Unfortunately, the entire tragedy of the killings have triggered something real.
Now large gathering also in Nottingham. While some of these are instigators and agitators traveling around to enflame people, I quite confident that most are locals. That is usually how it works.
Sad to see. Of course, this account I am posting is Hard Right propaganda, but it shows large gatherings, so the source is kind of irrelevant as such:
https://x.com/AshleaSimonBF/status/1819733499034657049
In the UK? As far as I can tell from most that I’ve seen, that’s quite the opposite. Few are locals, most are racist thugs coming in from elsewhere.
That video doesn’t seem to have actual holligan rioters though (but some will likely be there) and doesn’t look like a mob.
Usually, you can’t organise such events without strong participation of locals, unless it’s a dictatorship where the state busses in 7-800 demonstrators.
But maybe you are right. I think it’s spreading myself though and would be very cautious to think it is just traveling hooligans.
Unfortunately, social media is a disease.
They can usually muster a fair number of local people to bolster their numbers. It’s why the likes of the NF always targeted football matches. They could rely on a minority of pissed up idiots to join in.
I checked the addresses of those convicted of violence in Knowsley and I think one was local. The others were from the rest of Merseyside and Greater Manchester. Whether more from Knowsley were involved and cautioned, I don’t know.
Certainly a sizeable number there but also worth remembering that its probably 1,000 people in a city of 330,000. As @Magnus says most of them will be local but there are also a significant number of roadtrippers who basically have a hobby of doing this on weekends, so that also bolsters the numbers.
Not downplaying the significance and the vocal minority can do a lot of damage of course.
Especially when they receive unnecessary amplification from the media.
The BBC’s willingness to parade this man on our television screens via Question Time, booked more often than any other politician, needs a full public inquiry.
Read this today…
The latest BBC financial results revealed last week showed an £80 million drop in licence fee revenues – the broadcaster’s main source of income. The number of households paying the levy dropped by half a million – an acceleration from the previous year’s decline.
On top of this, Huw Edwards this week was the latest in a long line of high-profile controversies – with the once BBC-golden boy pleading guilty to making indecent images of children.
Telegraph readers have become accustomed to the BBC being at the forefront of the news agenda itself. So what can the once-beloved national broadcaster do to improve its numbers and make viewers want to tune in again?
Readers have put forward three key changes:
An exclusive Telegraph reader poll revealed that 91 per cent of more than 93,000 readers believed the BBC licence fee should be scrapped.
Many readers believed the national broadcaster has been damaged beyond repair, and argued that the only viable solution is to stop its public funding altogether and move it to a subscription or advertising model.
David Perry said the solution was “simple”, as he suggested “removing the requirement to have to buy a TV licence”.
“The BBC needs to stand or die on the merit of its output, not the legal requirement born by anyone who watches live TV to pay for it.”
Sharing a similar sentiment, Brian Johnstone said: “We have to stop the funding model and let them stand or fall by their commercial appeal.
“The final arbiter is the commercial viability of the company. Give all licence fee-payers shares as they did with the utilities and sell it off,” he added.
Chris Dodson labelled the licence fee a “relic” that was “just not right in this day and age”. He argued that “they advertise enough of their own stuff so it will make no difference if they take commercial advertising”.
Others made the point that the public funding model is the reason why the BBC has been plagued by scandal.
An anonymous reader wrote: “The reason cases like Huw Edwards’ keep happening at the national broadcaster is that, regardless of the magnitude and the awfulness of the crime, and the subsequent scandal it generates, the corporation is assured of its existence as a business.
“The BBC can do whatever they want and they’ll survive. Defund them now,” he added.
Amanda Malas argued that “the BBC should never make ‘stars’ out of mere presenters and then pay them outrageous salaries and pensions” as “this culture seems to produce a mindset in which their ‘stars’ are untouchable”.
Readers also take issue with what they see as unbiased reporting and programming.
For instance, Simon Collins argued: “The change from genuine neutrality of political views to one of endorsing a clearly Left-wing agenda.
“The BBC acts as if it believes it has a moral right to enforce its socialist agenda upon the entire population as part of a social engineering exercise.”
Chris Hunter recalled: “My favourite programme used to be the news coverage. Until the late 80s, it was entirely impartial and made extreme efforts to be accurate.” He remarked that “the BBC used to be one of the world’s few reliable news broadcasters”.
Sharing a similar sentiment, David Perry said the national broadcaster “previously gave its audience and licence payers credit for being able to make up their minds and not – sadly, too often these days – be patronised”.
Peter Waite shared: “The BBC needs to wake up to reality. It’s not just the younger audience deserting it. People are thoroughly fed up with being treated like nursery school children and spoon-fed a load of divisive rubbish.”
Keith Taylor described how they “find much of it impossible to watch it listen to without being angered by an obviously woke agenda that is clearly steered towards popular narratives away from those of the majority of the indigenous population”.
Nicholas Morley said: “Get rid of your arrogant and politically biased woke presenters and you might begin to get somewhere.”
Similarly, Andrew Kevill recommended the BBC “recruit people in senior managerial, policy-making and editorial roles – especially in news – who personally believe in objective and politically neutral reporting of news”.
Mr Kevill continued: “‘Neutral’ should be calibrated against the culture of the nation – which is not the culture of middle-class, Left-wing London.”
Likewise, Lesley Hannell said the broadcaster “no longer just entertains, it feels it has to ‘educate’ as well – according to its own narrative. It claims to reflect public consensus but that is not the case.
“The BBC is out of touch with the public and just comes across as patronising.”
Other Telegraph readers called for higher-quality programming.
Simon Collins explained how “myself and nearly all my friends no longer watch BBC due to poor quality and internet alternatives such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc”.
William Edwards weighed in, stating the BBC “used to be very good at drama, both on the TV and radio”, and recommended it stop “trying to be preachy and focus on quality”.
Moira Chestnut called for “nature programmes”, as she recalled the broadcaster used to offer “a variety of programmes that didn’t always seem to be pushing a London-centric viewpoint”.
Chris Hunter missed the BBC’s **“**large numbers of foreign correspondents who lived in the countries they were reporting about, and were capable of providing high-quality reporting from foreign parts.
“I also enjoyed being able to listen to World Service when I was travelling abroad.”
BBC World Service newsreaders during the Falklands War - PA
Echoing this view, David Fairburn thought the BBC should recover “its place in the world” and argued “the world service was the jewel in its crown”.
He wrote: “I had a sense of pride when I was abroad and natives would come up to me and mention the BBC World Service and give it – and Kevin Keegan – the thumbs up.”
The BBC’s director-general, Tim Davie, is a renowned leftie.
Fuck me; what planet do these idiots inhabit?
I feel so sad, what has happened to this country. 
The same thing that has happened to most of the world: neoliberalism.
The fact that the right thing the BBC is left leaning is really quite incredible.
Stumbled onto this a few minutes ago.
Not sure I wholly agree with the experts second passage.
Planet Torygraph.
Apparently these “protesters” have been burning books:
I mean what sort of person goes around burning books?
On a more positive note, I noticed a post from the Deen Centre (Mosque and community centre in Birkenhead) thanking local people for all the support and donations that they have made in recent days.
All of us in Germany know the answer to that one.
I see things have kicked off again in Bangladesh. 23 dead. If @Iftikhar lives in Dhaka, then we might not be hearing from him for a while as the government has cut mobile Internet access there.
We still have broadband. Not sure how long it will stay.