Rioters stay at home to watch telly instead, but British racism is far from defeated

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What constitutes a success in Britain these days is a low bar, but that doesn’t stop a rush of politicians from claiming the credit for it. Despite all forecasts, there were no ‘far-right’ riots last night- a race war broke out but nobody turned up.

So for one night we avoided mobs hurling masonry at the police, punching people of colour in the face, stoning mosques and arson. Yvette Cooper was quick to congratulate herself by way of thanking the police, the police were quicker to congratulate themselves by way of thanking themselves and the anti-fascist protesters congratulated themselves for facing down the hordes of almost precisely nobody.

This circle of non-mutual back slapping misses the point utterly. The last election result and the manner of it is far are more concerning than a minority of Britain’s long discarded and reviled ‘loser’ class taking the opportunity to be minor celebrities for a few nights.

Non-voters were the biggest block at the last election. Such widespread disengagement leaves an open goal for a slyly racist demagogue a la Trump. The Conservatives and Reform got 38% despite widespread fury towards the Tories record in office, if they were to combine their vote share at next election how would things turn out?

The protest votes of this election will surely leave Starmer at the next (sitting governments don’t attract them) to return mostly to the Conservatives / Reform. Genuinely socialist and centre left voters realising (at last) that they have been utterly hoodwinked by Starmer will abandon Labour also.

There is no need for the Conservatives and Reform to formally merge, if the Tories elect Robert Jenrick as leader (or any of those queueing up to throw far-right shapes) then the fascist rhetoric will be indistinguishable.

Starmer is well aware that his loveless landslide is an electoral sandcastle propped up by the votes of racists, that’s why he was trading in racist tropes during the election and why he couldn’t denounce (or even mention) racism while addressing race riots.

There is a reason why sackloads of Tory rats are fighting to be the next Enoch Powell, they can read the electoral tea leaves and see the opportunity in a reactionary and implicitly racist pitch.

[The Tory / Reform axis (however it emerges) at the next election will embody that guy down the pub who says ‘I’m not racist…BUT’]

Contemporary western politicians gave up offering moral leadership decades ago, the new breed simply analyse the societal trends set by the real power brokers – the media and pitch to that. Now the UK has most toxic and openly racist media in the world and the underlying drift of the British political and media class has thus been a magic mountain of ‘centrism’ that moves slowly, imperceptibly and stealthily to the right.

Many people of genuine conscience that I speak to seem either content to play whatever cards that this rigged game deals them or are just resigned to the idea that making and winning a moral argument in 2024 is just impossible. This is so dangerous.

Making the moral argument for socialism is the only way to avoid a resurgence of fascism across much of Western Europe.

Israel and the U.S. have shown us that nakedly fascist states disturb the 1% not one jot, in fact they are frightfully good for business, concentrate power handily and by their calculus only little people get sent to the concentration camps.

So my message to all those congratulating themselves for ‘defeating’ the ‘far right’ this morning is simple – you haven’t defeated anything. The politicians / media are still the same, the drift of the UK towards electing a fascist government is the same and the moral anaemia of the national debate is unchanged.

There is a reason why my proudly moralist stance towards all issues is so unfashionable these days, it involves disagreeably hard work, engaging with people we probably would rather not and might actually change something.

People who argue for any moral truth are rarely rewarded with popularity and flowers, but if a moral socialist majority cannot be built to oppose fascism, then don’t be surprised when our politicians shrug their shoulders, bank the money and enjoy the slide – and ultimately the fault for that will not be theirs, but ours.