Emergency podcast - the UK Riots

As I record this, a series of violent riots are spreading across the UK. 

Last week, a 17 year old boy attacked children and adults at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, killing 3 young girls, and injuring many others. 

Misinformation quickly spread on social media, claiming the attacker was Muslim, and had arrived in the UK on a small boat. (The police later confirmed that he was a UK citizen, born in Cardiff). And a large group of people gathered in the town, throwing bricks at police and the local mosque, setting fires and throwing bottles. 

The riots have spread to London, Rotherham, Middlesbrough, and other places across the UK. And the government and police are trying to stamp them out. It’s not going well. 

Black, Asian, Muslim people are being harassed and attacked. And a lot of the people in my circles are dismayed at the state of their country right now. That this sort of thing could happen. 

This short episode unpacks some of the reasons we're here - and how we can change direction.

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Transcript

As I record this, a series of violent riots are spreading across the UK. 

Last week, a 17 year old boy attacked children and adults at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, killing 3 young girls, and injuring many others. 

Misinformation quickly spread on social media, claiming the attacker was Muslim, and had arrived in the UK on a small boat. (The police later confirmed that he was a UK citizen, born in Cardiff). And a large group of people gathered in the town, throwing bricks at police and the local mosque, setting fires and throwing bottles. 

The riots have spread to London, Rotherham, Middlesbrough, and other places across the UK. And the government and police are trying to stamp them out. It’s not going well. 

Black, Asian, Muslim people are being harassed and attacked. And a lot of the people in my circles are dismayed at the state of their country right now. That this sort of thing could happen. 

And the thing that gets me is - these people throwing brick at police - trying to set fire to a hotel with actual human beings in it - they’re normal people. They get up, kiss their kids, make lunch, go to work, tile rooves or file cases or drive buses. They put their litter in the bin, and wait for the old lady with the shopping trolley to cross the street. 

When someone in a community is arrested for murder, you always get neighbours saying “Ooh, you’d never have known!”

Because we like to think we can tell. If someone is a serial killer, or a stalker, or a thief. It makes us feel safe. 

But it’s not true.

And it’s the same for people’s political and social leanings.

Being confronted with the views of people we thought we knew can be jarring. 

People generally don’t walk around with their stance on every significant social issue stamped on their forehead (although T-shirt slogans can sometimes be a giveaway). 

So, when we’re going about our daily lives - shopping for groceries, picking up our kids from school, eating lunch in the canteen, or hosting family barbecues - we don’t know whether the person who just lovingly said goodbye to our son after a full day of wholesome fun is going to jump on Twitter and berate workshy benefit scroungers fo being all that is wrong with this country. 

Or that the sweet man who just gave up his seat for you on the bus refuses to be looked after by a “foreign” doctor when he visits the GP surgery. 

We assume the people we meet are “nice”. 

If only we could all walk around with whether or not we read The Daily Mail blazoned across our chests. Then we could make sure we’re only talking to the “Nice” people….right? 

Well…it’s not really as simple as that. 

We’ve just seen a historic landslide for a Labour government in our most recent election. Sure, they’re not perfect. But it seemed like we were coming out of a long dark tunnel - heading towards a better country for everyone. With healing rhetoric. 

I think this is the backlash.

As the BBC continues its terrified tiptoe around the far right voices in this country, the mainstream discussion is around “legitimate concerns over immigration” and “understandable frustrations” that have “gotten out of hand” (blimey, air quotes are doing a lot of heavy lifting here). 

All while mosques are attacked, an Asian man stabbed, a Muslim woman’s hijab pulled off while carrying a baby, an acid attack on a Muslim woman, Black bus passengers attacked, a hotel suspected to be hosting refugees was broken into and they tried to start a fire…and more reports keep coming in. 

Groups of people gathering in towns and cities, shouting “we want our country back” and “foreigners go home”. 

The racism and Islamaphobia is not hidden in glances and dog whistle rhetoric anymore. It’s blatant. On the street. 

I’m going to be blunt here. And I know that a fair amount of people will disagree with me. But there we are.

This is what happens when we cede the political arena to those with horrendous views. To conspiracy theorists and racists. To those in power who want to pit us against each other for their own gain. To cranks and hacks and neo-Nazis. 

When we sheepishly say “Well, let’s not argue”. 

When we decide that work, business, LinkedIn, the family dinner table are not places for politics. 

When we nod and smile as our colleagues or our great uncles say something awful about “the gays” or “immigrants” because we don’t want to rock the boat. 

We have given up the room to others who do not have such qualms. 

One of my first guests on this podcast was Joanna Wiebe. We had a fascinating conversation about when and where to talk about politics as a business owner. But one thing she said in particular struck me: 

“You have to say something, otherwise you let the angriest voices in the room take up all the oxygen.”

As social beings, we are programmed to want to fit in. To be safe, to stay within our communities and be accepted - or we’ll be exiled and die alone in the wilderness. 

Yes, this is why you’re thinking about giving up your once-loved skinny jeans for that pair of mom jeans you once thought were frumpy - you don’t want to die on a mountain alone somewhere…

But this underlying fear has consequences way past jeans (and whether you’re still doing the side parting, trainer socks thing).

