As polling day for the recent general election neared, we suggested that the UK was entering entirely new territory, with the impending collapse of the Tory Party just one of the factors marking a profound crisis for the current system of parliamentary democracy.
A month later and the evidence is before our very eyes. Widespread rioting led by far-right racist thugs and hate-mongers, given the nod by Nigel Farage’s misnamed Reform party which garnered four million votes, has shaken many struggling communities.
The political establishment, now commanded by prime minister Keir Starmer, has responded in the only way it knows – get the forces of law and order to deal with it and the problem will go away when the racist thugs are all in jail.
Dream on. Just before election day, we also warned that failure “to tackle pressing social issues like poverty, inequality, the collapse of services and so on, will prompt right-wing, anti-democratic, extra-parliamentary forces to organise to take advantage of the crisis”.
That’s what we’re witnessing now. Labour has only been in a month but all the indications are that it’s business as usual and by that we mean big business and powerful financial markets.
Although the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that the major parties were equally dishonest about the spending cuts to come – although they knew the figures – Rachel Reeves pretended to be totally surprised when she became chancellor.
Poorer pensioners lost their winter fuel allowance, infrastructure projects were cancelled and indications made that more cuts were to come. Hard-pressed local councils – many on the verge of bankruptcy – waited in vain for Labour’s cavalry to come to the rescue.
Seven Labour MPs who voted to end the two-child benefit cap were sentenced to six months in the wilderness. Many of their less fortunate colleagues were blocked from standing at the election by a ruthless Labour bureaucracy.
Now, of course, none of these actions fully explains, let alone justifies, the riots. But deep political dissatisfaction and widespread inequality helps explain why hardcore racists attracted people from their communities.
Seven million people failed to register for the election. Turnout was around 59%, with some indicators putting it the lowest vote since complete universal suffrage was achieved in 1929. Even those with a vote have, in many cases, lost faith in the political system, according to the British Social Attitudes’ major survey.
“All in all, it appears that people’s trust in governments and politicians, and confidence in their systems of government, is as low now as it has ever been over the last 50 years, if not lower,” it said. Dissatisfaction with the way the UK is governed is now at an astonishing 79%.
So, the riots can be viewed as a delayed time bomb going off.
Blaming social media is looking at the effect, not the cause. No doubt the speed of spreading lies stirs things up. But over-emphasising the power of social media actually falls into the trap of believing fake news lies. Many claims of mass viewing are part and parcel of the lie machine. On top of that there’s money to be made from high profiles.
Years of neglect, under investment, the yawning gap between rich and poor; gentrification while poor areas get poorer, including inner city housing estates, with seaside towns along Britain’s coasts losing hope.
Throughout the last 25 years and more, both the Tories and Labour have demonised migrants and asylum seekers, dispersing them to the poorest areas without the resources required to provide adequate housing, education and work for the community as a whole.
Dependency on financial markets meant investment has not directed to better housing, or improved job opportunities in former industrial areas but to rich pickings and tax havens for global corporations.
Labour’s answer? Deputy leader Angela Rayner has pledged hundreds of thousands of new homes – built by profit-driven developers with few likely to become available to those in most housing need.
Focusing on far-right thugs is to mistake the outcome for the cause. Racism and hatred for foreigners has dogged British society since the years of imperial arrogance. It’s not a new phenomenon.
But when there is little future in many cities and towns throughout the UK, is it so surprising that lies and alt-truth on social media exercises a strong pull?
The populist right and far right are fuelled and helped by media giant Elon Musk, aided and assisted by Putin’s troll factories, fake media outlets and no doubt secretly-sourced finance.
Farage has played the conspiracy game and then acted surprised when violence breaks out. Yet no one senior in the government has called him out. How shocking is that?
In reality, Britain’s political and economic system is broken beyond repair, with a new financial crisis beckoning as global stock markets plummet. Far-right led rioting is an extra-parliamentary threat whose logic is the destruction of basis democratic processes.
We can and should defend the democratic freedoms we still possess. Trade unions and community groups should take the lead in forming defence squads to protect mosques and communities under attack from the mobs.
At the same time, we must reject any further moves towards authoritarian, police-state rule which will be turned against the left. The recent jailing of climate activists for a peaceful protest is the direction of travel.
Ultimately, the dominant political class is incapable of doing anything progressive these days, tied as the state is to the coat-tails of global corporations and financial markets. It presides over a social system that has no answers to climate chaos, poverty, inequality and the collapse of public services.
The case for system change is unanswerable.
- Take part in our Facebook discussion group about how we can achieve this transition.
- Join us on October 2 for a round-table discussion about how Assemblies can and should become the centre of a new political democracy.