In the UK, the multicultural model has withstood the riots

Des “far-right thugs” which only deploy « pure violence » and go “regret having taken part” to the riots or to have stirred up racial and anti-Muslim hatred online. This is how the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, described those and especially those who, in early August, from Southport to Bristol via Belfast, threw bricks at the police, mosques or even tried to set fire to emergency accommodation for migrants. The Labour Party refused to outline explanations for these explosions of anger, dismissing anything that could resemble a beginning of justification for the violence. They were stirred up by far-right groups and activists, who spread the false information that the murder of three girls in Southport (north-east England) had been committed by a Muslim migrant.

The leader’s response to the riots has, so far, been exclusively judicial: arrests have been massive (over a thousand), justice has been swift and particularly severe: hundreds of people have already appeared before a judge, the majority of whom have been sentenced to prison terms. Mr Starmer has chosen the same strategy of deterrence as during the 2011 riots in London, when he was Director of Public Prosecutions.

Yet the violence has erupted in some of the country’s poorest towns, such as Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Rotherham in northern England, where people have expressed a lack of trust in the governing parties after decades of declining living standards. These towns also have more emergency migrant accommodation than the wealthy south of England because rents are lower.

“An achievement”

Yet Keir Starmer’s line has gained consensus and neither the left nor the right questions the national multicultural model or the assimilation of British Muslims into national values. True, Nigel Farage, the leader of the populist Reform UK party, described the clashes in Leeds as “subcontinent politics” [indien] »But only the extra-parliamentary extreme right, in particular its main figure, Tommy Robinson, holds multiculturalism and Islam responsible for all the ills of a white working class with a strong sense of downgrading.

“The fact that British society is multi-ethnic is taken for granted. People don’t question it, they’re even proud of it, that’s what our polls show. Only 7% of people [dans un sondage réalisé le 9 août] during the riots said they were ashamed of living in a multi-ethnic country, compared to 48% who said they were proud, and 45% who had no opinion.”points out Luke Tryl, director of the think tank More in Common UK. In the early 2010s, David Cameron, then prime minister [2010-2016]had mentioned the ” chess “ of multiculturalism. Labour leader Tony Blair [1997-2007]after the attacks on the London Underground in 2005, also insisted on the need for the entire population of the country to share the “British values” or Western.

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