The United Kingdom is no longer united. What is happening in Thetford is symptomatic of a growing distance between certain sections of our society. There is a demographic in this country that is clearly xenophobic, bigoted and racist. There are varying degrees of prejudice within this group, but there are sufficient numbers who band together to create an active mob willing to take violent action against their perceived ‘enemies’.
What is particularly despicable in Thetford is that this mob is attacking dwellings and citizens based on a rumour. They believe that certain dwellings are being occupied by ‘foreigners’ without any actual proof or certainty. That does not bother them in any way; yet, they try to hide their faces and identity, trying not to be recognised as they know full well what they are doing is not only wrong and illegal but shameful in the extreme. What do they hope to achieve? Is it to beat up and seriously injured or kill possible asylum seekers? Is it to eject them from the country? Will they escort their victims out of town or put them on transport to some other country? What is it they expect to do?
Is it perhaps just letting off steam and showing their frustration at their inability to have any rational or intelligent thought about their own primitive behaviour. How and when did these mostly young people become so disenchanted with they lives so as to become a mob rather than thoughtful citizens? How is it that they succumb to the hypocrisy of Farage, Tice, Lowe, Downes, Yusuf et al who claim to be non racists, socially minded Britain First advocates, but whose agenda is clearly to disrupt and perpetuate violence against anyone not of their persuasion. It is the subtext of everything they do and say in their outrageously venal approach to politics. Everything they say is an incitement to mob rule, particularly when they claim ‘woe is me, your all against me’. Their penchant for playing the victim is just a strategic condescension to get the mob on side and hope they come out fighting.
This behaviour is suspiciously out of the Trump playbook; however, it appears to be going on all over. The French, Germans, Italians all have their mobs beneath the surface. How has it come to this? There is a piece in the Guardian Opinion section by Brendan Cox entitled “How divided is the UK really? Here’s a way to find out” In the article he invites everyone to the part in the National Conversation - all are invited to complete a survey at: https://www.national-conversation.ox.ac.uk/
The researchers claim “This project aims to understand sense of belonging and perceptions of unity and division in the United Kingdom. The study will involve completing a questionnaire with some interactive elements. It will require around 10-15 minutes of your time. You will be presented with questions about how you feel about your local area and the United Kingdom along with some basic demographic questions.”
I have just completed the survey, although I’m not sure the questions and answers requested will in any way resolve the issues related to the divisions that beset the United Kingdom at the present time. Just because we like or don’t like where we live in a particular area, in a particular city, in a particular country, does not seem to me to be a necessary indication of why we are alienated from other people. We can be completely contented where we live but still deeply divided from our neighbour. In any event, the larger community is made up of smaller ones. How people appreciate or deal with the larger community is down to individuals within each community, on an individual level. It’s rarely that one finds oneself in an ‘us or them’ situation. Nonetheless I would urge you to take the survey. Also you can write in what you feel about a variety of questions. You’ve got 3000 characters to answer several questions so lots of space to write stuff in. There is also voice answering capability but it has a 30 sec cap. Can’t really say as much as one likes in 30 seconds.Tee tee.
Speaking of divisions, here is a bit of information about Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC - I’m sure it will amuse:
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