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The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
One Day in Southport review – a sombre portrait of how a tragedy was hijacked
Most of the six to 10-year-old girls gathered in the Hart Space dance studio in Southport, Merseyside, on 29 July last year for a Taylor Swift-themed workshop were making friendship bracelets ('It's a very Swiftie thing to do,' says the older sister of one, who was watching them), when 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana burst in with a knife. His attack left two children dead at the scene and another died the next day from her injuries. Six other children, including the sister who was watching, and two adults were injured and taken to hospital. One Day in Southport focuses largely on what happened afterwards interspersed with the memories of the injured older girl and her family, because what happened next was the result of so many social, cultural and political issues that you could spend a lifetime unpacking them. This documentary does the best it can in an hour. It interviews people from different sides of the various debates, and shows social media posts and footage from the riots that sprang up around the country and caught the police and the establishment unawares. The prime minister was left floundering and unable to address the mixture of feelings and motivations behind them quickly or directly enough. The attacker – his name then kept from the public – was quickly arrested. The police held a press conference and described him as a 17-year-old from Lancashire and originally from Cardiff. The latter detail was included to attempt to tamp down the speculation already rife online and in the local area (arising because the one thing witnesses to the attack did know about the stranger was that he was Black) that he was an immigrant, which quickly became an illegal immigrant, which quickly became a Muslim illegal immigrant and ignited all sorts of rage. The usual suspects from the manosphere and others with their own agendas to push then stoked the fires, including Nigel Farage ('It shows how unhappy people are with the state of law and order in this country … Your children don't matter to them, they don't care') and Tommy Robinson, the leader of the far-right anti-Islam English Defence League. The hour tracks the evolution of local grief and anger directed at a specific event into widespread violence and unrest. One of the many YouTubers and other people outside the mainstream media who recorded events is Wesley Winter. He began feeling at one with the righteous fury felt by others. By the time he was filming a few days later in Middlesbrough, he realised that the people walking along a residential street in a Muslim area of the town and smashing windows 'was a very different crowd' and he became frightened that they might turn on him next. A call from his wife trapped in her car as people smashed the windows of vehicles around her led them to leave the area as quickly as possible. His naivete is astonishing, but more admirable than the craven avoidance of those supposedly charged with leading the nation in times of strife to address the difficult, sensitive issues with which the tinderbox had been – and remains – stuffed. Because what have we here? We have a section of the population, that's suffering greatly under the cost of living crisis. This fact has receded from the headlines, but not from life – the housing crisis, the proliferating brutal effects of austerity that the current government seems to be doing nothing to alleviate, and much more. We have people who see the advent of more people to these isles as competition for increasingly scarce resources. Even the co-convener of Stand Up to Racism, Weyman Bennett, makes the point that 'people are protesting against something that is really happening to them … they are rightfully angry' before explaining how this is leveraged and exploited by far-rightwingers (and whatever Reform are pretending to be) so that 'they're blaming the wrong people'. The absence of anyone in authority addressing this, instead of lauding the arrests and sentencing of rioters, was and remains conspicuous. Why not publicly delineate the difference between legitimate concerns and far-right agitation – bring the worried into your fold and denounce those burning mosques and terrifying the asylum seekers in besieged hotels? Because there is a difference and it matters hugely. The documentary gives no facts or figures about immigration, costs or anything else apart from the number of arrests and the 1,000 years-plus total to which rioters were sentenced. It is essentially a mood piece, tracking the development of the hijacking of grief to violent ends and leaving us to draw our own conclusions about where, why and if we would have stepped back to say: 'This has gone too far.' One Day in Southport is on Channel 4 now.
