A quiet unease has settled across the United Kingdom, a low hum of discontent that, for many, has become the dominant chord in a national contrapuntal moment. Is the the UK is becoming more racist? A notion that is at once easy to dismiss and conversely difficult to deny. The rise of anti-immigration sentiment is not a new phenomenon, but its current fervour feels different, more potent. It’s a question without an easy answer, a complex tapestry of threads. We appear to be in a perfect storm of social, economic, and political pressures that have brewed for over a decade. The symptoms are visible daily in the news cycle: Racism amongst children on the rise, the harrowing stories of asylum hotels set on fire, riot, the senseless murder of an innocent children by Axel Rudakubana, tragic accounts of hate crimes, like the racially motivated rape of a Sikh woman in Oldham by a gang of two men. While the suspects are on the run they have been reported by news platforms like ET Now to be white British men. The British police so far have not confirmed or denied any ethnic identity. When stories like these are down played and up-played everyone suffers as it suggests the ethnicity and religious background of one victim is not important to the media narrative. Also race and ethnicity are being used by media and police strategically control and potentially reduce tensions, as we had the incident of in the police’s own words a, 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area who drive a van into crowds. the colour of the perpetrator was highlighted at the time to quieten down racial tensions as many presumed the perpetrator was a foreign national or immigrant which would have sadly enflamed the anti-immigration rise within the Country. The colour of skin should not be the issue ‘only the crime’. And it shows how far right groups are weaponising race and ethnicity to push more divisive agendas. These flashpoints, while tragic in their own right, are co-opted and cannibalised by the media machine.
News organisations, ostensibly there to feed the national debate, are instead focused on selling papers, views and engagement often at the expense of objectivity. A case in point was the Daily Mail’s report on the murder of Iryna Zarutska, where a phrase was used, later attributed to a source, referring to a ‘dark race element‘. What does that mean exactly? Such language, whether intended or not, has the power to whip up racial hatred and is capitalised on by those on the political right. When the main consideration should have been mourning a needless death and questioning how a man with severe mental health issues was allowed to function unchecked in society, the focus was skewed. Such that racial origins is one of the lasting impacts of that heinous crime. When these moments are conflated, blurring the line between the genuine issue of race and certain ethnicities as undesirable criminals its chilling when these narratives exist in the mainstream. This is how the quiet unease becomes a roar, as people’s legitimate anxieties about failing public services, recidivism, public safety and the shrinking economy are redirected toward a convenient, visible, and often vilified scapegoat. This is the new normal, where nuance is sacrificed for clicks, and the truth is often a casualty in the war for attention. We cannot keep infighting right and left but rather work together along less incendiary lines as the left wing is becoming more radical at the individual, media and political levels and are not immune from using salacious one liners to garner attention that don’t really help the debate. While ideologies of left and right are different the way they play the game is becoming more similar.
How Did We Get Here in the UK?
The question of how immigration became such a lightning rod, and now racial tension fans the flames is not a simple one. Following the influx of migration after the UK’s entry into the European Union and its expansion, particularly under the Labour government led by Tony Blair, net migration figures began a steep ascent that, in many ways, have never truly abated. For a significant portion of the population, this created a sense that the country was losing control of its borders and that the system was being taken advantage of by ‘freeloading’ migrants. The reality, however, is far more complex. The actual cost of migration is not the root cause of the UK’s systemic issues within the UK. Rather, for over 14 years, public services—from the NHS to schools, policing and social housing—have been left to wither on the vine, largely due to successive governments’ chronic underinvestment and the ongoing spectre of austerity. This fiscal tightening, which technically the UK never truly left, was only briefly masked by a period of historically low interest rates. The result is a nation of frayed nerves, where a doctor’s appointment takes weeks, a council house takes years, and a child’s classroom and opportunities for work and advancement are lower, wages have dropped in real terms. In this environment, the visible presence of new arrivals is not seen as a contributing factor to the economy, but rather as the final straw for a public sector already on its knees. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem, but one that is politically and commercially convenient.
