DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Grievances that lie behind these riots

Nothing can excuse the mindless violence that followed the murder of three young girls at a Southport dance class on Monday.

Rampaging through the streets, throwing missiles at police, looting, burning cars and smashing mosque windows would be contemptible in any circumstances.

But to use a tragedy which has left a quiet town in a daze of shock and bereavement as a pretext for such thuggery is monstrous.

Ominously, the police warn of further disruption over this weekend and are on high alert in places as far afield as Liverpool, Rochdale and even Belfast.

This outburst of public disorder was initially fuelled by a false report, cynically spread on social media, that the killer was an Islamist asylum seeker.

An overturned car was set alight by the thugs in Sunderland city centre on Friday 

Officers arrest a rioter after a protest in Sunderland turned violent on Friday night

Protestors gather outside the Abdullah Quillam Mosque in Liverpool on Friday

The police were far too slow in correcting it and the vacuum was filled by internet conspiracy theorists, bigots and attention-seekers intent on whipping up trouble.

In fact, the suspected murderer was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents.

Sir Keir Starmer says the rioting was ‘clearly driven by far-Right hatred’ and that the perpetrators are mainly outsiders.

‘These thugs are mobile,’ he said on Thursday. ‘They move from community to community.’ 

His proposed solution includes wider deployment of controversial facial recognition technology and travel restrictions on known offenders.

But is this lawlessness solely the work of far-Right interlopers?

Of the seven charged over rioting in Southport the day after the stabbings, four are from the town itself and the rest from elsewhere in Merseyside.

Following disturbances in Hartlepool, an 11-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of arson and seven men charged with other offences. All are said to be local.

There is no question that many rabble-rousers, some with far-Right affiliations, will have jumped on the Southport tragedy for their own malign political ends.

Social media sites are awash with their disgusting racist tropes. 

The owners of these platforms can no longer be allowed to shrug their shoulders over the filth being peddled on their watch, and if Sir Keir really wants to make a difference, he could certainly start there.

A car is toppled over and set alight during scenes of disorder in Sunderland ton Friday evening

But there are more deep-seated, complex problems at play here which can’t be brushed under the carpet any longer.

There are many in this country who feel angry, alienated, and ignored by a remote and dismissive political class.

Brexit (for which towns such as Hartlepool voted overwhelmingly) was supposed to bring control to borders and laws, but eight years on the opposite has happened.

Migration has spiralled, crime is rife (especially in poorer areas), and public services are buckling under the weight of a population increase of 9 million since 2000.

The Tories, while undoubtedly a disappointment, did try to stem the tide. Labour looks set to open the floodgates.

In its first four weeks, the new government has ditched the Rwanda deterrent, and is set to grant automatic asylum to 70-90,000 migrants waiting for their claims to be assessed. It looks like total surrender.

There is a widespread perception that Britain is being radically changed, both culturally and economically, and that far from allowing an open debate, the political elite is trying to suppress the truth.

Sir Keir ignores this growing disaffection at his peril. Far-Right actors may be helping to inflame the current protests. 

But the grievances that underpin them are felt by many. And they are very real.