Uniting the Colours in Domestic Terrorism

 

Flags strung up from lampposts, with minimal effort (why be patriotic enough to climb a ladder when you can just cruise along in a cherry picker...which it would suit your stated aims more to use helping out British farms with the harvests you don't want "immigrants" to do.) Rupert Lowe ruining the one attractive part of his constituency, and driving off most of the likely winter visitors in a town which relies heavily on tourism, by forcing staff members to go out and litter the entire promenade with St. George crosses - not, tellingly, Union Jacks; no; this man doesn't want the Scots, Welsh, or Northern Irish in "his" part of England, either - in the middle of a named storm. He then had the nerve to claim he was "confronted and threatened" by a Labour MP with a Palestinian flag - no, Rupert; you decided this was a war; the way wars work is both sides get to wave flags about. Unite the Kingdom et al are nothing short of domestic terrorists. That's a bold claim, so what's backing it up? . British people - people born here, to parents and grandparents who were born here, people who are fully white British - are increasingly afraid in areas where flags are extensively hung. Because it's not just about "foreign criminals" - fully half the males involved in Unite the Kingdom are violent and sexual criminals themselves. Nor is it only about "immigration." It is about who the very worst of the English want to see when they leave their homes. And that's not disabled people. It's not visibly LGBTQ+ people. It's not any non-white people - regardless of how many generations of their family were born here. Regardless of how useful their skills are to the economy, or how much they spend into the economy. Regardless of how they voted.

Often, it's not any women, either - remember, many of these men have sexual violence convictions, and are openly misogynistic. The women involved in the protests are happy to overlook that very real threat, because it gives them the belief that they are more favoured by patriarchy - the ultimate "I'm not like the other girls." There are endless ways you can be "unacceptable" as far as the people behind Unite the Kingdom are concerned; I'm white British, with a white British mother, a white Irish father of Anglo-Irish heritage, white British grandparents on my mother's side, white Irish grandparents on my father's. As far as my heritage can be traced, it's white British and Irish. But I've been racially abused on the presumption that I'm: . Eastern European . Gypsy . Indian (I can kind of see the first two, but who knows what the guy who got in my face yelling "Oi! Onion Bhaji!" at me was on...) And remember...many of these people have criminal convictions for violent offences. They're happy to get in a punch up. They believe certain people deserve to be killed, and the ultimate display of patriotism would be killing them (as though the British Army doesn't have a recruitment problem...) It genuinely isn't safe to be someone they may decide they don't like. They are actively and knowingly creating a hostile environment for ordinary people going about their daily lives. . Businesses are losing custom because of the flags. Understandably, reasonable people don't want to spend a lot of time in places littered with cheap symbols of nasty attitudes. They don't want to risk getting caught up in violence.. They don't want to be on the receiving end of anti-social behaviour. They'd rather not walk down streets reeking of human excrement and urine (because these people won't interrupt their yelling and flag-shagging to find a toilet...) Hospitality businesses are facing increased numbers of cancellations - particularly small, independent hotels and B&Bs, who always struggle during the winter months. If businesses don't make it, the revenue returned to the economy falls. If the revenue returned to the economy falls, there's even less money to spend on reassuring aggrieved white Brits that they matter by providing social services, decent schools, and clean environments. . Local authorities and businesses are being threatened with direct, violent retaliation if they remove flags (so much for "it's about freedom of speech!") . The media has, overwhelmingly, been co-opted on the side of the terrorists, always a priority tactic in terrorist operations, to ensure minimal resistance, and a sympathetic narrative being presented to the terrorised population. . Politicians have been completely blindsided, and rendered unable to offer effective leadership - meaning the terrorists are taking the lead. . Social media has been essentially taken over by very well-financed, highly organised groups who present themselves as "like-minded individuals"; the hallmark of any terrorist activity. . Both the Union Jack and the St. George cross have forever become associated with hostility, intolerance, bigotry, and violence - they can never again hold positive, or even simply neutral, associations. And that is a crime. Britain is in the grip of domestic terrorists who want nothing less than a country where they never have to see anything or anyone they find distasteful, and who are already using threats and violence to achieve that aim. If these people were Muslim? We'd be seeing a very different tone of leadership from Keir Starmer.