The Sun
16-07-2025
- General
- The Sun
Thick-as-mince teachers will drive our kids into the EDL with their spiteful leftie wokery – but I know the solution
WHEN Stuart Field arrived to pick up his 12-year-old daughter Courtney from school, he found she was sitting alone in the reception area. When he asked why, he was in for a shock. 7 It had been the school 's 'Culture Celebration Day'. And Courtney had been segregated from all the other pupils. Because she had chosen to celebrate her British culture by wearing a Union Jack dress. Stuart said: 'It's cultural diversity day at school where children can wear clothing representing their culture and write a speech about their heritage. 'She's been told it's not for her as she gets to celebrate being British every day.' And so she was kept apart from all her friends. She wasn't quite alone, actually. Anybody else who chose to wear something redolent of Great Britain was also kicked out, including a kid who wore a Welsh costume to celebrate his Welsh heritage. And so this is where we have got to with our moronic teachers. Celebrating alien forms of culture is just fine and dandy. But try to celebrate being British and see where it gets you. Courtney had intended to give a little speech. It was all about celebrating every culture and the wonders of diversity. Well, good for you, love. But it wouldn't surprise me if she fancies joining the English Defence League now. Because that's what this kind of vindictive stupidity can do to a person, when you're on the receiving end. The school, which is in Bilton near Rugby, Warks, later apologised 'unreservedly' for what had happened to Courtney. And it said: 'As a school, we are reviewing our policies and strengthening staff training to ensure our practices reflect our values of inclusion, respect and understanding for all. 'We are committed to fostering an environment where every pupil feels respected, valued and included.' No, you drongos. Not good enough. Not anywhere near good enough. Can you imagine what would have happened if someone chose to wear Nigerian dress to celebrate their culture? And had then been told off and sent to sit by themselves? Or someone wearing a niqab? 7 We want answers from this school. First, why did they think it was wrong to celebrate a British heritage? Second, what disciplinary procedures have been taken against the staff member(s) who decided that segregating Courtney was a really good idea? Third, why were you having a cultural awareness day? Why not spend the time instead teaching the kids how to add up and write their own names? This is one of the most odious slices of spiteful wokery I have come across for a very long time. Thick as mince And yet it is somehow perfectly representative of the state of mind which pertains in classrooms up and down the country. These fabulously dim-witted people — the teachers — are almost exclusively lefties who cannot abide anything about our culture. And the children are being brainwashed about how horrid and wicked Britain was (and is) on a daily basis. I don't know how you sort this stuff out. It is so widespread in our schools it would take mass sackings. Thousands upon thousands of disciplinary hearings. I will happily oversee the process, if anyone's interested. And in the meantime, Courtney — well done. You were right to stick up for your culture. And don't worry about the teachers. They're thick as mince and never get more than £2,000 in the Cash Builder round on The Chase. SPANISH dwarfs are revolting. The Barcelona star Lamine Yamal hired four dwarves to serve drinks and perform magic tricks at his 18th birthday. But a Spanish dwarf association, Los Poco Furioso, dobbed him in to the police. They claimed he was exploiting dwarves. That's not the real name of the association, by the way. It's something very long and self-righteous, in Spanish. The dwarves who performed for Lamine told the moaners to get lost. They hadn't been exploited at all, they said. The association said such work 'perpetuated stereotypes' about dwarves. What, such as they tend to be, y'know, a bit on the smallish side? AFGHAN FIASCO DODGY THAT government super injunction is a huge scandal. We shouldn't have super injunctions at all. And the very last people who should use them are our elected politicians. I don't believe for a minute that the injunction was taken out to protect the lives of those Afghans. It was done because the last government knew that we, the public, would go absolutely doolally if we discovered they were letting thousands of Afghans into the country. And is it REALLY the case that we were helped by that many locals? Sheesh, it's enough manpower to win a war. How did we lose? GREAT British Bake Of f winner Nadiya Hussain has been moaning about her show being axed by the BBC. 7 They just drop you when they've had enough of you, she wailed. Yup, that's right. That's how it's been in TV for the last 80 years. And how it will be for the next 80. It's not because you are a woman, or a Muslim, or Bangladeshi. It's just because we've all had enough of you, OK? TIME TO LAWYER UP , JOHN 7 SO not only has Gregg Wallace been given the heave-ho. It's also curtains for his MasterChef Aussie co-host John Torode. According to a report – which was never intended to be about him