To blame Nigel Farage personally for this mess.

[twopercent]

Some people are fundamentally unpleasant. We know that. Some people. a tiny minority, hold views that are unacceptable to general society. We had a system whereby they knew they were better off keeping their poison silent in their heads. Farage has given them a cloak of respectability, and a way of connecting with other likeminded psychos. And he has organised them. Now look where we are.

It is going to be interesting to see how many people convicted for these riots are the same people convicted in 2011. Some people will just jump on any excuse to join in and stir up disorder.

These people would be better off finding a sporting outlet for their energy and aggression, and learning to discipline it. But Farage has kicked it all up, purely because he needed personal supporters for personal power, and saw this demographic as an untapped source of numbers.

He is an agitator.

Will he go down in history as someone who led people who wanted to be heard or will he go down in history as a scoundrel?

I love history and so am aware of various protests over the centuries, with their leaders having a status in the modern mind, people that railed against the authorities even though their outcome was likely hanging/death

Whereas people view them as heroes, I dont. I put them in the same categories as people like this. Domestic terrorists. Although no one uses that term. I use that for the stop oil morons too.

Hello @twopercent

Do you also blame Suella Braverman, who kept up a torrent of headline-grabbing anti immigrant statements throughout 2023 and 2024?

Do you blame the Daily Mail, which has run dozens of headlines with terminology such as "invasion" etc?

Do you blame T.Robinson and his continued amplification of misinformation on X (formerly Twitter)..

Do you blame Elon Musk who revels in the attention his platform gets from far-right postings, and actively seeks to amplify their voices due to the notoriety etc?

Do you blame the Government of the last 14 years for pandering to the Right, failing to create a positive discourse on immigration, and instead making all legal routes as difficult as possible so that the boat arrivals became an inevitability?

YABU for just singling out Farage.

At least he has been consistent - he didn't "need" this base for power, he has always been of this political base.

Everyone else (the Mail, the Tory government, opportunists like Braverman) have seized upon the prevailing wind, and amplified the sentiments using much larger platforms than Farage.

They are as much to blame as he is.

Tommy Robinson
Laurence fox,
Katie hopkin
Suella braverman
Priti Patel
Kemi Badenoch
Boris Johnson

Too.

No I know it is hard for people to understand but people are responsible for their own actions

As rare as that thinking is these days

I blame the idiots who have no brain cells to even know what or who they are protesting about but follow the crowd like little sheep

I blame all of them.
They've been stirring shit for years.
(Elon bit different though, bit of a different scenario I think who "just" has a platform people use their voices on)

He is a dangerous man and I agree that history will not look on him kindly, but he is not alone.
The politics of hate stoked by the Daily Mail, Braverman, Patel and others has been creating an environment in which these idiots who are rioting somehow think they have a point to prove.
In reality they are brainless morons. They are letting our country down and there is nothing patriotic in their actions.

It's not unreasonable to hold anyone to whom the Nolan Principles apply to account under those principles.

At some point he will be arrested and we will learn MI6 figured out how Putin was paying him to agitate and interfere in our politics.

Why, what has he done now?

I blame Nigel Farage.

His whole thing is to manipulate the easily manipulated into doing things that weaken and divide our country.

Most of those crying in court this week as they are convicted for offences related to the recent disorder are weak-minded and low in intelligence.

They are the low hanging fruit.

We need to go after the instigators.

Like Nigel Farage.

Don't forget his tawdry little accolytes, fellow failed-at-lifes Richard Tice and 30p Lee.

So these easily manipulated nut jobs have equal access to the same sources news, information they get Farage and other right wing lunatics yet manage to just beleve the right?

It'sa choice, let me guess the bad childhood defence?

They chose to believe it no forces them

Farage and his racist poster have moved the Overton Window and made it acceptable to make racist comments in public. There was a notable shift in public discourse when UKIP made unacceptable claims about immigration acceptable.

However social media, politicians such as Cameron, Braverman and Johnson and the right wing press have amplified racist rhetoric and made immigrants a convenient scapegoat.

