I predict a riot

 

The rioting in Sunderland last night has been shocking, but not surprising. At the General Election a month ago, our First Past the Post (FPTP) system delivered a big majority for a centrist, left-leaning party. The neo-fascists took 16% of the vote; and won 5 out of 650 seats. They are angry; and have been looking for an excuse to riot since then. The tragic events in Southport were that excuse, but it is only an excuse. The people of Southport responded as a community should, coming together in peaceful vigil to tenderly hold one another in their grief. Nationally organised neo-fascists bringing agitators into communities that feel left behind and disenfranchised to stir up grievance does not honour those three little girls or their families—and does not care about the people of Hartlepool or Sunderland either. But there are many people in these places who are vulnerable to such exploitation due to complex, systemic and endemic issues. There are no easy answers (though I do believe replacing FPTP would help; and some form of PR would not have delivered 16% of the seats to the neo-fascists) but it will take deep community organising, in a way that slowly undermines forty years of extreme individualism that has made us believe that so long as we are doing alright, we don’t need to care about other people.