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the_jubjub_bird Michael Deacon
Politicians only have themselves to blame for the Belfast riots
This is what happens when, election after election, people vote for proper control of our borders and MPs keep ignoring them
After Vickrum Digwa was found guilty of murdering Henry Nowak, Labour MPs were desperate to avert widespread public disorder. So they all started parroting the same line. Henry’s father, they repeatedly reminded us, had said: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division.” Therefore, Labour MPs sternly intoned, we must “respect the family’s wishes”.
On the face of it, this sounds like a perfectly reasonable request. I do, however, have one small question.
On Oct 20, 2024, Rhiannon Whyte – a 27-year-old woman employed at a migrant hotel in Walsall – was stabbed to death with a screwdriver by a Channel migrant from Sudan.
And in March this year, 18 months on, the victim’s mother demanded to know why so many Channel migrants were still being allowed not just to enter Britain, but to live here. “The Government,” said Siobhan Whyte, “should close the borders and send them back.”
Here, then, is my question. If Labour MPs believe it’s essential to “respect the family’s wishes”, why don’t they respect the wishes of Rhiannon’s mother?
Of course, we all know the answer. They only “respect the family’s wishes” when those wishes happen to match their own. Frankly, though, it’s long past time that they started paying attention to people like Siobhan. Because if they don’t, this country’s in serious trouble. And for proof, look at what’s happening in Northern Ireland.
Politicians have been quick to condemn the rioting that has taken place there, after an asylum seeker (also from Sudan) was charged with attempted murder over Monday’s horrific knife attack. In Belfast, houses, vehicles and a Middle Eastern supermarket were all set alight. Labour’s Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said: “There is no justification at all for this type of destruction and thuggery.” Sir Keir Starmer added: “The scenes in Belfast [on Tuesday night] were shocking and completely unacceptable.”
I’m sure every decent person shares these sentiments. We don’t want riots. But when are our politicians going to wake up and accept their share of the blame?
The uncomfortable truth is this. If, at election after election, for decade after decade, people keep voting for proper control of their country’s borders, and politicians keep ignoring or belittling them, it’s inevitable that some of those people will think: “Voting doesn’t work. And peaceful protest doesn’t seem to have much effect, either. So we need to find an alternative way to make politicians listen to us.” And that alternative, I’m afraid, is what we’ve seen in Belfast.
I don’t for a moment condone it. Obviously, I want rioting to be averted. But I’m afraid there’s only one way to achieve this – and that’s for politicians like Sir Keir to give the public what it so plainly wants. Because if they don’t, even the slowest-witted among them must now be able to see what will happen.
I fear, however, that they will once again merely resort to lecturing us about the dangers of “division”, and spend more time talking about the rioting than about the atrocity which triggered it. Anything but confront, or even acknowledge, the real source of the problem.
They have a longstanding habit of this. Let’s not forget that after Sir David Amess, the Conservative MP for Southend West, was murdered in 2021, many of his colleagues in Parliament responded by calling for a clampdown on social media abuse. Sir David’s murder had nothing to do with offensive tweets – he was stabbed to death by an Islamist. Yet it was social media they talked about. So don’t be surprised if MPs decide that this week’s rioting was caused by social media, as well.
In fact, they really might. After all, social media is where footage of the knife attack first spread. “But for that,” MPs may think, “it would have been so much easier to contain the public’s anger.”
For all our sakes, though, they urgently need to realise that while setting fire to buses may not be justified, the public’s anger is. We’re sick of having to live like this. We don’t want to live in a country where binmen are slashed to death while walking the dog.
We don’t want to live in a country where hotel workers are slaughtered with screwdrivers. And we don’t want to live in a country where innocent pedestrians run the risk of being beheaded in the street. Britain has quite enough problems as it is, without importing more of them. So, from now on, we would like our Government to put our safety first.
