This Week was NOT about Riots or Racism
Week 31 of 2024 was a powerful example of communities coming together
To see how Sam Pepys spent this week 364 years ago, follow this link.
For me, Monday morning began with the serene scene of not one but two muntjacs exploring the Pepys House garden. It was an image that filled the start of my week with tranquillity and delightful anticipation.
I suspect this feeling was shared by Elsie, Alice, Bebe, and all the families attending Leanne Lucas’ dance workshop in Southport at the start of that Monday too.
My tranquillity was tested by all sorts of trials this week, which prevented me achieving a lot of what I’d hoped to. But it was nothing at all like the horrors faced by those families. There’s no comparison.
In deciding what to write about this week, there were a number of options open to me. All the personal ones seemed trite – but the national one?
That seemed pathetic.
To be clear, that last sentence does not relate to the Southport killings. It’s referring to the violence that followed. I’m going to recount the sequence of events here, partly ‘coz that’s what Sam would’ve done, but also because it could be quite easy to miss the ridiculousness of it all if, like me, you were late coming to the news.
‘Coz, truth be told, it was late in the week that I had a chance to turn my attention to the news. By the time I did, the headlines were full of protests and so-called “anti-protests”, mobs attacking mosques, cars on fire, shops being looted, and reports of our countryfolk being afraid to leave their homes.
Having been in London during the 2011 riots, my thoughts immediately expected a similar incendiary incident: the death of a drug dealer, public outcry against treatment by the police/politicians, blurring of the lines by anti-immigration activists because of the backgrounds of those involved.
It wasn’t until the very end of the week that my mum brought the real cause to my attention. A 17-year-old British black youth had attacked a young girls’ dance class with no known motive, but his age had required his identity to be kept from the public.
Anti-immigration activists, including one Nigel Farage, had seized the opportunity to stoke conspiracy theories about other possible reasons why the identity could have been officially concealed – such as to hide the fact that the perpetrator was an Asian Muslim refugee.
This viciousness then combined with hateful rhetoric, cost-of-living stressors, and doubtless a fair amount of alcohol in many instances, prompting a barrage of opportunistic violent intolerance – or should that be, a Farage of opportunistic violent intolerance...
That’s all it was: opportunistic violent intolerance. It can’t be called anything else. You can’t call it ‘anti-immigrant’, because most of those targeted were fully integrated Brits: Brits who worked here, Brits who schooled here, Brits with relationships here, Brits who paid taxes here… Indeed, as my mum pointed out, many of the activists injured in the violence would be treated by ‘immigrants’ once they reached the hospital.
But it’s the opportunism of it all that sickens me the most. When Sarah Payne was senselessly murdered by British white male Roy Whiting, the nation was in mourning. When Holly and Jessica were senselessly murdered by British white male Ian Huntley, the nation was in mourning.
Our nation hasn’t had a chance to mourn Elsie, Alice, and Bebe yet, because the horror they and those around them went through has been seized upon and twisted to the ends of those who enjoy expressing their views in the most selfishly extreme of ways. OK, the country may have an immigration problem. The solution is never to hit a shopkeeper or a Mosque-goer.
So what I want my post to be this week is, first and foremost, a composition of compassion for the families of Elsie, Alice, and Bebe, and all the others injured in that senseless attack, including the adults like instructor Leanne who bravely attempted to get in the attacker’s way.
And as well as remembering the light that entered our world through the smiles of Elsie, Alice, and Bebe – a light that is not lost, because their memories will live on – I want to take the opportunity to be proud of my countryfolk.
This is a country where men and women put their own safety aside without a moment’s thought, with the goal of getting in the way of someone trying to harm children.
This is a country where, within a day, thousands gathered to hold a vigil to the girls’ memory, and adorn the scene with flowers.
This is a country where communities immediately rallied to donate in support of those affected by the horror – communities as varied as Taylor Swift fans, the girls’ schools, and the care home where one of Alice’s parents worked.
This week was not about riots or racism. It was a week in which the nation shed tears for three beautiful smiles made eternal before their time.