The Political Vacuum
The political landscape of the last decade-and-a-half has left the British populace feeling apathetic and ripe for radical change. Fourteen years of a sad to say sub-optimal government has eroded public trust, while the main opposition, Labour, has often appeared to be a car crash in slow motion, plagued by infighting and a series of leadership gaffes. With both major parties losing credibility in the face of reason, a vacuum has been created. Into this void have stepped parties like Reform UK, now having a tangible impact on both the right and the left, appealing to a widespread sense of disillusionment. Quite simply when there’s less to go around, when wages stagnate, and when public services fail, people instinctively look for someone to blame. And it’s almost never themselves and the politicians will not standup and highlight that they got it wrong as its easier to deflect. In these times of scarcity, outsiders become a convenient scapegoat. The psychological mechanism is not new; it’s a playbook seen throughout history, from the rise of Nazi Germany to more recent populist movements around the globe. The logic is simple: synthesise an external threat, identify someone else to blame, and the majority can feel better about their own struggles. If all migrants left Britain how much better off would the country be? Would there be an instant seed change to prosperity? Now; people are channelling their anger not at bad governance or economic stagnation, or even to take a cold hard look at themselves but at those they perceive as ‘the other.’
The Unhappy Crowd
To reiterate, when people across the world are unhappy, they often prey on the weak. The politically, economically, and intellectually challenged are often the easiest to rally because they are more susceptible to focusing on the symptom rather than the cause. And it must be said there are many many good women and men of conscious, working class people who have been disenfranchised, let down and living on lower salaries who still exercise reason and critical thinking. However these voices are often silenced by the cacophony of vocal minority. When you’re hungry and stressed as a medical fact you don’t think straight, the result may be why a dangerous normalisation of fringe views that were once considered beyond the pale are being adopted by the middle classes. While there is a legitimate debate to be had about the rate of immigration, to conflate all issues and challenges with immigration itself is a profound mistake. Friction inevitably arises during times like these. Adding to this volatility is the fact that many people now exist in a carefully curated online reality. The algorithms of social media platforms are designed to serve them what they want to see, creating a powerful echo chamber that reinforces their existing biases. This means that a person who is unhappy with their own lot is continuously fed content that justifies their anger and directs it toward a predetermined villain. People who are scared search out things that reinforce it. It is this combination of genuine hardship, fear, stress and angst combined with a lack of political leadership, and the amplifying effect of social media that is pulling even more moderate people further to the right.
The Outsider’s Influence
The UK’s political discourse is no longer a purely domestic affair. We are seeing the profound influence of outside forces, particularly from tech moguls. The owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, and others like him, are inciting hatred, regime change and insurrection on British soil which should be a crime, Musk, ‘fight or die’ during a speech given and broadcast to hundreds of thousands of angry protesters many of whom are on the right or far right. The statement can be read in the ‘imperative’ which is a call to action. The USA’s current political establishment criticises free speech domestically and is audacious enough to criticise it in the UK, and then weaponises it to wield against those who freely criticise their despotic regime. Platforms like X sadly have become a cesspit of racism and hatred, fanning the flames of division and creating a ‘panic in a vacuum’ where baseless lies can spread like wildfire often with external foreign networks and bad actors tipping the balance. The media, in turn, amplifies these issues, sensationalising them to create clicks for cash and time on screen for ad-revenue. The most dangerous aspect of this is the notion that a foreign actor can interfere with British sovereignty. These are not just tweets and algorithms; they are the tools of a potential regime change, all in the name of profit and influence. The UK is being lectured by the USA on freedom of speech while the USA itself remains deeply hypocritical on the issue. In the US, people can be fired for the slightest criticism of ‘power’, while platforms are allowed to proliferate with unchecked hatred. This ‘freedom of speech’ is seemingly fine when it generates more clicks, but bad when it is critical of those at the top. This is a fundamentally dangerous position for Britain to be in. We must be able to devise a uniquely British solution for our problems without the influence of those who do not share our values. Just one example of this is Jimmy Kimmel who was fired after airing a satirical joke at Trump’s expense. Kimmel is now rehired.