So; How do we respond? Some people won't realise they've been drawn into a terrorist organisation; they see genuine problems, they're genuinely concerned, and they don't see anyone stepping up with solutions - apart from groups like Unite the Kingdom. The way we neutralise the terrorist threat is by compassionately engaging with the fears and issues those ordinary, but misled, people have, and providing genuinely inclusive answers - answers which include white British males, too. The Problems: 1. A very tangible lack of social cohesion, and social support

2. High unemployment, even for people with strong skillsets and good qualifications 3. Low wages and an almost intolerably high cost of living 4. Valid fears about rising crime and anti-social behaviour 5. A genuinely unsettling and disorientating pace of change, and one which is leaving many older, poorer, and more rural people behind completely The Solutions: 1. Keir Starmer needs to let go of his fixation with BritCard digital ID - apparently, we "already have the money" - so let go of the scheme for now, and divert that money to appropriate, close-to-home provision for complex needs children, unpaid carers, and adults newly facing life with disability. 2. Making volunteering part of mandatory education, so that all British children grow up believing that volunteering is important, worthwhile, and a natural way to engage with their communities,and their peers, and gain actual skills. - Litter picks can tie into lessons about waste and recycling - Visiting care homes and day centres can tie into lessons about the worth and dignity of all human beings, the impacts of disability and ageing, and the importance of friendship and family connections. - Helping with painting and planting schemes in public spaces creates a sense of ownership of and belonging to those spaces, and can tie into lessons about geography, climate change, communication, employability, and PE. - Volunteering in museums and art galleries ties into history and art lessons, and gives opportunities to engage with a broader range of people, objects, and places, as well as creating a sense of "pride in place", and connection to where people live. The skills and contacts made through volunteering should be an identified part of a wider career pathway, which includes lateral as well as merely forward progression options, and centres on roles which are fully inclusive of disability and neurodiversity. People who would otherwise struggle to produce references for employment, who might otherwise find themselves with a very sparse CV, and therefore a sense a being "useless", and the world "not being for someone like me", would avoid this negative impact through the unlocking of their skills and strengths, and the greater access to community, that volunteering offers. Entrepreneurship, likewise, should be a mandatory aspect of formal education, including connecting children and young people with genuine, experienced, professional mentors, and teaching skills such as pitching for investment, and managing an investment portfolio; it is impossible to know what the employment landscape will be like in 5-10 years' time, but the mindset entrepreneurship grants will equip today's young people with the flexibility and adaptability to take advantage of, and fully engage with, whatever "employment" looks like as they enter adulthood - or to create their own opportunities. 3. Every government howls and harps about "the welfare spend!", whilst deliberately ignoring the reality; the majority of the welfare spend is the result of ever-rising private sector rents; essentially, landlords are causing the "impossible burden" of welfare spending, not immigrants, single mothers, or disabled people. Private sector rents should be capped to a maximum of 10% of the lowest local wages: ie, if the lowest local salary results in a take-home pay of £1,500 per month, then rent should never be more than £150per month - and that for the largest "reasonable" property available. This is more likely to cause wages to rise, rather than rents to fall (as many businesses and business owners are also landlords); in either eventuality, working people would have far more disposable income, and would actually feel as "wealthy" as we are constantly told our generation is. Older people could remain in homes and localities they have genuine connection to. Young adults could start saving sooner. Middle-aged adults would be better able to meet the demands both of their children, including young adult children, and ageing and potentially frail parents. Disabled people would have more flexibility to search for properties that actually suit them -and would be in a better position to pay for those that do, which would prompt greater building of genuinely accessible housing. Fewer children would grow up in poverty. People would feel more able to invest in hobbies and socialising,and to commit time to volunteering, with all the benefits that have already been outlined. 4. We've seen that prison, or the threat of prison, doesn't work. Therefore, we need a genuine, radical reform of the entire justice process - from first contact with police until conviction. Punishment should of course remain a part of that process - but punishment with a purpose beyond satisfying moral outrage, and a follow on commitment to support to avoid re-offending. 5. Business and government need to take responsibility for genuine, open-minded consultation, discussions and explanations given clearly, in an orderly fashion, and at a reasonable pace, in as many forms and formats as possible, so that the maximum number of people genuinely feel included, are actually listened to, and their barriers and concerns believed, and, ideally, removed through supportive co-operation with them.

We don't need to exclude anyone. We don't need a litter of flags. (civic buildings, sports stadia, and at genuine times of inclusive community pride and celebration are the appropriate places for flying flags of any kind, alongside peoples' own private property.) We don't need bigotry and violence on our streets.