Warnings of civil war in Britain have been simmering for some time. Now it seems we are dangerously close. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the horrific attempted beheading in Belfast. This type of grotesque violence is not something the British are accustomed to, and tempers are boiling in Northern Ireland. Even if a full state of emergency does not break out immediately, it seems likely that the United Kingdom is heading for a “summer of discontent”. The British can thank an immigration policy that has failed completely.
The video of the horrific attack on a man in Belfast has been viewed millions of times. It shows the true face of bestiality. A passer-by interviewed by The Telegraph described the attacker as “not human”. “Even now I’m scared. I imagine how he did it. He’s not human. He did it again and again.” The perpetrator is a Sudanese asylum seeker who was granted a five-year residence permit by the Conservative government in 2023. The victim is a Northern Irish man in his forties who now lies seriously injured in hospital.
Yet those who describe the attack as a sign of an “alien culture” are reprimanded. Jim Allister, Member of Parliament for North Antrim, asked in Parliament yesterday:
“What is going to be done to stop the importation of an alien culture that thinks it is appropriate to try and behead someone within the United Kingdom..?”
The reply he received from Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, was predictable and Orwellian. Benn responded as though he had been programmed from above: “I am sorry that the honourable and learned gentleman used the words ‘alien culture’; what exactly is he referring to?”
Some cultures are better than others
Indeed, what could he possibly mean? Evil exists in all parts of the world, of course, but certain forms of violence—such as gang rape and beheadings—are exceedingly rare in the West. Everyone can see that cultures differ and that some cultures are better than others. “Nothing to see here,” Benn appears to believe. It is astonishing that experienced, intelligent politicians such as Benn still pretend that multiculturalism works.
The people of Northern Ireland can see what is happening, and they are reacting in the only way they can: by expressing anger and destroying their own neighbourhoods. It is because of politicians such as Benn and Keir Starmer, and the wider liberal elite, that we are now watching Belfast burn.
It has been going on for two days, and it is of course affecting innocent people, such as the two care workers who were trapped in the flat where they were staying for four hours while smoke from burning neighbouring houses drifted inside. During the night into Thursday, 12 police officers were injured and 16 people arrested after bricks were thrown at police and petrol bombs were ignited. In Scotland, three police officers were injured. Police are preparing to face yet another night of violent unrest.
Stephen Ogilvie has lost his sight as a result of the attack, and his family have condemned the riots. They defended immigrants and said they make “valuable contributions” to Northern Ireland. One may speculate as to whether these words genuinely come from the family, or whether they have been persuaded by the authorities to speak in this manner. Violence should of course be condemned; it does no more to help the victim than it does to bring an end to failed asylum policies. But politics has consequences. Integration has failed, and this is the result. The anger cannot be stopped, however strongly politicians condemn it.
Is the wrong choice of words worse than violence?
A few years ago, it was Katie Hopkins who was denounced whenever a terrorist attack or other violent incident involving newly arrived “Britons” occurred. Once the initial shock had subsided, Hopkins would comment in a manner that caused the media and politicians to see red, and attention shifted from the horrific acts themselves to how “horrible” Hopkins supposedly was.
These days it is usually Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe who are condemned for using the “wrong” language. So it is this time as well. It happened in the Nowak case, and it is happening again now. Using the wrong words is “unforgivable”, according to Keir Starmer. Anger is not legitimate, no matter how serious the incident. Few things are more horrific than the attacks on both Nowak and Ogilvie. Ogilvie was also defenceless—he has been described as physically and mentally disabled, with impaired hearing—and now he has lost his sight as well. Is not anger precisely an appropriate response to such barbarity?
“What sort of attacks are we actually allowed to be angry about?” asks Douglas Murray in The Spectator. Indeed. The paradox is that the anger will only grow, not disappear, as a result of condemnation and denial from those in power. The anger we see in Belfast and elsewhere is not the product of racism or far-right extremism; it is a predictable consequence of open borders. If Britain’s cities truly erupt this summer, responsibility rests in one place alone: with the governments that for years have failed in their most important duty—to ensure that the borders are respected and that the population is safe.