On Cowardice

Another night of rioting, this time culminating in the burning out of African immigrants from a Loyalist area of Belfast. This was called for by Tommy Robinson, amplified by Elon Musk, and backed by Rupert Lowe's Restore. And what is the British government's response? Exactly the same as the Southampton rampage. Hand-wringing, pious words, and a pitiful attempt to shame the far right into behaving decently. Yes, arrests were made and rioters got banged up, and the same will happen to some involved in the Belfast unrest. But the political response is weak. Keir Starmer is treating the rioters like so many criminal damage cases, while the instigators don't just continue to walk free, their call for race war on Britain's streets goes unchallenged.

Why? Once, I was willing to give Starmer and his government the benefit of the doubt. He's a bureaucrat, not a politician. He hasn't got the skills to articulate the politics of where most people are on racist violence. He is afraid of putting off the (mythical) voters Labour has lost to Reform. Yet, still, no robust push back against increasingly audacious fascist provocations. Even as Elon Musk and, effectively, his employee use their social media platforms to organise and mobilise. The government's sleeping at the wheel, under these circumstances, has to be something more than incompetence and complacency. It's stretching credulity to suggest their refusal to act on Twitter is because they think it's a valuable news outlet used by millions of people.

Politics is always a struggle between interests, and this is where the government's paralysis lies. It works at two levels. Starmer will not take action against "X" because doing so would jeopardise the special relationship. I.e. The military and economic dependence of the British state and the British ruling class on the United States, which finds itself variously expressed in Farage's fondness for Trump, Lowe's bootlicking of Musk, the myriad connections that once existed between the Tories and the GOP, and not forgetting Labour's Atlanticism and its cringing love for Clinton, Obama, and The West Wing. Papa Trump must therefore be appeased. Related to this are the flows of techbro investment coming in to the country. The system of tax breaks and guaranteed markets Britain's public services offer their wares are nice opportunities, but from Labour's point of view action against Musk's interests might frighten Silicon Valley off. Especially as its luminaries are billionaire oligarchs and have the arrogant, far right class conscious politics to match. And for leading Labour politicians themselves, as noted before, taking on the interests of big capital is unlikely to do much for one's post-politics career. Especially if they see Nick Clegg and, ahem, Peter Mandelson as their models.

In the end, the mystery of Labour's failure to take the far right on politically isn't a puzzle at all. Their cowardice has material roots. It's the class politics. It's always the class politics.