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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To wonder what would it actually take to cause civil unrest in the UK

216 replies

Frenchfancy · 21/03/2019 19:51

Why aren't people angrier about Brexit? Why have there been no riots? Is it because the part of society that are more likely to root want Brexit and the rest of us are too polite.

I live in France where we have been having weekly riots for the past few months because people are a bit upset they haven't got enough money. Yet in the UK not a single window has been smashed.

I'm not saying rioting is a good thing, I'm just wondering why other in other countries people get angry enough to riot but in the UK they don't.

OP posts:
BMW6 · 21/03/2019 23:20

I strongly suspect you are spot on thigh

twofingerstoEverything · 21/03/2019 23:25

Those that voted leave are staying quiet now and watching the remainers with interest.
In Brighton, those that voted leave are attacking their MP in the street.

time4chocolate · 21/03/2019 23:31

Perhaps they are quietly amused at watching the remainers, who are more likely to be MC and have assets, lose their shit 😂

pineapplebryanbrown · 21/03/2019 23:32

We really aren't hearing a lot from leave voters atm. I believe this is because they don't give a fuck one way or another whether Brexit happens or doesn't.

Poloshot · 21/03/2019 23:33

Not leaving the EU

pineapplebryanbrown · 21/03/2019 23:34

two that's one man. I don't see any protests from leavers atm pushing the agenda.

ZippyBungleandGeorge · 21/03/2019 23:38

Cheese shortage

SnowdropsiUnderTrees · 21/03/2019 23:39

OP are you a Russia troll trying to incite unrest by any chance?

IamPickleRick · 21/03/2019 23:45

thighofrelief101 agreed. I know a lot of leave voters and they are mostly saying they are so bored of hearing about Brexit, it’s so boring etc, which says to me that for many it was a flash in the pan vote without any real understanding of or care for the lengths the gov would have to go to to untangle us from them EU. I also hear a lot of them ask why didn’t anyone mention Ireland at the time. I myself specifically mentioned Ireland to all my family members, shared every single article or essay I could find that might have given a proper debate of the leave vs remain issues, so I imagine selective memory is at play here.

pineapplebryanbrown · 21/03/2019 23:51

Rick i know quite a lot too. They don't give a monkeys.

Graphista · 22/03/2019 00:15

I don't think it's anger causes people to riot I think it's fear.

And people aren't scared yet, they're anxious, but they're not scared.

And it's not the reasons for the shortages that causes the fear it's the effects - a pp joked about snowstorms here in Scotland but that is when you see tensions rising - when people are genuinely fearful they can't get their or their loved ones basic needs met.

"If there are shortages following a no deal, people will quickly become frightened and frightened people are irrational"

Unfortunately if we crash out they WILL be scared. As soon as food and medicine shortages start to directly affect people...Then we may possibly have civil unrest occurring.

I sincerely hope that it's avoided preferably by art 50 being revoked and uk remaining in the eu.

"They were all things that affected the poor. This one affects the rich." What?!! You think brexit only affects the rich?!!!

"The British have never been the oppressed, they have been the oppressor." Er really? Who do you think "the British" are? There are many Brits that have experienced, or their families have, oppression. I certainly think the northern Irish would beg to differ! Quite a good number of scots, Welsh and Cornish too and those Brits who weren't born British but born into oppressive regimes they were able to escape before becoming Brits.

"Frances issues are different, they are sinking into another recession, they haven’t recovered from the last one. There is an air of hopelessness almost despair about France. Things will need to change there too. It is a beautiful country with so much potential, but the people are not happy at all." What Britain are you living in that you think it's different here?

I actually think one element behind the lack of unrest so far is due to the public knowing the police have been just as screwed by austerity cuts as everyone else! Previously govts have ensured police were on their side, can't see that happening right now!

"That doesn’t make any sense. Low unemployment means more people working, so more people have found work." 😂😂😂

Or...it means the govt has changed the definition of "unemployed" eg raising the age of mandatory education so 16-18 yr olds aren't included in figures, deciding 1 hour per fortnight of paid work = employed, 0 hours contracts with weeks where that employee gets no hours = employed...

Easy to claim "reduced unemployment" then isn't it?

"Politics isn't a standard part of the school curriculum." It is in Scotland via modern studies and I believe (NI people can deny or confirm please) similar in NI.

I think also the scots & Northern Irish tend to be more politically engaged as our history as part of the U.K. Means we've bloody needed to be - or we'd have been COMPLETELY screwed by Westminster!