specifically – he made a nasty racial comment. Torode denies having said anything racist at all. It doesn't seem to me as if the presenter has been treated entirely fairly in all of this. A report claims he said something a bit naughty – and he's out of a job. I think maybe John should consult his lawyers. Meanwhile Wallace lost my sympathy when he tried to blame things like wearing a sock on his old fella as being caused by autism. Female Asians in wheelchairs is my bet. TRANS SENSE 7 HUGE congratulations to Scottish nurse Sandie Peggie. She was suspended by the morons at NHS Fife for complaining about a transgender nurse using the female changing room. She was charged with gross misconduct, would you believe. Now the health authority has backed down and dropped all charges against Sandie. Slowly, a sense of reality is returning to this country. On this issue at least. SMALL MINDED THE Government is busy drawing up plans to stop us saying stuff. It is working on a definition of the word 'Islamophobia', so that people who say something derogatory about Islam can be banged up. This might well include linking the religion to terrorist attacks. Which is interesting, because when the jihadi nutters detonate a bomb or stab some poor innocent civilian and shout 'Allahu Akbar!' they're making the link themselves, aren't they? Like it or not, there is a pretty big link, isn't there? And you don't break that link by restricting freedom of speech.
The Independent
17-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Grooming gangs report author says word ‘Pakistani' was ‘tippexed out' of a child's file
The author of a damning report into grooming gangs has revealed she found the word 'Pakistani' 'tippexed out' in archive files about child victims. Louise Casey, whose national audit on grooming gangs was published on Monday, said 'do-gooders' had covered up information on race and ethnicity believing that otherwise 'all the racists are going to be more racist'. Speaking to Sky News after the publication of her report, she said: 'I was following through on a children's file in archive and found the word 'Pakistani' tippexed out. 'I thought whoever did that inadvertently was giving ammunition to the English Defence League that were every week, in and out, campaigning and doing their stuff in that town. "I think the problem is that people are worried about being called racist.... if good people don't grasp difficult things, bad people will, and that's why we have to do it as a society." She said not collecting more data on the ethnicity of grooming gangs does a "disservice" to the British Pakistani community and could leave them at risk, saying it was only helping perpetrators not to bring a fuller picture to light. Baroness Casey's highly critical report called for tougher prosecution of men who have sex with under-16s to ensure their charges are never downgraded from rape. And she said the UK 'failed in its duty' to properly understand this kind of group offending as she hit out at an 'appalling' lack of data over offenders' ethnicities. 'If we'd got this right years ago – seeing these girls as children raped rather than 'wayward teenagers' or collaborators in their abuse, collecting ethnicity data, and acknowledging as a system that we did not do a good enough job – then I doubt we'd be in this place now,' she wrote. Yvette Cooper accepted and vowed to immediately act on the 12 recommendations in Baroness Casey's report, including holding a time-limited national inquiry and mandatory collection of data on the nationality and ethnicity of perpetrators. The home secretary described Baroness Casey's findings as 'damning', adding: 'She has found continued failure to gather proper robust national data despite concerns being raised going back very many years. 'In the local data that the audit examined from three police forces, they identify clear evidence of overrepresentation among suspects of Asian and Pakistani heritage men, and she refers to examples of organisations avoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist or raising community tensions.' The national inquiry into grooming gangs will aim to tackle 'continued denial, resistance and legal wrangling', she added. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the probe 'must start with known hot spots' such as Bradford and Rochdale as she hit out at the prime minister for 'dithering and delay'.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Grooming gangs report author reveals how she found word 'Pakistani' tippexed out of file
