East London offers a glimpse into Britain's terrifying future

A shocking display of sectarianism which nobody in Westminster is talking about

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Credit: Getty Images

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This is a guest post by former government advisor James Price.

If there’s one video you want to watch right now to understand where the United Kingdom is heading in the future then it’s this one.

Take one minute before reading the rest of this piece and just watch that video.

What you see here is a group of masked Muslim men, mobilising in Whitechapel, East London. They gathered to march forcefully in response to a reported demonstration by the anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP).

Adjacent to them, is another protest from the radical Woke Left, carrying the ubiquitous Socialist Worker placards.

The Muslim mob screams “Allahu Akbar” and pushes the lefties out their way. “There’s no need for that; we’re on the same side bruv!” screeches one of the woke activists. And then comes to the key line: “No we’re NOT” comes the furious, masked reply, from an angry, local Muslim.

Local shops were even gleefully marketing the sale of balaclavas for the march, under the terrifying slogan of “no face; no case”.

Let’s be absolutely clear about what is going on here.

What we are witnessing here is the future of Britain, the future that awaits our country, unless the people who rule over us rapidly change course.

The ‘Balkanisation’ of Britain, with different groups pitting off against one another in febrile, downright terrifying physical encounters —scenes that would not have looked out of place in late Republican Rome, or Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

And one of the most significant aspects of this, as I’ve written before, is the interplay between radical Islamism and the radical Woke Left.

In perfect timing for this weekend’s terrifying marches in East London, this was covered in the Spectator this past week, focusing on the uneasy alliance between the Gaza independent MPs, and the magic Grandpa himself, Jeremy Corbyn.

What isn’t yet understood, but what the above video shows so clearly, are the irreconcilable differences between these groups.

On the surface, they have lots in common.

Radical Islamism and the radical Woke Left both harbour a deeply illiberal, anti-democratic, even totalitarian impulse. They also both subordinate individual rights behind fixed group identities, and so have little time for individual liberty. And they both share general disregard for the Enlightenment, Christian charity, and science.

But when they came face to face, in East London, the Islamists told the woke left, in no uncertain terms; “we are not like you”.

The Left has enabled this.

To win votes, Labour and the Woke Left promised definitions of “Islamophobia”, recognising Palestine, and endlessly insisting there was no incompatibility between modern Britain and the particularly austere, backward interpretations of the faith that is so prevalent in our country today.

As Winston Churchill said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last”. Those who think there are 87 genders are realising, too late, that those who don’t even think there are two equal ones, are not their friends.

We saw exactly this in Iran when the Ayatollah came to power. Leftist Persian women in western clothes cheering, not realising that they would soon be stripped of more rights than they could ever have imagined.

And there is clear message in all this for Britain, for our country, which is this: unless we fundamentally change course, and do so urgently, then the scenes playing out in East London are what Britain will soon look like, with a shrinking majority falling back as emboldened radical groups step forward and assert themselves, physically, on the streets.

This splintering of British politics from the old way, of parties that coalesced around ideas, towards the new, of different sectarian groups organising based on ethnic, religious or other features will be no surprise to anyone who reads this Substack.

Time and time again, we have done what very few people in Westminster are willing to do —calling out growing sectarianism in British politics (see here, here, and here).

We are already staring down the barrel of the next general election, and many more elections to come, featuring a much greater level of tribal, religious or clannish voting.

The “Muslim Vote”, the “Hindu Manifesto”, the “Yoruba Manifesto” and more are all campaign groups or pledge organisations that will further fracture traditional voting blocs in this country, pushing us more toward the kind of politics we have seen in Northern Ireland and Lebanon than what we have traditionally been used to.

But the demonstration we saw this weekend is also what sectarianism looks like in day-to-day public life, a long time out from the next general election. And it’s not the only one. Far from it.

Another recent example …

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