The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.

The last week has seen an explosion of violent public disorder.

The spark that ignited the tinder being the horrific and murderous attack on a children’s activity group that left 3 children dead with eight more and their attending adults injured and likely scared, physically and mentally for life.

The immediate question must be how such a terrible event relates to demonstrations and violence ?

The answer must be it doesn’t. The only response to such a tragedy is compassion and mourning for the senseless and barbaric loss inflicted on the families of the deceased and injured.

Something else, some unrelated. deep grievance must have been triggered for such an explosion of protest and violence directed as it has been against the Police and property.

Belfast, Blackpool, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Rotherham, Stoke, Sunderland have all seen public disorder at a scale worthy of the title riot. It’s a safe bet that none of those taking part knew the bereaved in Southport,. If asked few could explain why that happening triggered their need to protest, to throw missiles at the police, commit arson, smash windows or seek to empty the shelves of nearby shops.

Clearly something else has been in play.

What these cities do have in common is that they all are post-industrial cities. Centres of heavy industry and manufacturing that have been stripped of their industries leaving their highly skilled populations with nothing.

This is not a new situation it has been a creeping tide for many years. It is now two or even three generations since the coal mining, streel making, ceramics, ship building that provided the foundations of these communities ceased. Twenty or thirty years later they are still without replacement . Well paid skilled jobs have been replaced with call centres and low pay retail offerings. Schools have decayed, dentists disappeared, GP’s become impossible to see, roads become potholed and cratered and the balance of the communities disturbed.

This is an interesting insight from the Spectator

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Long held values of community, patriotism, and self help have been challenged and derided by the “educated classes” who hold power but no appreciation of the need to shop in Iceland rather than Waitrose. Who have engineered and imposed a position in pursuit of their own values where the balance of these communities has been disrupted by the imposition of their version of equality and woke compassion and an influx of immigration that further removes access to already inadequate public services and housing , erodes the feeling of community and nationality and feeds a feeling of two tier supply and two tier application of the law.

In short for many living in the post industrial landscape the quality of life and opportunity has eroded to the point where the bear bones show through – in short inequality has been allowed to grow and the sense of grievance fester.

This said, there is no room to doubt that individuals and groups have taken advantage of the situation to drive disorder. Some may correctly be held as “Far Right” but that tag does not fit all. The Prime Minister, freshly elected with a huge majority but shallow mandate,  standing in front of Union Flags and reading a prepared speech holding far-right thugs responsible in his version of  “New Speak”  is not the answer.  It is a wilful mis direction and avoidance of the need to address what is clear to see.

The simple fact is that truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it . If government and its agencies of authority and supply do not recognise the truth they face, change course, create and deliver solutions to the feelings of abandonment, dissolution and inequity that those sparking disorder feed on for their success, then far more will follow.

These outbreaks of disorder are symptoms not the problem. The Problem is deeper, wider, more complex , dangerous and not uniquely English. The same scenes are on display in the Republic of Ireland and across continental Europe.

Others have written on this – to example Konstantin Kisin makes the argument better than I do here but who in government is listening and understanding?