Because this was the boiling point where it spilled over. George Floyd was also a boiling point.
Why an event becomes that is down to
timing for the most part. The wider context is a country with a government widely
perceived to be weak and unstable, in an economic malaise. There’s also the fact that this came on the heels of the grooming gang controversies, and the case of the traveler children being spared jail
for gang rape. From a PR standpoint, the optics are truly fucking terrible. People like Farage thrive in these periods because they know how to exploit them. He’s presenting as the strong man to Kier Starmer’s weak man.
Effectively combating it means understanding there’s a huge emotional
element to how people are feeling, and rationality isn’t always an effective counter when they’re running this high (and it certainly isn’t when considering the prevailing narrative of ‘the elites’ ignoring and talking down to the stupid little people).
Now would be a good time to do something highly visible and concrete, which doesn’t mean just launching an inquiry and doubling down on unpopular policy. Henry Nowak’s family asked for no violence, but they also expressed support for changing the law to remove religious exemptions. Invoking the former but completely ignoring the latter just makes the government look cynical and self serving.