The UK Riots

I am an immigrant. My family in my host country are also immigrants. I refuse to use the arrogant term “ex-pat” to describe myself as most Brits would. My situation is no different to anyone else’s who chose to move abroad for a better or simply different life. 

Apart from one person who said he didn’t like Brits because “They all talk gay” (sic) I have never experienced any discrimination. 

Why not? Because I am, as I’ve been told, the “right kind” of immigrant. What is so right about me? I’m an unqualified foreigner, working class, doing manual labour for a job. I’ve caused a lot of trouble over the years, committed my fair share of petty crimes, been carrested twice. Why am I so welcome here in Germany when other immigrants are hated by many for simply existing?

It’s the same reason that people have taken to the streets in the UK: racism or, at best, racism’s slightly less harmless cousin, xenophobia. 

The right-wing was always -and still is- a master of propaganda. Just as Donald Trump is fear-mongering in the USA about foreign murderers flooding across the Mexican border to eat American babies (whilst trying to get the Hispanic votes) the likes of Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage are stirring up hate towards immigrants in Britain. 

The Southport murders were horrific. The perpetrator obviously has severe psychological problems. This is no reason to offer him sympathy or excuse his deed but what’s going on in his mind has nothing to do with his place of birth (Britain) or his religion (Christian). The extreme right, however, doesn’t care for facts. They state that it was an immigrant, a Muslim (obviously) and their misinformed followers will vent their rage on the streets to show they’ve had enough. 

Had enough….  Many, many Brits have had enough. I can understand why. Years of Tory austerity has brought the working-class to its knees.

Rescuing the banks in the 2007-2009 crisis cost the government tens of billions of pounds. To cover the shortfall, they heavily increased tax rates for global corporations and the super-wealthy. As if…… What the government actually did was cut £30 billion from social services, welfare and housing subsidies. The poor became poorer, getting somewhere to live became harder, schools had their funding cut, people with addiction and psychological problems found getting help impossible and young people lost their youth clubs and places where they could keep themselves out of trouble when not at school. 

At least the tax on champagne was reduced so the wealthy could celebrate the ending of funding for school repairs. 

At the same time, UK energy firms announced profits of over £450 billion, helped by the huge rises in their prices. Covid was a worldwide kick in the balls and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has helped increase prices of simple household goods: Ukraine is a major supplier of wheat, for example. 

Accompanying the higher prices is wage stagnation with most people seeing no increase in “real-terms” for years. 

It’s no wonder that people are angry. It’s also not surprising that the populist right - and more extreme right-wing figures - have gained popularity with their “solutions”. 

The word solution has frightening connotations due to relatively recent history. As it was under Hitler, foreigners, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, “woke culture”, drag queens or anyone who doesn’t fit their own ideology are the enemies of the right - and, according to them, the reason why the UK is going to the dogs. 

I am neither stupid nor naive enough to think that immigration doesn’t cause any problems. I have had my own difficulties, especially in the employment market, living in a country which is culturally and geographically close to the UK. However, most of my problems have not been due to other’s view of me. I’m white, Christian (only on paper) and although my name isn’t German it’s not Arabic, Turkish, or East European. It’s British and the Brits are good foreigners. 

Without wishing to resort to stereotypes I imagine many of those involved in the riots sing their patriotic anthems, Brittania ruling, as they puke and fight on the streets of Ibiza and Prague, doing their best to turn other foreigners against them. But what do they have left to be proud of? Poor housing (if any), crumbling schools and NHS, high crime rates and piles of rubbish left on their streets. The working-class have nothing but a dubious history to be proud of and it’s not their fault. 

People will turn to crime to feed their families. Some will turn to drink and drugs to dull the pain of being left to rot by elites who have stopped even making promises to help them make a better life for themselves. They don’t see a future for their children in cities filled with crumbling buildings, higher education and training a dream which has been put out of their price range. 

When people are beaten down, feel as if they are trapped, they are more likely to believe that it’s the immigrants getting housing before them, taking their jobs or changing their society and culture for the worse. The snake oil salesmen come to town with no cure the for the illness other than to blame those who are easier to attack than the people wielding the real power. 

I grew up in a small seaside town with few prospects for most who stayed. Drugs and crime were rife as is common in dead-end towns. 

I started watching a Youtube channel from an Englishman talking about his experiences in prison. He committed crimes in the 90s due to his drug addiction and gives an interesting insight into a place which most will never see the inside of. 

I stopped watching the channel when he began posting videos supporting the likes of Tommy Robinson and saying things like “I’m not racist but I was in town today and played ‘spot the white person’”. The people have had enough of these criminal foreigners, he said, with a complete disregard of his own past: a frequently jailed white Brit. He’s about my age and I remember all of the drug dealers, alcoholics, violent hard nuts and troublemakers in town. All white Brits. Hadn’t he met any homegrown criminals inside he’d have normally avoided? Were Brits all charming angels 25 years ago before those terrible immigrants arrived? 