Ignoring the ethnicity of grooming gang perpetrators gives racists "more ammunition", the author of a new report has said. Baroness Louise Casey told Sky News' there was a particular issue with some British Asian men that was "abundantly clear" in data analysed from three police forces; West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester; which showed a "disproportionately" in child sexual exploitation. Politics latest: But she added: "Just to give some sort of balance, in Greater Manchester I asked for data on child sexual exploitation that took me to Asian heritage. I asked for data on child abuse and that took me to the general population, which is largely white." Baroness Casey said "if we just establish the facts, then you can take the pain out of this". "I think you've got sort of do-gooders that don't really want this to be found because, you know, 'Oh, God, then all the racists are going to be more racist'," she added. "Well, actually, people that are racist are going to use this anyway. All you're doing with the hate mongers and the racists is giving them more ammunition." Asked if people were worried about being seen as racist, the cross-bench peer said she came across direct examples of this in Rotherham - one of the towns at the centre of the grooming gangs scandal. "I was following through on a children's file in archive and found the word 'Pakistani' tippexed out," Baroness Casey said. "I thought whoever did that inadvertently was giving ammunition to the English Defence League that were every week, in and out, campaigning and doing their stuff in that town. "I think the problem is that people are worried about being called racist.... if good people don't grasp difficult things, bad people will, and that's why we have to do it as a society." The government has announced there will be a , as recommended by Baroness Casey's report. The government has also accepted her recommendations to introduce compulsory collection of ethnicity and nationality data for all suspects in grooming cases, and for a review of police records to launch new criminal investigations into historic child sexual exploitation cases. Baroness Casey was asked to produce an audit of sexual abuse carried out by grooming gangs in England and Wales, looking specifically at the issue of ethnicity and the cultural and social drivers for this type of offending. This had never before been done despite multiple local reviews into child sexual exploitation and a known as the Jay Review, which concluded in 2022. The government had previously resisted calls for an inquiry into grooming gangs, after brought the issue back into the spotlight in January, saying it would implement the recommendations of the Jay Review that the Tories didn't. However it changed its position following Baroness Casey's findings. Read more: She found that flawed data has been used repeatedly to dismiss claims about "Asian grooming gangs". Having examined local data in three police force areas, she found "disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds" are among suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation, as well as a "significant number of perpetrators of Asian ethnicity" who have been identified in local reviews and child sexual exploitation prosecutions across the country. She said all of this warranted further examination, insisting to Sophy Ridge 👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 Baroness Casey has also called for a tightening of the laws around the age of consent so that any penetrative sexual activity with a child under 16 is classified as rape, which the government has also accepted. She told Sophy Ridge that some perpetrators waited until their victims turned 13 as then it is "much harder to prosecute for rape". She said: "I think we have to be really clear in society that children are children and I don't see the difference between, you know, a four-year-old and a 14-year-old. If somebody is doing to them... what I talk about in my report, it's rape and we need to call it for what it is."
The Sun
05-06-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson pleads not guilty to harassment
LONDON: British far-right activist Tommy Robinson pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of harassing two journalists, as dozens of supporters gathered outside the London court just days after he was freed from jail. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, 42, pleaded not guilty at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court to two counts of harassment causing fear of violence. He was given the option of a hearing at a lower court, but instead opted for a jury trial at a criminal court. The firebrand anti-Islam campaigner is accused of harassing two Daily Mail journalists, Andrew Young and Jacob Dirnhuber, via his popular X account in August 2024. The prosecutor acknowledged however that the harassment did not contain 'direct threats of violence'. Robinson, who was wearing a cream jacket and jeans, was released on bail and is due to appear at Southwark Crown Court in London on July 3. He has become a champion for far-right and anti-immigrant factions despite several run-ins with the law. On May 27 he was released after spending seven months in prison for breaching a court order barring him from repeating false allegations he had made about a Syrian refugee. On leaving jail, he thanked technology billionaire Elon Musk for his X platform and slammed the UK government in a social media video. After the hearing Thursday he was met with dozens of supporters chanting his name and cheering at the central London court. Many wore Donald Trump-inspired MEGA -- Make England Great Again -- hats, carried English flags and wore 'Free Tommy Robinson' T-shirts. The former football hooligan, who founded the far-right English Defence League in 2009, has repeatedly been convicted for public order and contempt offences. He has also been blamed for helping fuel the country's worst riots in years in 2024, which he denies.
