Is Britain about to 'boil over'?

The UK is braced for more violence and disorder today with riots being planned by far-right groups in more than 30 locations across the country.

Thousands of extra riot police have been put on standby after a message shared across far-right groups listed more than 30 potential targets for violence today, including "immigration centres, law offices specialising in helping migrants, and refugee shelters", said the Financial Times. The Home Office circulated the list of 36 sites in danger of attack to police forces "after identifying residential houses among the locations", said the paper. 

Senior police sources told The Times that the "outlook is bad" for potential unrest today, but insisted that police services were "ready to respond". 

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What did the commentators say?

"I want my country back", said Suzanne Moore in The Telegraph. "I want it back from men who throw bricks at nurses on their way to work. I want it back from those who burn down libraries. I want it back from those who pelt mosques with stones", she said. "I want it back from those involved in pogroms – and no, I don't think that is too strong a word – against those living in hotels."

"Most of all I want it back from the saloon-bar bores who whip up and give a veneer of respectability to this hatred", said Moore. Lord Chris Patten once memorably described Nigel Farage as "Tommy Robinson in a cravat". "Yep", agreed Moore. "He and his entourage are not patriots at all."  The unrest across the country cannot be dignified by calling it a political protest,  "it is opportunistic rioting and looting". 

While there may be "real grievances" and "undeniable problems with immigration" to be sorted out, what has happened in the past week is "fascism pure and simple. Let no one make any bones about it".

"Many of the wild claims that fire up anti-immigrant protesters are simply untrue," said The Economist. One "nonsense" belief is that senior officers practice "two-tier policing" in which white people are treated less fairly than ethnic minorities, despite police conducting 24.5 stop-and-searches per 1,000 black people compared to 5.9 per 1,000 white people. The story that participants in a separate riot in Leeds in July "escaped justice because they were Roma" is also incorrect; so far, there have been at least 27 arrests. "Perhaps some people are genuinely gulled by these falsehoods, perhaps they spread them knowing well that they are false", said the magazine. "Either way, the truth often seems to count for less than lies that confirm people's prejudices."

Indeed, "Britain is more successful at integrating immigrants than any other country in Europe", The Economist continued. Every ethnic group has "consistently become less segregated since the census started keeping track in 1991", while immigrants with foreign qualifications have "almost exactly the same employment rate as those with domestic qualifications". "The story the far-right tells is not the real one, and the government needs to make that clear."

Some, such as Nigel Farage, have suggested that the riots are "evidence of a country close to boiling over, community relations on the edge", said the BBC's Home editor Mark Easton. "But I have watched the clean-up operation in Hartlepool and read the research that suggests Britain today is safer and more tolerant than it has ever been," said Easton. "My sense is that right now it would be a mistake to assume that orchestrated far-right hooliganism is representative of the mood in Britain."

Indeed, a YouGov survey exploring British public attitudes towards the riots found that the vast majority – 85% – opposed the unrest, with just 7% supporting the violence. More than three-quarters (76%) said the rioters did not represent the views of the British public, while 12% thought they were representative.

What next?

Almost 6,000 public order officers have been mobilised to respond to disorder in the coming days, according to police sources speaking to the BBC. Police say they hope they are "through the worst" of the disorder, but are ready to respond if the situation escalates.

Meanwhile, the director of public prosecutions Stephen Parkinson, told the broadcaster that some involved in the disorder this week could be charged with terrorism offences.

"We are willing to look at terrorism offences. I'm aware of at least one instance where that is happening", he told the broadcaster. "Where you have organised groups planning activity for the purposes of advancing [an] ideology... planning really, really serious disruption then yes, we will consider terrorism offences."