It’s correct to be disgusted at the Rotherham child grooming rings which consisted mainly of British-Pakistani men. It’s wrong to forget that the majority of sex offenders in Britain are white, male Brits. 

Britain is a place where many criminals are celebrated with films made about the thuggish, murderous Kray twins making them heroes to many. Some English football fans have a Europe-wide reputation for violence. Razor gangs struck fear into Glaswegians and good ‘ole “Mad” Frankie Fraser was a hero to many. His specialty? Torturing his victims by pulling out their teeth with pliers. I assume he didn’t use anaesthetic first. TV’s  brutal Peaky Blinders are adored despite their psychopathic violence. Who are, though, the bad guys? It’s that Muslim doctor and his family down the street at number 37. 

Why the hatred? Some might say it’s because their book says something about rape being ok (it doesn’t). As a good British Christian they must surely be aware of all the babies murdered by God in the Bible. Yes, some Muslims are extremists but extremists come in all shapes and sizes, from all perspectives. 

Most people are decent regardless of where they come from. When treated decently they are more likely to show their best side. Immigrants don’t want special treatment but to be accepted and treated with as much respect as anyone else. Who could blame anyone for being wary and unfriendly when made to feel so unwelcome in their new home? 

I personally can’t understand why an immigrant would want to come to Britain. Shitty weather, poor housing, expensive…. And any Brit who has to live on benefits will vouch for the fact that they are not exactly living the high-life on the £90 a week they get. Government benefits are no major enticement for anyone wanting to move to the UK who doesn’t want to work. 

You may ask what gives me the right to write this as I haven’t lived in the UK for 25 years. Well, for a start, things weren’t exactly great when I still lived there. Tony Blair’s win brought hope to many but he was a warmongering Tory in disguise. 

There’s also the fact that populist and far-right support is growing at an alarming pace in many countries. Trump blames the Mexican immigrants for America’s drug problems as if the 80s crack-pandemic under Reagen never happened and the very white, über patriotic Aryan and biker gangs sell crystal meth for a good cause. 

Here in Germany, support for the AfD is growing. They have discussed sending all immigrants back, even if they are second-generation. Are people really so scared and full of hate that they want to destroy families and lives in such a brutal way? This is what ethnic cleansing is. It’s what happens in “uncivilized” countries or, in Trump’s words, “shitholes”. It’s what happened under Hitler. 

There were no riots and demonstrations when hundreds of thousands of Polish moved to the UK. Around 300,000 French and Germans live in the UK. No violent objections. 

Those with darker skins or different religions have a handicap in the UK when it comes to getting on in life. It took a long time for people to get over their prejudices towards West Indian and Southern Asian immigrants who came to Britain after WWII. Many are still prejudiced towards these groups. 

People who have positive experiences in a country are more likely to give something back. If the British themselves welcome their new neighbours they are more likely to be treated well in return. Attacking mosques and the people themselves will only make integration harder for them. 

We no longer have “No Irish” signs outside pubs and rightly so. Many Brits are descended from Irish immigrants, if not actually belonging to the original large numbers who left their home to look for a different or better life. The Irish have historically been treated badly by the English but put up with hostility towards them to become valuable members of society. If you get rid of bigotry (or at the very least make it unacceptable) people will feel wanted, needed, and give back to their new communities. 

The rioters have shown that they’re unwilling to accept the recent immigrants in the same way that they didn’t at first welcome those before them. This time, though, the reaction has been unprecedented and the only reason can be ignorance or racism. Or both. 

The demonstrators feel as if their country is being overtaken, their culture being destroyed. But just who is stopping them from doing what they’ve always done? Nobody. They say that they have Black or Asian friends who are great people. They can’t be racist! It’s just that there are now too many of them. That is racism. The dark-skinned, Muslims they know are fine people but it’s the others they don’t know who are the problem. They disregard the fact that those they don’t know are very likely to be similar to those they don’t know. 

It’s the government who have been hard at it destroying the working-class for years. It is time that people want and need change. Attacking all who swap a rain of bombs and bullets falling on their homes and children for the rain of Bradford is not helping Britain. It’s poisoning the land with hate. 

Accepting people from different backgrounds will only help them to settle and become more how the rioters wish them to be. Educating both groups can only aid integration and reduce the prejudices of both sides. And, perhaps most importantly, ask yourself if you are contributing positively to your community. Until then you have no right to point a finger at anyone else. Simply being white and/or non-Muslim is not enough. 

It worked for me and it can work for others. We can all be, as I was told I am, “the right kind” of immigrant.  Be a good host and help others become the right kind of immigrants. 

A warm handshake will be reciprocated. As will a spit in the face. 

Ask yourself if you are contributing positively to society before you point the finger at others.