A House Divided
The reality of a fractured society is also visible on a domestic level. The old industrial heartlands, like the Midlands and the North, are struggling, and in these areas, the feeling of being a “forgotten people” is palpable. The indigenous English and British population in some of these enclaves is becoming a minority, a fact that is at the heart of much discontent. The key to understanding this is not to blame the immigrants themselves but to recognise that these communities are victims of immigration done badly, economics and investment done badly and allocation of resources done badly. England, for all its progress, has not fully moved on from its colonial view of the past it would ostensibly seem we are now in a regression, where the progress we have made is being unravelled. We have to recognise that there is a positive impact of immigration, from cultural enrichment to economic contributions, many many founders and wealth creators are immigrants from Lord Alan Sugar to many more. However, this is too often overshadowed by the pervasive sense of grievance that is not directed at the real cause—bad governance—but at the visible minority. Historically, immigrants who arrived in Britain, even after their contributions to the empire, fighting in wars and more were often treated as second-class citizens. When a new group of immigrants arrives its to hostility off the bat, especially if they are from outside Europe. In some sense is it a wonder they form communities of their own? It is an instinctual response to a hostile environment. But for all that we cannot forget the areas where entire communities are on benefits and are generational benefits claimants, people should be encouraged into employment but the fact that with low wage growth a lot of the people just don’t want to work as its easier to collect benefits.
The British Solution
Collective blindness to the causes and over focused near sightedness does not solve problems. The UK is a patient with a festering wound, but instead of treating it, we’re slapping a plaster on and blaming the nearest passer-by. The anger that should be directed at the political class and their long-term failures is instead channelled toward the most vulnerable and the easiest to attack. We must ask ourselves if we are ready for the world we think we *think* want, or if we are merely being manipulated by it. Remember Brexit, England must be wary of political influence from abroad and personalities at this time. The actions of tech billionaires on British sovereignty are not just business decisions; they are acts of political interference, a form of soft regime change orchestrated for personal gain. When foreign individuals, politicians are actively engaged in stoking civil unrest, it can affect our nation and the crown which is verging on treason or at least regime range from tech totalitarians. We should not let political apathy or the facile words of external actors, those who are generally not affected by immigration, cloud our judgement. We must not conflate all our woes with immigration, that is a short-sighted and dangerous viewpoint. The UK needs perspective. This blinds us to the need for a truly British solution to our problems—one that involves introspection, strong domestic leadership, and a collective commitment to improving the lives of all citizens, not just a select few. The USA, with its recent history of forced deportations and a deeply divided society, has much to learn from us in England and Great Britain, not the other way around. We must not lose sight of what makes us ‘great’ and different from the USA and what makes the Britishness and multiculturalism, for all its positives and some of its flaws, unique.
- Net Migration: According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), UK net migration reached a record high of 745,000 in 2022. This figure represents the number of people arriving in the UK minus the number of people leaving.
- Immigration’s Contribution to the Economy: A 2018 study by the ONS and the University of Oxford found that EEA migrants contributed more in taxes than they received in benefits, while non-EEA migrants made a similar net fiscal contribution.
- Austerity’s Impact: A 2017 report by the National Audit Office found that austerity measures led to a 10% real-terms cut in local authority funding for services between 2010 and 2015.
- Public Opinion on Immigration: A 2023 YouGov poll found that 62% of Britons think immigration to the UK should be reduced, with only 3% believing it should be increased.
- Daily Mail Quote: A Mail on Sunday article on a murder case involving an illegal immigrant, Iryna Zmijewska, and Mykola Rudakabana, ran with the headline “A Dark Race Element,” attributed to a police source.
- ONS UK Net Migration: https://www.ons.gov.uk/
- YouGov UK Immigration Poll: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2023/11/15/three-in-five-britons-say-immigration-is-too-high
- BBC News: Immigration and Public Services: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44755106
- Daily Mail Article on Rudakabana case: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3650228/Illegal-immigrant-strangled-Polish-tourist-death-London-flat-jailed-21-years-brutal-killing.html
