Last night I had a flashback to when I was relatively young councillor representing Dingle which was part of Liverpool 8. The media had turned remorselessly to focus on the so-called Toxteth riots and the “disgraceful and illegal behaviour” of the people who lived in that area. Well, that was the description from the right-wing press about what was happening there although that did not accord to reality.
Yesterday I visited Southport on behalf of the people and council of Liverpool to show solidarity with the people of Southport and Sefton Council.
On Monday three children died after the stabbings and five more plus two adults are on the critical list. The children are in one of the best children’s hospitals in the world at Alder Hey and we can only hope for a successful outcome to all the medical procedures.
Over the years to come the parents and families of the children killed will always be thinking, “what would my child have been doing and shaping up into as they grew older”. In 12 short, short years perhaps the oldest of the children killed would have been celebrating their own University graduation, or A Levels, or GCSEs. How they would have developed nobody will ever know because those opportunities will never be available to them
As I attended the vigil it was clear that I could see a massive coming together of the people of Southport and further afield. People came to show their support for ‘their’ children and ‘their’ community. Many were a bit dazed and numbed as indeed we all were. How could you not be taken aback by such an event? However, there was no anger there.
No one was there to point fingers, assign blame or cause trouble. A couple of attempts by individuals to heckle and make points out of the proceedings were quickly hushed by the those surrounding them. There was a respectful silence as the Mayor of Sefton spoke and when I accompanied her to lay flowers in the Atkins Park outside the Town Hall.
We went from Liverpool to express our concern for the council of Sefton and the people of Southport as we have ourselves faced up to tragedies involving the death of young people, albeit it not at this scale. We have never had to face up to a situation where so many young lives have been taken or put at huge and continuing risk.
But shortly after I left for home another tragedy occurred to scar the life of the people of Liverpool. The rumour was circulated that the killer was a Muslim immigrant from Rwanda. The police quite rightly have not issued much detail other than to say that he had been born in the UK of parents of a Rwandan background. I know the Rwandan community within Merseyside well. They are a peaceful hard-working community who put back into the community more than they take out.
But facts do not matter to the sorts of people who turned up last night to the riot. Facts don’t count, prejudice based on misinformation is all that matters. The fact that more than 40 police officers had to be treated for injuries sustained speaks for itself. These were the people who on Monday had charged into action and putting their own lives at risk to defend children’s and who now found their own lives could have been put at risk from a howling, ill-informed mob whose behaviour was the opposite of what we should expect in a civilised English country.
This was so like what happened in Toxteth all those years ago when the local community were scapegoated because of the low life who came into the city for extremist political reasons, because they liked a fight or because they were just engaging in a criminal enterprise.
I hope that we can all now give the people of Southport and especially those who have been so brutally affected by Monday’s events space to assess the situation, to mourn for their loved ones, and to start to rebuild their lives and their community.
* Cllr Richard Kemp CBE is Lord Mayor of Liverpool for 2024-2025.
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9 Comments
Sadly , there hasn’t been the integration of communities as much as we like to believe .
This is mirrored across Western Europe. It would be disingenuous to think otherwise.
We only need to look at Sweden to understand that . .
“The social cohesion and contentment that made Sweden a poster boy for social democratic politics the world over is unravelling. And for those of us on the Left, it is a sorry thing to witness.” ….P Embery from labour …
Without acknowledging that – we are in danger of sleepwalking into the most right wing resurgence since the 30’s…
A factor in the riot in Southport was the internet. There were without a doubt claims circulating which were simply invented. According to reports a lot of organisation for the rioters took place on the internet. We do need to consider what controls we might need on the internet.
For those of us of a certain age who remember only too well the 1930.s and it’s aftermath must be very worried and concerned with what we are witnessing around the world and in our own country , so sad will we never learn?
I would hope the LibDems with their access to people such as Nick Clegg (President of Global Affairs at Meta) will be calling on the social media companies to assist the police with identifying the rabble-rousers.
Richard writes “But facts do not matter to the sorts of people who turned up last night to the riot. Facts don’t count, prejudice based on misinformation is all that matters.”
The 17 year old boy arrested has been named as Axel Rudukabana, a British born teenager of Rwandan heritage. The UK was a haven for many Rwandan refugees in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. Rwanda is an overwhelmingly Christian country.
The promise of the internet was that people would have access to alternative sources of information and this would curtail the ability of authoritarian governments or other organisations to spread propaganda.
The opposite seems to have happened with populist movements denigrating all mainstream media as fake news and themselves spreading their own fake news.
It is a real problem for all of us. We are fortunate in this country to have organisations like the BBC to report actual facts and a reasonable element of quality press.
I am not sure what can be done to counter fake news other than what Richard Kemp has done here i.e. to counter the false rumours with the truth even if it is ignored by right-wing groups that have nil interest in facts.
“We are fortunate in this country to have organisations like the BBC to report actual facts …..”
To some extent yes but the track record of the BBC is still questionable.
For example the way the the following was reported at the time:
The struggle against Apartheid in South Africa
The Vietnam War
The Troubles in Northern Ireland
were all skewed compared to what we read now. I’m sure that if the Palestinians make political progress in the years to come, the current reporting of the war in Gaza will look equally suspect.
As regards fake news – usually from the same old suspects who tend to double down on it ..
It eventually gets debunked …As for trouble makers with TR well documented criminal history & his outlandish claims – there is the odd one that can be corroborated as it’s in the public domain … Kirklees councils use of NDA’s to the sum of £250k upwards comes across as odd – if not troubling ….
Peter,
that is true that the reporting of virtually all conflicts are skewed by the government position. With respect to Gaza we do have Al Jazeera and GBnews taking a somewhat skewed position with the BBC/Sky News a more neutral or nuanced view.
I was a little concerned with Russia Today being taken off air as it smacks of political censorship even recognising that the Channel was a clear propaganda tool of the Kremlin.
I don’t doubt that there will be internet trolls sponsored by hostile foreign governments that will seel to amplify divisions in British society over issues like immigration.
Censorship can’t be the answer. The answer must lie with targeted efforts to encourage critical thinking and always asking cui bono? when reading/watching news reports.
I once read that Churchill skipped over the headlines when reading the daily broadsheets on the basis that these were just a recounting of disjointed facts. He went straight to the editorials/opinion pieces to get contrasting views of the context and its significance.
Peter, it’s important to remember that in the case of Vietnam and Northern Ireland (and the Falklands) the BBC was effectively limited in what it could report and how by the US and UK governments respectively. It also took then a more conservative approach to some reporting, which can be seen by the ITN reports from Vietnam in its archive (Sandy Gall was much closer to a modern reporter at that time.) The BBC is a hugely different organisation from what it was in the 1970s and early 80s in terms of how its news operation works, so I really don’t think these examples are particularly relevant.