The leave voters I know have either admitted they've changed their minds (because they didn't understand things like the effect on imports inc medicines, hadn't even considered the Irish border issue, and are now shitting themselves over food shortages - a few are diabetics ffs!), or else they're being extremely quiet, I'm talking barely using sm at all, not commenting in real life basically keeping their heads well down!

I hope there won't be unrest, I fear there may be. More than I'd fear it normally because as pps pointed out this isn't us vs govt like with the miners strike or poll tax this is us vs our friends and family and when things get personal they can get REALLY out of hand!

MissGuernsey · 22/03/2019 00:25

No way will there be riots over the Brexit mess.

Remainers are too law-abiding and don't have the balls to kick off.

time4chocolate · 22/03/2019 00:57

The main causes of riots are not fear but injustice.

www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/publications/cjm/article/riots-pure-and-simple

I sincerely hope that it's avoided preferably by art 50 being revoked and uk remaining in the eu

Your solution to revoke negates a possibility of a riot scenario based on fear and replaces that with a highly probable riot scenario based on injustice and mistrust.

frazzledmumoftwo · 22/03/2019 01:03

I am worried that the march on Saturday may be hit by violence, particularly if families and children are caught up in it. If some of the more extreme "Hard Brexit" Leavers also attend, and there are clashes.

I know a lot of people planning to attend with their children.

MissGuernsey · 22/03/2019 02:27

Leave here

Hoping for 'no deal'

augustusglupe · 22/03/2019 06:24

Voted Leave absolutely give a monkeys. But Brexit will happen, so there’s nothing to kick off about...at the moment..
Just watch it fly if it doesn’t happen.

Bellabellabel · 22/03/2019 06:27

Thinking back to the 2011 riots I think it would take a heat wave with disrupted transport and food shortages.

Timeforabiscuit · 22/03/2019 06:48

Thing is, its not "we" the british public making the call, it should be parliment - and I'm much more interested in how this whole sorry state of affairs is playing out there and maybe getting some proper electoral reform as an outcome.

March for proportional representation isnt that catchy though.

Piddly2 · 22/03/2019 07:19

I think we will have unrest whatever happens. If we don't leave there would be unrest at the lack of democracy shown. Although it's to a certain extent the have-nots in society manipulated by the posh boys against the 'elite'. The irony of course is that this 'elite' are also comprised of people whose families (like mine) were proletariat until the last 20-30 years or so.

If we do leave there will be unrest once the immigrants don't start leaving. Once the have-nots still don't feel better off. Once the cuts to state health and benefits are made deeper. No matter that they say they are OK with a downturn.

Prequelle · 22/03/2019 07:22

Hold on, in one thread people are saying leave votes are constantly gloating and saying 'get over it', in another people are saying they're 'keeping quiet'. Which is it?

Anyway on the topic of WHAT WOULD CREATE CIVIL UNREST - the NHS finally falling.

twofingerstoEverything · 22/03/2019 07:30

I am worried that the march on Saturday may be hit by violence, particularly if families and children are caught up in it. If some of the more extreme "Hard Brexit" Leavers also attend, and there are clashes.
There has been no trouble at all on the previous marches and the leave contingent counter demonstration has literally been four blokes outside a pub near Downing Street, holding a placard and shouting insults. Have a look at Farage's Leave Means Leave march and feel reassured (it's hilarious by the way!). There is a thuggish branch of leavers (EDL/Football Lads Alliance/BNP morons etc) but they've never shown their faces at the previous marches (maybe the crowd is too big for them to intimidate?).

Rufusthebewilderedreindeer · 22/03/2019 07:36

Hold on, in one thread people are saying leave votes are constantly gloating and saying 'get over it', in another people are saying they're 'keeping quiet'. Which is it?

I think its a fair comment

Years worth of gloating from some

And now in the last few weeks when things are getting fucked up by the government some are keeping quiet

Biker47 · 22/03/2019 07:37

I like having a job and being able to pay my bills, if I go boot off in a city centre and smash the place up I risk losing that after getting arrested and jailed. I want brexit to go ahead and am happy with it being no deal, and think it's a shit show what is currently going on.

Prequelle · 22/03/2019 07:38

That's a nice way of making the contradiction fit.

Chwaraeteg · 22/03/2019 07:39

Lollipop ladies going on strike. Seriously, that's all it would take. Our school lollipop lady was off sick for one day and it was absolute carnage.

It is worrying though, how much shit we will take in this country. I think that precarious employment and housing situations actually cause people to become more meek and obedient. We all feel like we have to tow the line to hang on to what little security we have.

I'm surprised that universal credit wasn't the tipping point. I think that when it is fully rolled out we are really going to see the breakdown of society.

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