The Real Reasons for the British Riots
When Louis XVI laid out a 'Cahiers De Doleances' ( Book of Grievances of The Estates) in 1789 it was an attempt to forestall talk of revolution by allowing feedback and financial reform of the First Estate. The Third Estate were in revolt and the King assembled the Estates General to stave off the coming days of Robespierre, Saint Just and guillotines. Keir Starmer, rather than summoning another 'Cobra Meeting' with the Police and Security forces, would be better guided by paying homage to the Labour Party's own history and the breakdown of the 'social contract'. The British Estates needs to be convened.
The 'sans culottes' of Britain are labelled as 'the far right', 'thugs' etc. The Third Estate may contain some criminal actors but the riots have occurred as a direct response to the breakdown of the 'social contract'. The social contract is that hypothetical Hobbesian agreement between government and governed. It provides for a modicum of state security so that civil society can function smoothly. Therefore, in the US the Second Amendment provides for the right to bear arms, in case the government refuses to listen, becomes authoritarian etc.
The present debacle is not about 'Immigration'. The problem of immigration is as ancient as The Roman Empire or the reason why Chaucer and the English were speaking 'Anglo Norman French' in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The spectre of immigration is a phenomenon of deeper systemic issues. The British third estate suffers from a crisis of Identity. This was examined, of course, in the nineteenth century by Marx and alienation from production etc. Yet this material analysis has been overshadowed, overtaken even, by the eclipse of Identity in the UK.
That is, their identity has been affected in three realms. The first is deindustrialisation which began in earnest in the 1980s. Globalisation outsourced much of Britain's traditional industries abroad. This was driven by the need to ditch the post-war welfare state and to get back to a healthier position for capital. Therefore Piketty, the French economist, maintains the battle of the present milieu to be between 'r' and 'g' (r=rate of return on capital v 'g' =social income). r>g explains the need for globalised markets, cheap labour etc. Now deindustrialisation means ghost towns, broken families, drug addiction, Coldplay. The English working class has lost aspects of community, even if it had meant dour Lowry figures, in an industrial landscape.
The second, much longer process, has been what Foucault termed the path to 'self concern', roughly from the 'Enlightenment' onwards. The movement to interiorisation marked a move away from 'community'. The modern world adopts a utilitarian approach; in order to satisfy individuals, to preserve human rights, it ignores the community. It becomes obsessive in this. It forgets the groups which forged communities; family, nationality, the worker. The periphery of extended self concern is visible in the cacophony of identity searching minority groups from BLM to Transgender affiliation. This atomisation has left traditional groups feeling isolated and ignored. The main aspect is that it dissolves community. Yet 'self concern' also feeds into the ideas of conservative or 'populist' groups. The entire self interest dialectic reinforces itself on social media with algorithms reaffirming beliefs so that society becomes more splintered, whether left or right.
The third area of dysfunction is democracy, i.e., representative democracy. Keir Starmer is the least popular British PM in history. The Labour Party received only 20% of the possible vote. The electoral turnout was just 60%. Labour took 33.7% of this vote. The Conservatives took 23.7%. Reform UK had 14.3%. Probably the most startling statistic to come out of this election is that 'Larry The Cat' (who lives at no.10) has a 44% favourability rating. Vote Larry! The third estate are not represented. The majority of the political class form a new Brahmin like caste system, or managerial elite. They dominate swathes of higher education, the Civil Service and the Judiciary. There is no representation for the third estate.
Elon Musk is talking of 'civil war'. But Keir Starmer is the political 'Schrodinger's Cat'; is he here, or isn’t he? This could be the legacy of an already vacant PM. A Peterloo incident, like the deaths of eighteen people in Manchester in 1819, when the cavalry charged, could derail the new government. History is back. Trapped in the headlights of 'realpolitik' Starmer lashes out, Peterloo like. The army could be brought in. The rhetoric is not one of understanding but reaction. As Hamlet lamented on the death of his father and the entrance of the imposter :
'The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables...'
The new fayre on the tables, of wishy washy growth and council houses, won't be enough to stop the perception of Britain in decay, to stop perceptions of dangerous immigration. Real political and participatory reform is necessary. Riots are the boiling point of politics, the final straw. They are an act with a significant meaning. Politics as a visceral stage. The play is the thing to catch the conscience of the king...
Brian Patrick Bolger has taught Political Philosophy and Applied Linguistics at Universities in the UK and in the Czech Republic. He runs a Training and Consultancy organisation in the Czech Republic.