It makes it harder to go against the prevailing wisdom of the day - the messages that are being given a platform on social media, in the mainstream media. 

The more you see front pages on an influx of migrants, on stopping the boats, on how Europe is infringing our right to bendy bananas and weighing things in pounds, the more you assume that’s what everyone thinks. 

But it’s not really what everyone thinks. It’s what the loudest and angriest people in the room that is our country think. 

They have a mission. They’re making noise. They’re taking up all the oxygen. 

And us normal people, who want normal things like human rights for everyone and for our towns to be nice places to live, to be friendly, and let people live their own lives as long as they’re not hurting anyone . 

We’re just trying not to rock the boat. So we don’t shout. We don’t make noise. 

We’re trying to have nice family barbecues and not make a fuss. We’re trying to be polite. 

So the only voices out there on the front pages and the talk shows and campaign trails are the angry, racist ones. 

Which then reinforces to everyone reading the papers, watching breakfast news, or sitting on Twitter, that “everyone must think this” and “they must be right”. 

Which then leads to the media platforming people like Nigel Farage and his team of Reform village idiots. Giving them more oxygen to tell people that that Muslim woman over there, the one who smiled at you when you paid for your sausage roll at Greggs, she’s a danger to your way of life. She’s stealing your job, and she’s the reason why your daughter can’t buy a house and there’s no money left at the end of the month and you’ve just been laid off and can’t get a new job anywhere near your home. 

They’re not far right protestors. They’re racist thugs.

But, and I mean this, it’s not entirely their fault. 

Yes, there will be those who are just out for a fight. 

But there are also people amongst those crowds who have been well and truly hoodwinked. 

They truly think that they’re doing the right thing - trying to “save” their home - their country from a real and present danger. 

They’re the result of decades of poisonous rhetoric being spewed into their ears by Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, The Daily Mail, Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, Priti Patel, Jacob Rees Mogg, GB News, and so many more. People in positions of power who have their own agendas, and don’t care who they hurt in the process. People who want us at each others’ throats so we won’t notice as they tear up our country and take the spoils for themselves. 

The consistent drip drip of rhetoric that has normalized islamophobia, racism, and prejudice. 

And yes, they’re the result of us all spending the last 14 years feeling slightly sick at these scare stories about migrants swarming our shores, but not really wanting to “do politics”.

Well, politics has rocked up on the streets of Sheffiled and Southport, and we can’t ignore it any more. 

We need to learn how to talk about politics again. 

Not to argue, or break families apart. 

But to be willing to sit in that little bit of discomfort. To discover what the people around us believe, and to get braver about sharing our stories. 

We need to take up more of the oxygen. 

So that it becomes clearer that the majority of people in this country are accepting, kind, and generous.

And yes, I know this sounds terrifying. 

It’s a big change. 

But it doesn’t have to start with a big step. 

You can start small - dip your toe in. 

And I want to help. 

There are a bunch of past episodes you can listen to which cover how to step outside of your comfort zone, how to stay informed without being overwhelmed, how to embrace nuance, you name it. Real conversations with people trying to work this all out in real time, and how they’ve managed it. 

But we’re speeding down this road pretty fast, and I’m a little worried about where we’re headed. 

I want as many of you as possible to have the resources you need to grab the wheel and change our direction. Whether that’s a full U-turn, or little nudges over time. 

So, I’m re-recording the webinar I ran a few months ago on How to have better conversations, and I’m releasing it to everyone on my Soap Box Weekly email list tomorrow, Tuesday 6th August for free.

Because we start with conversations - 

The most effective political conversations – the ones that have the potential to change hearts and minds, to inspire action, and to impact the world – are just that – conversations.

Two-way dialogues that invite questions, agreeable disagreements, and new ideas.

I want us to have better conversations.

I'm not hung up on what the outcome of those conversations are. Whether you change the world, learn something new about an acquaintance, or simply bond over your least favourite popstar - that doesn't bother me.

I want to remove the life-or-death stakes that seem to hover over every dinner party chat and LinkedIn comment section. This idea that you have to come out on top, having decimated both the argument of your opponent and their self esteem in the process. The end goal of you standing over them, holding your boxing glove high, as the referee shouts the countdown.

That framing means that we miss out on so much. Learning new things, uncovering new perspectives, gaining insight on the route someone has taken to get to the beliefs they now hold, sitting with someone in their experiences and paying attention to how that affects us. Because we're too busy forming our next sucker punch to knock them out.

So, how do we break out of that boxing match?

The webinar offers you 3 tools to help you have better conversations (rather than arguments) with people who disagree with you on all sorts of issues. And looks at how you can put those tools into practice in real life.

If you want to take up more oxygen, but you’re a little nervous. Then you can sign up to the list in the show notes. If you sign up before tomorrow then you’ll get the link in the email with everyone else. 

If you’re listening a little later, then you can sign up whenever, and I’ll send you a personal email with the webinar link in it. 

Either way, I hope that it offers you a little hope. 

Because, I promise, there are more people like you than there are people currently tearing down mosque walls. 

We just need to be a little louder.