DOUGLAS MURRAY: Anarchy is breaking out – Where are the brakes on this thing? Does anyone know? 


Today, a rabble of overweight, tattooed thugs hurled insults, cans and bottles at the police. Officers with shields and riot gear scrambled to contain the violence a short walk from the heart of government. Pictured: Counter protestors jeer at opponents in Trafalgar Square

Today, a rabble of overweight, tattooed thugs hurled insults, cans and bottles at the police. Officers with shields and riot gear scrambled to contain the violence a short walk from the heart of government.

This was co-ordinated law-breaking. We are supposed to be in lockdown, remember, confined to our homes while the R-rate hovers close to one.

But the rioting was all too predictable from the moment the police, politicians and other prominent figures decided to indulge the Black Lives Matters (BLM) demonstrations all around Britain last weekend.

At the start, many of the BLM campaigners had a noble cause. Yet their gatherings were in defiance of lockdown guidelines and spilled over into violence and destruction.

Police officers were injured. Property was destroyed. The smell of double standards is hard to avoid.

Today, a rabble of overweight, tattooed thugs hurled insults, cans and bottles at the police. Officers with shields and riot gear scrambled to contain the violence a short walk from the heart of government. Pictured: Counter protestors jeer at opponents in Trafalgar Square

Yesterday, the police behaved as they should. Properly equipped, they contained a lawless mob and protected public property. Politicians and commentators were outspoken in their criticism of the thugs.

But where were they last weekend? The politicians were calling the protestors ‘peaceful’ or even praising them.

And the police in some cases not only kneeled before the mob but then, as it turned violent, ran away from them. No wonder people were angry at that sight.

Permitted lawlessness only encourages more of the same. And adds to the madness in the air at the moment. Anarchy is breaking out. Where are the brakes on this thing? Does anyone know?

Why is it that the Cenotaph in Whitehall must be boarded up, and the statue of Winston Churchill? How did a debate on police racism in the US turn into an attack on almost everything in Britain’s past, not to mention protests – and now counter-protests – and rioting across European cities? This is a very dangerous moment.

Yes, some part of the current unrest is a reaction to the lockdown. There are consequences when you consign the whole country to our homes for nearly three months.

This was co-ordinated law-breaking. We are supposed to be in lockdown, remember, confined to our homes while the R-rate hovers close to one

This was co-ordinated law-breaking. We are supposed to be in lockdown, remember, confined to our homes while the R-rate hovers close to one

It is also true there are segments of the population who feel racism is the single most important issue in our country. They portray Great Britain as a hell-hole, a vile society, with ‘white supremacy’ and ‘institutional racism’ everywhere.

An even greater part of the population profoundly disagrees. But where is the debate?

How did protests against a policeman killing an unarmed black man in Minnesota last month lead to the cancelling of Fawlty Towers, the destruction of statues and assaults on the police by two different sets of thugs? The fact is that police chiefs set a dreadful example last weekend, standing by in the face of mass law-breaking.

Why? Because like our whole society they fear that opposing any action by BLM will lead to accusations of racism.

And now we see the consequence of this retreat from reason. The destruction of our monuments, mob rule on our streets and festering hatred on the internet.

What happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis was appalling. The arresting policeman’s actions were callous, brutal and indefensible. But why have people decided to apportion the blame so far and wide? These protestors are using the actions of a policeman in Minnesota (currently charged with murder and awaiting trial) to push for the erasure of British history and culture.

But the rioting was all too predictable from the moment the police, politicians and other prominent figures decided to indulge the Black Lives Matters (BLM) demonstrations all around Britain last weekend

But the rioting was all too predictable from the moment the police, politicians and other prominent figures decided to indulge the Black Lives Matters (BLM) demonstrations all around Britain last weekend

What we are seeing is nothing less than an attempt to reshape Britain in the image of militant groups and the ideologues of the Far-Left.

And to do so they are crushing debate and punishing dissent using classic tactics of moral intimidation.

Across the country, people fear that remaining silent is somehow to support the violence meted out to George Floyd: an oboe recital on Radio 3 was interrupted by a trembling speech about his killing; a presenter on the BBC2’s Springwatch used the return of the wild beaver to Cornwall to use as a counterpoint to events in Minnesota.

Speak out against BLM – as Nigel Farage did last week – and you might lose your job. As he did.

People learn from such punishments and shaming, and most of the media – like everybody else – has been intimidated into agreeing with the protests, for fear of seeming to condone racism.

Police officers were injured. Property was destroyed. The smell of double standards is hard to avoid

Police officers were injured. Property was destroyed. The smell of double standards is hard to avoid

Why has our culture become like this? Are we Communist eastern Europe, where people have to condemn people with whom they are associated in case they are condemned in turn? Whatever happened to polite disagreement? Or healthy debate?

The crowd behaviour at the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol last weekend was deranged. Whatever the rights and wrong of the statue, the manner in which it came down was shocking.

It was a clearly organised, pre-planned event. But look at the heat of that crowd, jumping up and down on the toppled statue, as though he had been a dictator who had oppressed them all their lives.

Even more shocking was the fact that the police stood by, with police chiefs justifying that decision and the city’s mayor congratulating the mob on their actions. That move was deeply significant. Because we know from history that at such moments crowds of this kind are interested in one thing above all: testing the limits, seeing how far they are permitted to go.

In failing to realise this, the police’s top command have been cowards.

Since then we have seen attempts to bring down statues of the founder of the Scouts, Robert Baden-Powell and the renaming of a building in Liverpool named after Gladstone. And the anti-statue movement has spread outward.

Gone With The Wind has gone from streaming services for wrong-think, as have comedy series like Little Britain and The League Of Gentlemen.

Can anyone explain convincingly why things made only a decade ago are now so threatening? No. Any more than we can explain how any child in Britain – of whatever ethnic background – is going to benefit from this demented cultural purge.

Members of Minneapolis City Council have announced their intention to ‘dismantle’ the city’s police department. As though American cities have not just had a taste of what a loss of law and order looks like.

One member of the city council – Jeremiah Ellison – announced a ‘dramatic rethink’ on ‘how we approach public safety’.

Perhaps he and his colleagues could set up a Committee on Public Safety, as Robespierre and Co did after the French Revolution with such striking success. If pushed, America could well find itself amid another revolution.

As it is in America, so it could be here, not least because there has been a near-total absence of authority so far. This country needs to recognise what we are facing.

Yes, there are some people genuinely protesting because of Minnesotan policing. Others are just happy to get out of the house and be praised for their nobility in doing so.

But among them lie people with the most hostile imaginable view of this country, people who will not stop until they have trashed all of our history and forced everyone into feeling some undue sense of shame over it.

They – and the vacuum left by our political leaders – have now created a counter-force. One that thanks to its thuggery will give further ammunition to their opponents.

Well count me out. I am proud of our history. Like millions of other British people I have my own attitudes and criticisms towards parts of it, and am open to debating it all. But I don’t see why these cultural revolutionaries should be able to push their one-sided, hostile version of our country unopposed.

If they do, I worry deeply about what greater reaction they might produce. This nation has been an extraordinary force for good in the world.

If it hadn’t been, and we weren’t the tolerant country that we are, then why would people from all over the world have come here and want to come here still?

Like all countries – including America – there are things we can do to improve.

Nobody doubts that.

But we cannot leave our future to the rule of mobs – neither to the thugs of yesterday, nor to the ‘anti-racists’ who would destroy our economy and erase every aspect of our culture that isn’t to their liking.


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