This, therefore, should be our message to the nation’s political elite: “Take a piece of your own advice – and respect our wishes.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/10/politicians-themselves-blame-riots/
Politicians only have themselves to blame for the Belfast riots
This is what happens when, election after election, people vote for proper control of our borders and MPs keep ignoring them
After Vickrum Digwa was found guilty of murdering Henry Nowak, Labour MPs were desperate to avert widespread public disorder. So they all started parroting the same line. Henry’s father, they repeatedly reminded us, had said: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division.” Therefore, Labour MPs sternly intoned, we must “respect the family’s wishes”.
On the face of it, this sounds like a perfectly reasonable request. I do, however, have one small question.
On Oct 20, 2024, Rhiannon Whyte – a 27-year-old woman employed at a migrant hotel in Walsall – was stabbed to death with a screwdriver by a Channel migrant from Sudan.
And in March this year, 18 months on, the victim’s mother demanded to know why so many Channel migrants were still being allowed not just to enter Britain, but to live here. “The Government,” said Siobhan Whyte, “should close the borders and send them back.”
Here, then, is my question. If Labour MPs believe it’s essential to “respect the family’s wishes”, why don’t they respect the wishes of Rhiannon’s mother?
Of course, we all know the answer. They only “respect the family’s wishes” when those wishes happen to match their own. Frankly, though, it’s long past time that they started paying attention to people like Siobhan. Because if they don’t, this country’s in serious trouble. And for proof, look at what’s happening in Northern Ireland.
Politicians have been quick to condemn the rioting that has taken place there, after an asylum seeker (also from Sudan) was charged with attempted murder over Monday’s horrific knife attack. In Belfast, houses, vehicles and a Middle Eastern supermarket were all set alight. Labour’s Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said: “There is no justification at all for this type of destruction and thuggery.” Sir Keir Starmer added: “The scenes in Belfast [on Tuesday night] were shocking and completely unacceptable.”
I’m sure every decent person shares these sentiments. We don’t want riots. But when are our politicians going to wake up and accept their share of the blame?
The uncomfortable truth is this. If, at election after election, for decade after decade, people keep voting for proper control of their country’s borders, and politicians keep ignoring or belittling them, it’s inevitable that some of those people will think: “Voting doesn’t work. And peaceful protest doesn’t seem to have much effect, either. So we need to find an alternative way to make politicians listen to us.” And that alternative, I’m afraid, is what we’ve seen in Belfast.
I don’t for a moment condone it. Obviously, I want rioting to be averted. But I’m afraid there’s only one way to achieve this – and that’s for politicians like Sir Keir to give the public what it so plainly wants. Because if they don’t, even the slowest-witted among them must now be able to see what will happen.
I fear, however, that they will once again merely resort to lecturing us about the dangers of “division”, and spend more time talking about the rioting than about the atrocity which triggered it. Anything but confront, or even acknowledge, the real source of the problem.
They have a longstanding habit of this. Let’s not forget that after Sir David Amess, the Conservative MP for Southend West, was murdered in 2021, many of his colleagues in Parliament responded by calling for a clampdown on social media abuse. Sir David’s murder had nothing to do with offensive tweets – he was stabbed to death by an Islamist. Yet it was social media they talked about. So don’t be surprised if MPs decide that this week’s rioting was caused by social media, as well.
In fact, they really might. After all, social media is where footage of the knife attack first spread. “But for that,” MPs may think, “it would have been so much easier to contain the public’s anger.”
For all our sakes, though, they urgently need to realise that while setting fire to buses may not be justified, the public’s anger is. We’re sick of having to live like this. We don’t want to live in a country where binmen are slashed to death while walking the dog.
We don’t want to live in a country where hotel workers are slaughtered with screwdrivers. And we don’t want to live in a country where innocent pedestrians run the risk of being beheaded in the street. Britain has quite enough problems as it is, without importing more of them. So, from now on, we would like our Government to put our safety first.
This, therefore, should be our message to the nation’s political elite: “Take a piece of your own advice – and respect our wishes.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/10/politicians-themselves-blame-riots/
(no subject)
10/6/26 22:07 (UTC)