to think these people in Sunderland are not "protesting".

[Misthios]

They are not protestors. They are not protesting. They are common or garden thugs and criminals who are causing criminal damage, setting police offices on fire and attacking police officers.

Total scumbags.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnl0lkrxgvxo

I'm actually feeling sick to the stomach today. Scared, upset and depressed at what's happening to my country.

I feel the same SallyWD. It will only get worse before it gets better.

Not just your country, Sally, it's happening all over the place. It will die down here and crop up somewhere else.

It is very depressing. I just had a look at my local 'paper' online and there have been no riots anywhere near where I live, I'm on the outskirts of London and it's very multicultural. I'm thankful not to be scared here but I am fearful for others. The far right are spreading their hate-filled propaganda on various FB groups, many seem to be semi-literate. They are so rude and defensive to anyone who disagrees with them. It's not really worth engaging.

There's another level of whathefuckery brewing as some alleged advisor to Starmer called Lord Walney has been on GB News hinting that the public would be in favour of extraordinary measures as they were during Covid, but did deny the interviewers suggestion that riot lockdown was what he was suggesting.

I only saw this by mistake during my periodic poke around on Facebook which I do to see localised reporting at the moment as it came up on my search feed. I'm trying not to do it often as I don't want to feed the bloody algorithms, but obviously want to keep an eye on it all. Some of the hate posts being allowed to stand are just beyond belief and I think it's the tip of an iceberg being carefully managed by social media in conjunction with government directives.

As for Rotherham, bloody hell.

I live in Leeds which is also very multicultural. It's one of the things I love most about this city. We still had riots yesterday but thankfully the anti-racism protesters outnumbered the racists. There were nasty and frightening scenes but we didn't have the kinds of scenes we're seeing in Rotherham. I wondered if that's because Leeds is so multicultural that we all have much loved black and Asian friends. Who knows...

Walney didn’t say that.

I know. That's what I said but GB News is advertising it as otherwise.

And actually he did say that the public may support extra police powers in these circumstances. Which is probably true as long as mission creep doesn't extend to far.

I saw the video of the holiday Inn, it was vile, imagine being inside so scary. The people outside men and women seemed to be having a jolly! Disgusting when they could potentially cause someone to be injured or even die with their smashing and setting a fire even if its a bin so stupid

Doubtless there will be someone along in a minute to tell us that we don't really "know" that the people actually sieg heiling are fascists.

It is all awful but I do think that a fair proportion of those running amok now won't be doing it through any kind of political agenda but because they are yobs who fancy looting and setting fire to stuff. The organisers/coordinators of all this will have predicted that bandwagon jumping which makes their numbers look greater than they are.

Cold comfort I know. Doesn't make it any better, doesn't make the torrents of hate speech go away.

Just had a quick look at the current global conflicts which are also apparently escalating while Shoe Zone is being turned over. Yikes. That is all.

I've been told I need to start showing more gratitude to this country for being allowed to live here, and if we all just appreciated that then there wouldn't be this mess because people would know we were grateful for being allowed to stay.

I was born here.

The person saying that knows I was born here, because they're a relative. They genuinely think I have less right to live in my home country than they do, because of my faith.

Fuck them. "Gratitude", fuck off! With family like that....

Some of the shouts on the live streams are terrifying 'get them' 'kill them' - I have no clue where this is going to end. The amount of kids there with parents, the women screaming and spitting at police - it's disgusting.

What the hell it will be like teaching in September I have no clue!

Sky News are showing a live feed of the stand off outside the Holiday Inn in Rotherham. The police have managed to get the mob back down the road using their "wall" tactic or whatever the official term is thankfully.

It strikes me that "the mob" don't actually give a shit about children potentially in that hotel who are probably terrified right now. Any one of them who publicly tries to claim they're "defending kiddies" deserves a smack in the lying mouth (and I'm really not a violent person). Likewise with regard to ALL the children living in areas where they've had to witness all this, especially Southport obviously.

Much as I'm trying to control my anger about "things I can't control" I'm definitely simmering. There's fuck all I can do obviously because thank fully I'm out of any affected area, and even if I were able to join a counter protest, I wonder if it would really help?

Honestly I'm just feeling very helpless and angry, so I'm posting here just to vent. Apologies if it's not appropriate.

Bloody hell. I'm so sorry. And what the PP said.

Thanks. I'm meant to be delivering training down in England in a few weeks, but I'm considering cancelling it. Not so much for myself, but for DC, who'd be coming with me if I go. If all this kicked off while we were there, DC would be terrified.

Seemingly Saturday was safe & peaceful just like all other Saturdays ….geordies are a completely different & peaceful breed compared to mackems.

@Scirocco

It's so wrong you are being impacted in this way, so very very wrong. All I can offer is solidarity and a virtual hug to you and yours.

I do too. It's why I'm so sweary. I thought the far right racism would get better with a change of government and less inflammatory rhetoric from politicians but it appears some people can't deal with living in a democracy and have decided to kick off

Using the term MSM also. It’s the far-right’s equivalent of Hitler’s “Lügenpresse” - the lying press - which he used to discredit trusted national media in order to allow disinformation to spread.

It's fascinating how on Facebook news article where this is been reported that because no one has filmed the carnage it must be made up..m

And this whole "ooo can't get a job because of them" erm no! moments like this is why you can't get a job! Doubt these people are squeaky clean and all.

Protest could under but this is beyond that and I suspect some don't give a crap what it's about now but are just there to cause violence and distruction. Sad especially for people who are effected by this

@Scirocco

I'm so, so sorry. This is your country and I'll stand up-lots of us will stand up- to anyone who says otherwise

Don't be so utterly ridiculous. The Newcastle protest isn't planned until Saturday 10th. Let's hope for Newcastle's sake that the country has calmed down by then.