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This from Ieuan Jehu, West Wight. Ed
In the midst of the wave of protests which swept the USA in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a serving police officer, the American political activist and philosopher Angela Y Davis wrote,
“Security is not possible as long as the physical, mental and spiritual health of our communities is ignored.
“Safety and security require education, housing, jobs, art, music and recreation.”
We must look at the wider issues
Rather than focusing myopically on a single issue as the catalyst for civic disorder – as the PCC for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight continues to do, insisting she stands by her earlier statement — we must look at the wider issues causing unrest across the larger society.
In the summer of 2011, when last we saw a wave of rioting sweeping England as the first effects of Cameron and Osborne’s programme of austerity began to hit home, it would’ve been wrong to assume that everyone involved was motivated to commit acts of arson and looting because of the killing of Mark Duggan or an opposition to discriminatory use of “stop and search” powers by the Met Police.
Similarly, it would be foolish to believe — as it seems Donna Jones clearly does — that everyone involved in this spate of violent disorder share the racist/xenophobic views of the far-right thugs who are orchestrating this wave of criminality.
No rise in the far right
The far-right are not on the rise in the UK, this is evidenced by the British Social Attitudes Survey, which has shown the British public steadily swinging to be more liberal and progressive — with, amongst other things, 43% of Brits strongly believing that our cultural life is enriched by immigration in 2024, compared to 33% in 2002.
Drop in far right vote share
Further evidence which Donna Jones should be well aware of, is that at the recent General Election, the combined vote share for parties on the right dropped by 5.6 percentage points compared to 2019 and the party which she represents suffered a record breaking electoral defeat, as the British electorate were turned off by the Tory’s swing to the divisive culture war politics of the far right
Gov should not be acquiescing to demands of rioting far-right thugs
Contrary to what the PCC says, the UK Government should not be acquiescing to the demands of rioting far-right thugs, but should remain focused on repairing all of those things which Angela Davis wrote of, which have been destroyed, in my view, by 14 years of Tory misrule.
