Here are some photos of King Charles in Scotland over the weekend. He attended the Mey Highland Games. He wore a kilt and appeared to be having a wonderful time. Charles and many of the royals have already started their summer holidays. Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh all made appearances at the Paris Olympics, but those appearances are cutting into their holidays. Prince William and Kate haven’t been seen in nearly a month and they’re reportedly in Norfolk.
All of which to say, no one from the Windsor clan made any move to meet with the families of the Southport stabbing last week. Three little girls were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. The assailant was born in Wales, but misinformation spread like wildfire across social media and the British media. Basically, every racist in Britain has decided to use the murder of these three little girls to stage some of the biggest riots Britain has seen in decades. The violence is going one way – white nationalists are attacking people of color, they’re setting fire to hotels and causing a massive amount of destruction.
Rioters set fire and broke into hotels used to shelter asylum seekers in northern England on Sunday, as the country grapples with the worst social unrest it has seen in years.
The violence was triggered by the stabbing of three young girls in Southport, northwest England, earlier in the week. The far right has seized on and spread a wave of disinformation, including false claims the attacker was an immigrant, to mobilize anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant protests. Police say the suspect was born in Britain.
Footage geolocated by CNN shows protesters on Sunday vandalizing and setting ablaze two Holiday Inns in northern England: one in Tamworth, which had previously been criticized by a local politician for housing asylum seekers, and another in Rotherham.
In Tamworth, protesters threw projectiles, smashed windows, and started fires, injuring one police officer, according to local authorities. Meanwhile in Rotherham, protesters threw wooden planks, used fire extinguishers against officers, set fire to objects near the hotel, and smashed windows to gain entry to the building, police said.
The Rotherham hotel at the time was “full of terrified residents and staff,” according to a statement by Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has condemned the weekend’s violent protests, which saw at least 147 people arrested since Saturday night. Those involved in violence will face the full force of the law, he warned.
“People in this country have a right to be safe and yet, we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric. So no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: Far-right thuggery,” Starmer said from Downing Street on Sunday. Turning to the violent scenes in Rotherham, Starmer described “marauding gangs intent on law-breaking” and emphasized that violent rioters do not “represent our country.”
What a way for Starmer to start his government, right? Downing Street has been trying to manage the crisis and I completely understand why the riots and hate crimes are a purely political issue, and an issue which should be managed by Downing Street. That being said, the Windsors’ silence is very loud, isn’t it? While the palaces issued statements about the Southport stabbing, no one from the Windsor clan met with the families of the murdered girls? Not one “let’s all come together” statement from the king amid mass rioting and a surge of violent hate crimes and arson? It reminds me of when Londoners staged a Black Lives Matter march… which was attacked by white nationalists, all while QEII threw herself a birthday parade in Windsor.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.