It is time to nail the lies of the hard right before they drive more nails into the coffin of a free society

It may have come as something of a revelation to observers in America, France, Germany and many other jurisdictions that the widespread rioting in England and Wales has been dealt with by local police forces equipped with nothing more lethal than batons, shields, helmets, and some impressively well-trained horses and dogs.

After the horror and tragedy of the knife attack in Southport, now sadly overshadowed by these later shocking events, it has been a week of riots, mayhem, injury, and deeply distressing scenes on the streets in towns and cities across the country.

The police have not always managed to protect citizens and their property, and shamefully, Muslim people are still terrified by the vicious hostility of the baying far-right mobs. But in the circumstances, British forces have succeeded against almost impossible odds in restoring the peace in many places. They are to be commended for their resolve and bravery.

There was not, just as there never has been, any “two-tier” policing, as is routinely claimed by the provocateurs on the right; only operational decisions made under extreme pressure by officers who are putting their own safety on the line.

The claim being made by Nigel Farage now, and by the likes of Suella Braverman, as home secretary, in the past, is that the police have been “soft” in their approach to Black Lives Matter demonstrations, pro-Palestine marches, and the recent disturbances in Harehills, Leeds. This claim is as pernicious as it is false.

Such ideas – casually tossed into the debate by hard-right and far-right politicians, as well as by professional trouble-makers such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) – have only served to encourage the mobs to specifically target the police, as well as places of worship, asylum hotels, and random people of colour.

As the prime minister says: “There’s no two-tier policing – there’s policing without fear or favour. That is a non-issue. The focus here is not on the apparent motivation of anyone involved in this. This is violence.”

Indeed so, and these “protests” are very different from some of those that have taken place in the past. There is a significant distinction between the sort of demonstration that involves noisy disruption, blocking streets, or roads being closed, with some incidental arrests, and the kind that involves burning down libraries, police offices, hotels, food banks and places of worship, and looting retail premises.

This is all about thuggery, in other words, and mass hysteria driven by “disinformation” – lies, myths and propaganda – spread by social media tycoons and politicians with their own agendas.

The 2016 Brexit referendum turbo-charged the current wave of discontent – and there is little sign of it abating. The authorities have to answer these displays of lawlessness with the full force of the law, swift justice, and exemplary sentencing.

No doubt this will seem harsh to some, and create some slightly unconvincing “martyrs” who’ve torched a taxi or the like, but the strongest of deterrents have to be implemented before someone dies in an arson attack or is kicked to death. As the phrase goes, “Enough is enough.”

Common sense also tells us that not everyone taking part in these “protests” is looking for a fight or a spell in prison with a criminal record, though there seem to be more than enough people willing to attack the police directly to justify use of the old-fashioned term “riotous assembly”.

Some are driven by grievances that they feel have not been listened to by the established, mainstream politicians, and that sense of being ignored has made them more open to extremist manipulators – it is hardly a new phenomenon.

The fact that we’ve recently had a general election in which many of these issues were debated, and in which progressive parties gained a majority of the vote, has not settled matters (just as “getting Brexit done” didn’t).

To the extent that there is genuine disillusionment, therefore, it is incumbent on responsible leaders in every party to stand uncompromisingly firm on law and order, but also to take on and expose the false nature of the myths that haunt so many people. This can only be achieved by deploying facts and logical arguments.

The arguments pushed by the extremists are too often left unchallenged. For example, as mentioned, the myth that the police take a “soft” approach to certain groups, despite arrests that prove the contrary; that torching a Holiday Inn housing refugees from Iran and Syria might serve to avenge the victims of evil grooming gangs; that areas with larger migrant populations suffer higher crime rates. Such ideas are far from the truth, yet they have been permitted to take root, and we are now seeing the consequences.

It must be made clear beyond doubt that Sharia law is not going to be imposed on the UK, or on any part of it; that immigration boosts the economy and supports the NHS, social care, hospitality, agriculture and much else; that people born in Britain are British, and not “migrants”, irrespective of background; that there is nothing patriotic about arson; that people of colour serve with distinction in our revered armed forces; and that all Muslim people want is to build a life for themselves and their families in peace, the same as anyone else.

These are simple truths too often left unsaid by those with power and influence, and in recent years it has been the Conservatives who have not just been negligent, but have actively used the terrifying language of “invasion” and “hate marches” and decried our successful multicultural society.

It is time, in other words, to nail the lies of the hard right, before they drive more nails into the coffin of a free society.