Thousands gathered in Southport yesterday to remember the three young girls—Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven—killed in Monday’s horrific knife attack. The day’s events, culminating in a riot, included a disastrous visit from prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, in Southport for “barely two minutes” to lay flowers for the deceased, and booed by members of the public. Heckles included:
“How many more children? Our kids are dead and you’re leaving already?”
“Here’s your photo opportunity.”
“Get the truth out.”
“I’ve just found out my friend’s nine-year-old daughter was killed, the person I’ve held as a child, and you can’t do s**t.”
“Go away, you’re not wanted.”
A 17-year-old, reportedly the son of Rwandan immigrants in Cardiff, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder and is detained for questioning.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said that the heckling of Starmer “shows you how unhappy the public are with the state of law and order in our country.” He added:
The police say it’s a non-terror incident, just as they said the stabbing of an army lieutenant colonel in uniform on the streets of Kent the other day was a non-terror incident. I just wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us. I don’t know the answer to that. I think it is a fair and legitimate question.
What I do know is something is going horribly wrong in our once beautiful country.
There is a genuine feeling of anger across the country—particularly in Southport. The European Conservative’s Frank Haviland describes it as:
a palpable sense that the British have had enough.
Meanwhile the wider public is smeared as ‘Far Right’ and ‘conspiracy theorists’ when it questions apparent attempts to “manage” the narrative. Merseyside Police blamed the near-forgotten English Defence League (EDL) for last night’s disorder. Reporting restrictions may contribute to a dearth of actual information about the perpetrator of the attack—opening up a mass of speculation on social media—but distrust of the official line is already widespread.
Like the PM, journalists travelling into Southport to cover the events were also heckled. More press arrived when rioting began, after rumours swirled around a 32-year-old man—alleged to be threatening yesterday’s vigil—who was arrested nearby as officers seized a “flick knife” (switchblade). The suspicion that he was the subject of yet more official gaslighting only fuelled the rumour mill further.
ITV’s Paul Brand said that the “clashes were not easy to report on. We try our best to understand what the violence is about and who the crowd are. But media are not welcome, as you can see in this video taken by a member of the public. It isn’t possible to engage with the people involved.”
Academy of Ideas director Baroness (Claire) Fox said there was a “deeper problem” than the violent riots that erupted last night. Namely, that
The unspeakable murder of these children has become a lightning rod for a wide range of discontent. A feeling that things are out of control and that people have been gaslit and not told the truth of what’s going on.
While locals mourn, five other children and two adults remain in critical condition. Three other youngsters were also left injured after the initial bloody rampage at a sold-out Taylor Swift-themed children’s dance class on July 29th.
Soon after Starmer’s appearance, national attention turned to the outbreak of violence on the streets of Southport. Rioters set a police car—along with other locally owned vehicles—alight, launched bricks ripped from garden walls at the local mosque, damaged and looted a nearby shop and set fire to wheelie bins. In the chaos—the aftermath of which has been described by a local businessman as being “like a war scene”—54 police officers were injured, eight of them with serious injuries including fractures and lacerations (and 27 reportedly hospitalised).
It seems the establishment will welcome this opportunity to focus on thuggery, comparing it favourably to the dignified and united Southport residents. Reports of ‘Islamophobic’ rioters drinking and celebrating are an opportunity to avoid discussing the public concerns amplified by the murder of primary school children.
Yesterday, we pointed to reports that “what we are being told about the Southport stabbings is being managed.” The BBC says the suspect “has no known links to Islam,” and The Daily Telegraph quotes neighbours who described him as having been an “introvert” as a child from a “normal family.” While the alleged attacker’s age leads to strict reporting restrictions, the febrile national mood means that the authorities are perceived as hiding behind legal technicalities—shielding them from discussing crime, multiculturalism and mass immigration.
As if to further corroborate Farage’s point, a machete fight broke out yesterday evening in Southend-on-Sea, forcing police to implement a dispersal order.
