Why did the English riot?

When Maud Gonne MacBride – our national icon, and forever muse to Yeats – attended a socialist political meeting in London in her youth, she was dismayed by the outcome. After being addressed by Scots socialist leader Keir Hardie, the crowd of trade unionists and fiery socialists assembled in Trafalgar Square affirmed their commitment to the cause – and then quietly dispersed, as directed by the constabulary.

From this experience, Maud concluded – in disgust – that the English working class would never be street revolutionaries: they were far too steeped in law and order. Ireland, like France, had more of the rebel reflex.

Overturned

The notion that the British do not riot in the streets has been somewhat overturned this century, with street mayhem occurring in 2011, and now, more recently, riots after the dreadful killing of three young girls in the northern town of Stockport.

Word got around that the offender was a Muslim – untrue – and violent eruptions broke out all over the north of England, involving more than 4,000 people. Over a thousand were quickly arrested – including a 69-year-old man accused of vandalism, and a 13-year-old girl for kicking the door of a mosque. Some were also arrested for posting aggressive messages on social media, seemingly to incite violence.

My own analysis concurs with Maud Gonne’s: the English are not, fundamentally, a revolutionary people”

Law and order? It was the authorities which quickly put the forces of law into gear and dealt with miscreants robustly. There has even been some concern that the Labour government has over-reached its powers, and been discriminatory: regular criminals seem to get milder treatment than the rioters or malign Tweeters.

My own analysis concurs with Maud Gonne’s: the English are not, fundamentally, a revolutionary people. Elon Musk’s claim that Britain is on the brink of civil war is off the mark. But it is obvious, as the sociologist David Goodhart has commented, that a swathe of the white working class is demoralised, left behind, neglected and devalued. Meanwhile, in Yorkshire, the East Midlands, and Greater Manchester, towns have been dramatically altered by mass immigration. 60% of the British public now say that immigration is the key issue behind the riots.

Roots

The situation has calmed, but the root causes haven’t gone away. The dilemma is stark: Britain (like Ireland) needs migrants. But integration hasn’t always worked, and there is indeed a “left-behind” and disgruntled white working class.

This has occurred before – in the Victorian age, when industrialisation produced terrible conditions, and a working class often degraded by drink and squalor, moral and material. And then, an energetic Methodist church took up the challenge of social reform, and armed with missionary zeal (and some jolly good hymns) set about infusing the working-class with faith, self-belief, uplift, and respectable family values.

Perhaps it would require another such energetic movement to change depressing conditions today. Whence that cometh?

History and Summer readings

My escapist summertime reading includes the 1938-43 diaries of Henry “Chips” Channon, the American-born British parliamentarian and writer. He was a tremendous snob, and his diaries are malicious, amoral, prejudiced, indiscreet and egotistical. They are also a peerless insight into political and high society life in Britain in that period – he knew everyone in the ruling circle. (He was married to the brewing heiress Lady Honor Guinness, although he was also gay.)

One evening, in July 1939, Chips sat next to the American Ambassador’s wife at a formal dinner. “I am always at the top table…and tonight I have the American Ambassadress on my left. Mrs Kennedy is an uninteresting little body, pleasant and extraordinarily young-looking to be the mother of nine. She has an unpleasant voice, says nothing of interest and also keeps a diary.” The book’s editor, Simon Heffer, adds in a footnote: “Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald (1890-1995) married Joseph Patrick Kennedy, of whom her father, the Mayor of Boston, deeply disapproved, in 1914.”

I had forgotten how much “Honey Fitz”, Rose’s father, had opposed the marriage to Joe Kennedy. The Boston Mayor had risen to a position of power and influence in America, despite anti-Irish and anti-Catholic prejudice. He remains honoured in his home place of Bruff, Co Limerick, where I believe the Fitzgerald clan are still regarded as superior to the Kennedys. History is people!

***

You learn something from everything that happens to you. I learned three things when my little old Renault got a flat tyre recently:

(1) Strangers are helpful to women in these circumstances.

(2) The motor mechanic who came to rescue me by the roadside was delighted that the banger was so old it still had a spare wheel – modern cars don’t have spares, and a damaged tyre has to be temporarily repaired using a spraying solution, “which often doesn’t work as well”.

(3) The guy loved his job. “Motorists are always so thankful and pleased to see me.” Rescuing damsels in distress brings great career satisfaction, apparently!