The United Kingdom woke up Sunday morning to city streets covered in debris and smoldering rubbish as a weekend of far-right, anti-immigration demonstrations — stoked by conspiracy theories spread on social media — erupted into violence in seven cities across the nation.
Police arrested at least 100 people, and riot police wearing helmets and holding shields came out in force as Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to take action against “extremists.”
On Saturday, groups in Leeds waving St. George’s Cross flags, England’s national flag regularly flown by far-right groups, shouted “Muslims off our streets,” pairing it with a slur suggesting they were criminal child abusers. In the city of Hull, rioters threw bottles and smashed a window at a hotel housing asylum-seekers as demonstrators clashed with police.
What started as targeted anti-immigration demonstrations quickly descended into directionless disorder. A library in Liverpool, reopened in 2023 as an “education to employment” service for people of all abilities, was set ablaze.
I’m not up on UK politics, please explain to me why that needs to be pointed out.
Northern Ireland is on the Isle of Ireland, but part of the UK. Ireland has a fraught history with the UK. Look into “the troubles” if thats a new term to you.
I’m aware of that stuff, i just don’t see why it’s relevant to this current event
Because the headline talks about far right violence across the UK but fails to mention Belfast, which is a major city in the UK.
This is standard SOP for people to ignore NI in general, and im trying to highlight the “missing info”