a majority Christian country with only five percent of the population being Muslim so, the odds on the perpetrator being a Muslim are pretty slim to say the least. That didn't stop the mob of so called 'patriots' who parachuted into Southport on the evening of Tuesday 30^th July to hold a 'protest' outside the mosque. A protest which very swiftly turned into a riot: Southport stabbings: Mum of victim says 'stop the violence' as locals left to clean up after riots - Sky News | 31.7.24. No doubt the 'patriots' were emboldened by the rally Tommy Robinson held in London's Trafalgar Square on Saturday 27^th July, thinking that this gave them the legitimacy to turn up outside a mosque in Southport, despite their being no clear evidence the the perpetrator of the atrocity was actually a Muslim. It should be noted that Robinson has fled the country to avoid a court hearing: Tommy Robinson ‘flees UK’ hours before he was due in High Court - The Metro | 29.7.24.

As I've already mentioned, the level of trust in politicians, the media and other institutions is sinking to an all time low. When you take into account a Left that pretty much abandoned the working class a good few decades ago, it's easy to see why there is a collapse of trust alongside a feeling of abandonment in vast swathes of the working class. All of this has created a political and social vacuum. Vacuums don't stay empty for long - there will always be grifters and chancers seeking to seize on people's legitimate concerns and twist them to suit their own nefarious agenda. With the revival of Tommy Robinson's fortunes, the appearance of more grifters, chancers and shit stirrers such as Laurence Fox, Darren Grimes et al on the scene, there are plenty of people willing to exploit genuine and perceived concerns, stoking up a considerable amount of tension that is inevitably going to explode on the streets.

This is what I wrote in a post I published on the evening of Saturday 27^th July:

The elites must be loving this in the same way that any other form of of resistance to the system and the status quo has been neutralised by toxic divisions. They must also be loving the general raising of tensions which they hope at some point, will prompt people to start looking to authority to provide some stability. Grifters like Tommy Robinson who stoke up these tensions must be a god send to them. Trust me, the way things are going, those tensions are going to be playing out on the streets in a pretty nasty way, sooner rather than later.

What gets me is that people allow themselves to get riled up against another group without taking a few steps back from the fray to ask who is going to benefit from this ratcheting up of tension. Every time, seemingly without respite, the divide and rule merchants are allowed to do their work, pitting us against each other. What also gets me is the way people fall for false idols offering simplistic solutions to complex problems without asking some searching questions about their agenda.

Little did I know that after the sickening murder of three young girls on Monday 29^th July, those tensions would boil over on the streets of Southport on the evening of Tuesday 30^th July as so called 'patriots' parachuted into the town to exploit people's grief and anger for their own cynical ends. It gives me absolutely no joy whatsoever to be proved right in my predictions, trust me on that one. Having said that, I'm not in the least bit surprised about the current shitshow that's unfolding before our eyes.

With a working class that in many parts, feels that Brexit hasn't delivered for them, with real and perceived concerns about the impact of immigration being routinely dismissed, plus the level of mistrust that grew during the Covid 'crisis' as lockdowns were imposed and concerted attempts were made to impose vaccine mandates to name but a few issues, there's a palpable loss of faith in the system. As already mentioned, this creates a political vacuum which will be gleefully filled by actors with nefarious agendas. For those who presume to rule over us, while they make all the usual noises expressing shock about the riot in Southport on Tuesday, the conditions are ideal for their divide and rule tactics. While they pit us at each others throats with the inevitable tensions erupting on the streets, pay attention to the voices off to the side calling for various forms of intervention to bring some sense of stability back.

It's the age old story of problem, reaction, solution. One example of this being the real and perceived concerns about the impact of high levels of immigration creating tensions that play out in clashes on the streets. That's the problem and the reaction. The solutions range from calls for digital ID so that the state knows exactly who is in the country, through to more authoritarian policing and onto a demand to clamp down on free expression online in order to stem the spread of misinformation. All solutions that the powers that be want in order to implement their great 'reset'. These solutions are being called for by people across and beyond the political spectrum. As I write this piece, clashes are breaking out in London's Whitehall between protesters under the banner of 'Enough is Enough' and the cops: Southport latest: Flares thrown towards Downing Street gates as protesters clash with police after Southport riot - Sky News | 31.7.24. As these tensions rise and spill out onto the streets, those calls for 'solutions' will intensify. The problem is that people often can't see they're being played. This is something I wrote about towards the end of last year: 'Problem, reaction, solution' scenarios - don't get played! 25.11.23.

You can't help thinking that the powers that be are happy to let some of these issues get to a boiling point, albeit one that can be controlled and indeed, manipulated. Aided and abetted by divide and rule tactics that aim to get us at each others throats. One component of the arsenal cynically deployed by the divide and rule merchants are the 'culture wars' we're being continually subjected to. All of this in order to justify the 'solutions' outlined in part above that they wish to impose upon us. Solutions that will drastically restrict our freedoms while the bastards impose their great reset upon us. If we let them that is...

Most people want stability in their lives. That stability takes in secure employment, decent housing and living in a community where they feel safe. What they don't want is precarious employment, a struggle to get decent housing and having to live in a community where they don't feel safe. What they also don't want is rapid change that adversely affects their lives. Rapid and unpredictable change are now facts of life in our increasingly dysfunctional and dystopian society, as I argued in this piece I published last year: Reacting to change 12.8.23.

For people further down the food chain and less able to exert meaningful control over their lives, being on the receiving end of rapid and unpredictable change will, understandably, lead to a longing for some sense of stability and predictability in their lives. That encompasses both economic and social change.

What is not helping matters is when issues like the impact of immigration on an already under-resourced infrastructure, and the impact of housing refugees in already deprived and stressed areas, cannot be openly discussed without people being labelled as 'bigots'. It's the refusal to have these honest conversations alongside the over use of terms such as 'racist' and 'bigot' aimed at anyone voicing their concerns, that's fuelling the resentment and tensions we see spilling over into clashes on the streets. What's really galling is that many of our former comrades on the Left and in the anarchist movement cannot recognise that stifling discussion of these issues is only adding to an already toxic sense of resentment and the ensuing tensions.

A horrific multiple murder has set off an unpredictable and dangerous chain of events. How all of this is going to play out, I really don't know. Suffice to say, given what's gone on in the last few decades, I'm not surprised at how things are playing out. There's a lot more that I could write about the way things are playing out but, I'll leave that for future posts. What cannot be forgotten is that three young girls have had their lives taken away from them and that their surviving friends and mums will have to live with the trauma of this for the rest of their lives.