The actual people to blame are the politicians who over time have allowed the immigration situation in this country to become so bad, without thought to social cohesion or public services. If the whole thing had been managed effectively then we wouldn't be in this situation.

Farage isn't to blame, he's saying what millions in the UK feel, regardless of whether you agree or disagree. People are responsible for their own actions. Once politicians start to tackle to problem people may start to calm down.

(image credit Denis Lushch - https://www.instagram.com/p/CGtZG6aFPtQ/ )

Anyone with power and influence has a responsibility for how they use that.

What has Farage said that is racist?

🙄

I blame the "silent majority" who have sat in silence over the past few years when racism has been getting worse. The people who put their fingers in their ears when people of colour talked about their experiences. The people who ignore their friends racist comments and as it's easier than confrontation. The people who's response to people of colour talking about racism is to wrack their brains to make up reasons to dismiss them by denying that it is racism.

If these riots have come as a complete shock to you haven't been paying attention.

If we use the Brexit poster as an example, Farage did not explicitly say that scores of brown men are invading the country, but his poster implied it. He's too clever to be explicit, he uses far right terminology, expresses admiration for far right figures and uses dog whistle politics.

People are responsible for their own actions. This was always going to happen it just needed something to trigger it.

Agree that he is a dangerous
Plays down his very middle class upbringing and private school education.
He likes to give the impression that he understands the plight of white working class
but really couldn’t give a hoot about them.
He is an opportunist who thrives on being the centre of attention
He lives very near me . I have seen him out and about and he comes across as polite, which is why he is an extremely dangerous man.
He is an agitator as another poster pointed out and when called out on his behaviour goes all Shaggy … ‘It wasn’t me’

www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/nigel-farage-most-controversial-moments-reform-ukip-brexit-b1122381.html

His claim that some Muslim immigrants are 'coming here to take us over'
In 2013, Farage said he supported Muslim immigrants who “integrate” into society, but not those who are “coming here to take us over”.
When he agreed with the 'basic principle' of Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech
In 2014, he said that the “basic principle” of Enoch Powell’s infamous anti-immigration Rivers of Blood speech was correct.
Saying he felt 'uncomfortable' hearing foreign languages on the Tube
In a 2014 interview on LBC, Farage said he felt "uncomfortable" when he heard people speaking other languages on London transport
When LBC radio presenter James O’Brien asked why he objected to Romanian migrants but not Germans — like his Hamburg-born wife Kirsten — Farage retorted: "You know the difference."
Farage also suggested he would be concerned about living next to a house of Romanians.
When he blamed immigrants for getting stuck in traffic
That same year, Farage also blamed immigrants when he was more than two hours late for an event, claiming they were causing traffic on the M4.
"That has nothing to do with professionalism," he said of his lateness. "What it does have to do with is a country in which the population is going through the roof, chiefly because of open-door immigration, and the fact the M4 is not as navigable as it used to be."
Defending the word “ch*y” to describe a Chinese person
Two months later, he defended Ukip candidate Kerry Smith for using the word "ch**ky" to describe a Chinese person

As immigration is high (legal immigration) we haven’t made it too difficult. It’s still very possible. I think welcoming some immigration makes sense but a job and somewhere to live is important.

Farage is who many of these people look up to. He “tells it like it is”. He gets huge publicity, but his party have 5 MPs. They need to stop reporting him so much. Treat Reform as a minor party. They did get millions of votes but the bigger concern in many ways is the rhetoric on the right of the Conservatives. These women are immigrant families themselves. I don’t understand why they are so nasty. Pulling up the drawbridge ? We would be better off with a moderate Conservative Party.

There are millions who feel let down but often they are not cresting wealth, not pulling their weight either. Some are but just blame others and immigrants are convenient. Not sure it’s the same as 2011. Those started in London after Mark Duggan was shot. He was black and it started as a protest against the police and this seems a lot more organised.

Agree
Or they accuse POC of using the ‘race card’
Which is a term I detest as it is used to shut down conversation about racism