Alice Dasilva Aguilar aged 9. Elsie Dot Stancombe aged 7. Bebe King aged 6.
Remember their names.
Children whose lives were mercilessly cut short by a murderous act.
The pain and anguish of their families is simply unimaginable because the loss of these innocents is incalculable.
The violent rampage left eight other children seriously injured. The bravery of the adults who put their own lives at risk by trying to save the children and disarm the attacker deserves the highest praise.
The attacker is now in custody and faces a trial for multiple charges of murder and attempted murder. The motive for these violent assaults may or may not become clear in the weeks ahead. It’s difficult to believe if there ever could be rational explanation for any crimes against children. But in this horrific case we must leave that to due process.
The fallout from the barbarous acts in Southport spilled out onto the streets in several English cities.
Only a fool or a knave would believe these acts were spontaneous eruptions of empathy for the bereaved. They were orchestrated with the aim of stirring up racial tensions. Their purpose was political unrest and these hooded hooligans were fuelled by gobby right wing commentators and tin pot excuses for politicians.
Within hours of the Southport incident social media (including my own) was swamped with misinformation about the status of the suspect. Some went as far as to wrongly name an individual. They were, of course, wrong, despite the best efforts of the police to try and contain the spread of malicious misinformation.
Too many were too ready to believe the suspect was a migrant, a Muslim, a boat refugee.
Unfortunately, the truth didn’t fit their narrative. But that didn’t matter.
These marauding thugs, hoodlums and right wing agitators needed to vent their spleen. Many of them were little more than drunken lager louts and bar room brawlers. Their first target was a community mosque with the Imam trapped inside.
And then, they turned their attention to the police. Chanting “England til I die” ,“Rule Britannia”, “Stop the boats”. They hurled obscene verbal abuse at police officers and threw paving stones, beer bottles and bricks. Even torching police vehicles did not sate their appetite for violence.
The police were described by the mother of one of the murdered children as being “nothing but heroic” and who did not need this carnage.
But these mindless muckrakers and skin headed saboteurs were not listening - they had their own narrow, mean spirited, racist and hate filled agenda to pursue.
The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, needs to reel in the propagation of neo fascist and illiberal commentary and Ofcom needs to take a bite out of right wing propagandists masquerading as news outlets.
Of course, it did not take long for some local lummoxes to bandwagon with their social media tuppence worth. Talking about reverting to “British morals”, protecting the “indigenous” population and praising that arch imperialist bigot - the late Enoch Powell - these keyboard marionettes reminded me of the Pope John Paul II quip that “stupidity is also a gift from God but one mustn’t misuse it!”.
The reality is evil people exist and they come from all walks of life, irrespective of class, gender, creed or colour. There have been many “indigenous” mass murderers in the UK - Peter Sutcliffe, Rose and Fred West, Hindley and Brady, Harold Shipman, Thomas Hamilton to name a few. Those who carried out Darkley, Blood Friday, Kingsmills, Loughlinisland and Greysteel were also evil.
Over the past 15 years we have allowed language to be misappropriated by the far right and conspiracy theorists on everything from climate change to vaccine doubters, from migration myths to even a resurgence of Holocaust denial. They have been ushered into the mainstream by the recent xenophobia and toxicity of political parties like the GOP in the USA and Tories in Britain.
It’s time to lance that boil.
