<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/10/belfast-southampton-civil-war-anti-immigrant-online>
"It was the summer of 2024 when it all decisively started, with the horrific
murders in Southport, countrywide violence and Elon Musk’s observation that a
British civil war was somehow “inevitable”. A year later came a hot season of
flags on lamp-posts, protests outside hotels used to accommodate asylum
seekers, the ubiquitous use of the word “tinderbox” and constant predictions of
widespread riots that never actually materialised. Now here we are again, in
the aftermath of the awful murder, and treatment by the police, of Henry Nowak
and frightening violence and arson in Belfast, and the civil war predictions
seem to be increasing by the hour.
The archive of such material is already bulging. In August 2024, amid the
riots, a YouGov poll found that 32% of people thought a UK civil war was either
“very” or “somewhat” likely. A year later, Dominic Cummings said the UK was
only “random viral posts away from riots and prairie fires getting out of
control”. Even Labour’s Lisa Nandy offered the opinion that the north of
England was so tense “it could go up in flames”.
But then as now, the king of the civil war genre, even if he usually avoids
directly using the term, remained Nigel Farage, whose lexicon of expressions
for anarchy and general breakdown includes “societal collapse” and “civil
disobedience on a vast scale”, as well as predictions that Britain is “not far
from major civil disorder”, presumably fired by the “pure, cold rage” he so
disgracefully incited last week. Unsurprisingly, such talk is an international
phenomenon, as evidenced by similar predictions of civil conflict, strife and
war – usually pinned on immigration and Islam – from just about all the key
populist politicians of mainland Europe."
A very old trick: create or exacerbate a problem, then claim only you can solve
it.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
