The chaos is the point

Ho! Pwy ydi'r cari dyms yma? Disgynyddion Hengist a Horsa a ladatrodd dir y gwir Frytaniaid. Hwythau'n cwyno am fewnfudwyr, ac yn byw eu hunain ar dir ysbail.

Ben, a few things come to mind that have created the conditions for this unrest. First is the Thatcherism which is in essence, the radical lurch from the Social Market economy we were following post war (under which inequality in Britain fell for the only time in history), to the Neoliberal economy we have today (which has given the UK amongst the worst levels of inequality in the world). Wealth has not only been centralised around The City in this core-periphery economy, it has also been drained from the working and middle classes and flowed into the bloated capitalist class. Nothing new in this. It is a modern form of a problem that existed in biblical times (look up the practice of "jubilee"). In contrast to the EU countries who have been closer to a Social Market economy, the UK taxes more than 5% lower as a proportion of its GDP. To put a rough figure on it, that's of the order of about £150Bn. That is why our public services are in crisis. We've had 16 years in which our wages and living standards have fallen and for the most part, a Tory party that has looked after the interests of the super rich, propelling the billionaire class to eye-watering increases in wealth and workers to food banks. The second is the billionaire owned Right Wing media pumped tranches of the public full of misinformation about immigration and the EU. IMHO, this was a distraction strategy with the longer term aim of manufacturing consent for a Libertarian economy (ask Liz Truss). We should be clear - our atrocious levels of inequality will be put on steroids if such a state comes to pass. Now, such scapegoating coupled with economic desperation is a dangerous mix. It has been seen before and it always results in violence. There are shameless bad actors such as Braverman, Patel, Rees-Mogg, Farage etc who continuously inflame the public on these matters. Europe does indeed need to figure immigration out in a fair and decent approach with all due care wrt security. However, the most urgent problem to deal with is crippling inequality in the economy, particularly here in Britain. The third matter is the dysfunctional UK State. Johnson and co debased its politics. IMHO, the UK fails in its basic duties towards its citizens and to the nations of the UK. Instead of plurality and a celebration of our unique differences, we have a singular British Nationhood imposed by the Unionist parties. This is artificial and contributes to the resentment felt by those who cherish our historic nationhoods, including many English folk. Our constitution is faulty. Hardie, Lloyd-George and Churchill all knew this and each advocated "Home Rule" yet a century or so on we still have dogmatic Unionism foisted on Britain by a dysfunctional political consensus at Westminster. Britain needs an economic, political and constitutional rebuild. This is plain to see, yet still the Unionist parties deny it. We all know what happens when the tectonic plates each side of a boundary fail to move. The pressure builds until it is finally released in an earthquake. What we are seeing are only the earliest tremors. There is worse to come, mark my words.

On the contrary, let 'em cook! The more this type of rabid English nationalism goes on the quicker England implodes hastening the demise of the UK. There was once a dude by the name of Churchill whom I'm sure everyone has heard of who pretty much once said the same thing. The union can survive Welsh, Scottish and Irish nationalism. It can't and won't with the English type. Tony Blair knew not to give them their own parliament and devolution for this reason, I suspect. Let them carry on with the self destruction.

Riots are the inevitable outcome in a society with gross inequality and a political system that disenfranchises millions of people. Those denied a political voice while suffering the consequences of neo liberalism and the sucking up of wealth to the already well off will find other ways to express their grievances, to be heard. Rioting is clearly the extreme means to be heard whether in Bangladesh, Kenya or England. When their children are going hungry and homeless people get desperate. The ruling political class should listen preferably before people become desperate. In the end the riots are the result of the failure of politicians and the denial of the democratic rights of the many.

I wonder if it's significant that none of these violent disturbances - thus far at least, as far as I've heard - has taken place either in Wales or in Scotland? All of them have happened in English towns, or in one instance in Belfast. Maybe it's mere chance, and something may kick off here too in the coming days - especially if the weather stays favourably pleasant. After all, Cardiff particularly has seen some dark days around the issue of racial disharmony in the now more distant past. But I read a day or two back that a group of anti-racist activists, having picked up on line that an anti-immigrant protest was being arranged down Cardiff Bay, turned up in force to combat it - only to find that nothing in fact happened. They discovered afterwards that at a late stage the 'protest' had been called off. Dare we hope that, in Wales at least, most of us are now less susceptible to the clarion calls of hard right English nationalism? Or am I being naive?!