Starting to feel more hopeful about current situation in the UK

[Lencoboy]

While it's still early days, and there's still no room for complacency nor for us to let our guards down just yet, the events of last night (Wednesday 7th August) thankfully ended up being far more positive than negative.

Not only the vastly increased police patrols in many areas across England (so far Scotland and Wales have both fortunately remained unsullied by these disturbances), but the sheer display of public unity telling not just the far-Right rabble-rousers themselves but also the general hooligan element across the board in this country that the vast majority of us want peace and unity instead of constant chaos and anarchy. Likewise the vast majority of Muslims the world over also want peace and don't believe in Islamic State-related terrorism, which is generally only linked to a tiny faction of 'bad apples' and not representative of the faith/culture in its entirety (even Islam itself as a whole) The same can also be said for Black people; most of whom don't believe in crime and violence contrary to popular myths that have abounded for several decades now.

I'm now also starting to feel more optimistic about the prospects of the authorities (at least in this country) being more willing to attempt to tackle misinformation and 'fake news' more rigorously from now on after seemingly dragging their heels on the matter during the past decade or more, and also hopefully attempt to get to grips with many other longstanding issues that have been plaguing certain elements of our society for far too long now (e.g, knife crime, gang culture, ASB, etc).

While I thoroughly accept and acknowledge that he/they are not everyone's cup of tea; nor are they the ultimate 'magic bullet' to all of our societal ills, I personally believe that Starmer and Co's recent GE victory was extremely timely in the face of both current events and various other issues that have been mounting over the past decade or two that have seemingly been brushed under the carpet during that time, in fairness even by the last Labour govt (aka 'New Labour') to a certain extent, let alone the Tories. Hopefully by the same token, we might hopefully become less of a 'walk on by' society from now on, especially after all the encouraging scenes across the country last night that have at long last helped restore some of my faith in humanity, and the fact that 'good almost always triumphs over evil'.

I'm now kind of contemplating deletion of my other related thread 'My worst nightmare finally came true last night...' over the coming days provided these current disturbances finally peter out, which we all well and truly hope they do.

Hope everyone is OK and I sincerely apologise for being a bit of a drama queen over the past week or so.

[Lencoboy]

Today appears to have remained mostly peaceful up until now, with the only incident I'm currently aware of being in Barnsley earlier today, which must have passed without any major aggro given it was only mentioned once on the BBC site's live rolling feed this afternoon, so obviously a case of 'no news is good news'.

Hopefully the morons are finally getting the gist at long last, that they're nowhere near as untouchable as they like to think they are.

[Lencoboy]

Although we've still got tonight and this weekend to get through and there's still no room for complacency, it does look increasingly like we're now past the worst of the disturbances in England, which appeared to cover the period from last Friday (2nd August) through this Monday just gone (5th August), and apart from the counter-protests in various English cities on Wednesday evening, barely any far-Right-fuelled violence of any major significance appears to have happened in England so far since Tuesday, but still incidents reported in NI (Belfast) yesterday.

Luckily Scotland and Wales both still remain unsullied.

It also seems like the news in general has now started to move on to other stuff.

[Keith]

Large gathering of protesters outside Nigel Farage's office. Actions like this won't put a stop to the situation.

[Lencoboy]

Large gathering of protesters outside Nigel Farage's office. Actions like this won't put a stop to the situation.

Not a dickie bird as yet on the BBC site about that.

The only 'riot'-related events I've read about so far today (on the BBC site) are the anti-racism demos in Scottish cities, which I'm sure you've no doubt heard/read about, but up until now, no reports of any far-Right-induced disorder.

Touch wood, England has also been pretty quiet for the fifth consecutive day so far in terms of far-Right-induced aggro. Hopefully most have now got the message; especially as they've now no doubt had the fear of God put into them through seeing/reading/hearing about those who partook in the disorder last week and the very beginning of this week rapidly getting their comeuppance!

ETA @ approx 8.30 pm on 10/8/24; There have been a number of 'Stand Up To Racism' demos across England today but both the BBC and Sky News kept have only just started reporting on them this evening, despite them mostly taking place earlier on today.

So far they've been largely peaceful with no signs of any aggro as yet; touch wood (again).

[Lencoboy]

Well contrary to initial concerns, barely anything 'riot'-wise seemed to happen over this weekend just gone (at least within the British mainland), plus it's been largely quiet in England since last Tuesday (6th August); apart from the anti-racism 'counter-protests' on both Wednesday (7th August) and Saturday (10th August) which I guess don't really count as 'disturbances' in the current context.

Despite the police still remaining on 'high alert' up and down the country (also counting Scotland and Wales) for the foreseeable future, I'm now starting to feel brave enough to return to my day centre on Wednesday, especially as it seems that Burton luckily escaped unsullied, despite the presence of persons of colour, mosques and very likely hotels housing refugees/asylum seekers there, but my town of residence (Tamworth) was most ironically targeted instead a week ago yesterday; albeit only just one building/site (the Holiday Inn Express), with the rest of the town/borough untouched.