Inside the unrest disfiguring English cities

Britain’s police knew they were in for a difficult weekend. On July 29th three children were murdered in a dance class in Southport. False rumours that their killer had been Muslim and an illegal immigrant who had arrived in a small boat quickly spread across the internet, leading to a on the following day, as well as violence in London, Hartlepool and elsewhere. Sir Keir Starmer, Britain’s prime minister, decried the unrest as the work of a “tiny, mindless minority” of “thugs” on the “far right”. Further demonstrations across English cities on August 3rd reinforced that verdict but also revealed a wider, inchoate sense of grievance.