The police said “we don’t believe this to be terrorism related”, which seems to be code for “the suspect is not white, and Tommy Robinson is on the way”. Or he would have been had he not fled the country so he didn’t get arrested for something else.
There’s a lot of hate for the illegal immigrants that have been shoved into run down hotels up and down the country, often in the poorest areas. I often check my local Facebook groups, and no matter what happens (ducks found dead, dog missing, theft, rape) the response is always “Probably one of the Novotel lot!” It wouldn’t have surprised me in the slightest if rioting kicked off here as well. I suspect the only reason it hasn’t is we’re just not a big enough town for any of them to organise it.
The incident sparking this wave isn’t even for that fire. It’s a British guy who snapped. But people don’t care. It’s just an excuse now for a show of force.
It could all have been avoided by hiring more people to process applications back when the numbers started ramping up, but here we are with hundreds of thousands of immigrants awaiting decisions with nowhere else to go.