The Mail on Sunday

Anarchy is breaking out. Where are the brakes on this thing? Does anyone know?

- By DOUGLAS MURRAY AUTHOR AND C0MMENTATO­R

YESTERDAY, a rabble of overweight, tattooed thugs hurled insults, cans and bottles at the police. Officers with shields and riot gear scrambled to contain the violence a short walk from the heart of government. This was co-ordinated law-breaking. We are supposed to be in lock down, remember, confined to our homes while the R-rate hovers close to one.

But yesterday’s rioting was all too predictabl­e from the moment the police, politician­s and other prominent figures decided to indulge the Black Lives Matters (BLM) demonstrat­ions all around Britain last weekend.

At the start, many of the BLM campaigner­s had a noble cause. Yet their gatherings were in defiance of lockdown guidelines and spilled over into violence and destructio­n.

Police officers were injured. Property was destroyed. The smell of double standards is hard to avoid.

Yesterday, the police behaved as they should. Properly equipped, they contained a lawless mob and protected public property. Politician­s and commentato­rs were outspoken in their criticism of the thugs.

But where were they last weekend? The politician­s were calling the protestors ‘peaceful’ or even praising them.

And the police in some cases not only kneeled before the mob but then, as it turned violent, ran away from them. No wonder people were angry at that sight.

Permitted lawlessnes­s only encourages more of the same. And adds to the madness in the air at the moment. Anarchy is breaking out. Where are the brakes on this thing? Does anyone know?

Why is it that the Cenotaph in Whitehall must be boarded up, and the statue of Winston Churchill? How did a debate on police racism in the US turn into an attack on almost everything in Britain’s past, not to mention protests – and now counter- protests – and rioting across European cities? This is a very dangerous moment.

Yes, some part of the current unrest is a reaction to the lockdown. There are consequenc­es when you consign the whole country to our homes for nearly three months.

It is also true there are segments of the population who feel racism is the single most important issue in our country. They portray Great Britain as a hell-hole, a vile society, with ‘white supremacy’ and ‘institutio­nal racism’ everywhere.

An even greater part of the population profoundly disagrees. But where is the debate?

How did protests against a policeman killing an unarmed black man in Minnesota last month lead to the cancelling of Fawlty Towers, the destructio­n of statues and assaults on the police by two different sets of thugs? The fact is that police chiefs set a dreadful example last weekend, standing by in the face of mass law-breaking.

Why? Because like our whole society they fear that opposing any action by BLM will lead to accusation­s of racism.

And now we see the consequenc­e of this retreat from reason. The destructio­n of our monuments, mob rule on our streets and festering hatred on the internet.

What happened to George Floyd in Minneapoli­s was appalling. The arresting policeman’s actions were callous, brutal and indefensib­le. But why have people decided to apportion the blame so far and wide? These protestors are using the actions of a policeman in Minnesota ( currently charged with murder and awaiting trial) to push for the erasure of British history and culture.

What we are seeing is nothing less than an attempt to reshape Britain in the image of militant groups and the ideologues of the Far-Left.

And to do so they are crushing debate and punishing dissent using classic tactics of moral intimidati­on.

Across the country, people fear that remaining silent is somehow to support the violence meted out to George Floyd: an oboe recital on Radio 3 was interrupte­d by a trembling speech about his killing; a presenter on the BBC2’s Springwatc­h used the return of the wild beaver to Cornwall to use as a counterpoi­nt to events in Minnesota.

Speak out against BLM – as Nigel Farage did last week – and you might lose your job. As he did.

People learn from such punishment­s and shaming, and most of the media – like everybody else – has been intimidate­d into agreeing with the protests, for fear of seeming to condone racism.

Why has our culture become like this? Are we Communist eastern Europe, where people have to condemn people with whom they are associated in case they are cond e mn e d in t u r n ? Wha t e v e r

happened to polite disagreeme­nt? Or healthy debate?

The crowd behaviour at the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol last weekend was deranged. Whatever the rights and wrong of the statue, the manner in which it came down was shocking.

It was a clearly organised, preplanned event. But look at the heat of that crowd, jumping up and down on the toppled statue, as though he had been a dictator who had oppressed them all their lives.

Even more shocking was the fact that the police stood by, with police chiefs justifying that decision and the city’s mayor congratula­ting the mob on their actions. That move was deeply significan­t. Because we know from history that at such moments crowds of this kind are interested in one thing above all: testing the limits, seeing how far they are permitted to go.

In failing to realise this, the police’ s top command have been cowards.

Since then we have seen attempts to bring down statues of the founder of the Scouts, Robert Baden-Powell and the renaming of a building in

Liverpool named after Gladstone. And the anti-statue movement has spread outward.

Gone With The Wind has gone from streaming services for wrongthink, as have comedy series like Little Britain and The League Of Gentlemen.

Can anyone explain convincing­ly why things made only a decade ago are now so threatenin­g? No. Any more than we can explain how any child in Britain – of whatever ethnic background – is going to benefit from this demented cultural purge.

Members of Minneapoli­s City Council have announced their intention to ‘dismantle’ the city’s police department. As t hough American cities have not just had a taste of what a loss of law and order looks like. One member of the city council–Jeremiah Ellis on– announced a ‘dramatic rethink’ on ‘how we approach public safety’.

Perhaps he and his colleagues could set up a Committee on Public Safety, as Robespierr­e and Co did after the French Revolution with such striking success. If pushed, America could well find itself amid another revolution.

As it is in America, so it could be here, not least because there has been a near-total absence of authority so far. This country needs to recognise what we are facing.

Yes, there are some people genuinely protesting because of Minnesotan policing. Others are just happy to get out of the house and be praised for their nobility in doing so. But among them lie people with the most hostile imaginable view of this country, people who will not stop until they have trashed all of our history and forced everyone into feeling some undue sense of shame over it. They – and the vacuum left by our political leaders – have now created a counter-force. One that thanks to its thuggery will give further ammunition to their opponents.

Well count me out. I am proud of our history. Like millions of other British people I have my own attitudes and criticisms towards parts of it, and am open to debating it all. But I don’t see why these cultural revolution­aries should be able to push their one-sided, hostile version of our country unopposed.

If they do, I worry deeply about what greater reaction they might produce. This nation has been an extraordin­ary force for good in the world. If it hadn’t been, and we weren’t the tolerant country that we are, then why would people from all over the world have come here and want to come here still?

Like all countries – including America – there are things we can do to improve. Nobody doubts that. But we cannot leave our future to the rule of mobs – neither to the thugs of yesterday, nor to the ‘anti-racists’ who would destroy our economy and erase every aspect of our culture that isn’t to their liking.

Police chiefs set a dreadful example last weekend, standing by in the face of mass law-breaking Total absence of authority… we cannot leave our future to the rule of mobs

 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? FLASHPOINT: A firework explodes in the middle of Trafalgar Square as police try to keep anti-racist and Far-Right protestors apart during yesterday’s marches
FLASHPOINT: A firework explodes in the middle of Trafalgar Square as police try to keep anti-racist and Far-Right protestors apart during yesterday’s marches
 ??  ?? UGLY: Far-Right protestors hurling abuse during their rally in London
UGLY: Far-Right protestors hurling abuse during their rally in London

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom