Pouring petrol on the flames of Northern Ireland's riots

Right wing commentators ramped up rhetoric as rioting resembling pogroms targeted migrants

The anti-migrant rioting broke out in Northern Ireland after two fourteen year old boys were accused of raping a girl, took on elements of a pogrom. While the boys’ background is Romanian the rioters anger appears aimed at anyone thought to be a migrant.

On Wednesday night 11 June in Ballymena there were households putting up national flags and signs in their windows in hope that indicating they weren’t foreign would mean rioters wouldn't attack their homes.

With this as the backdrop various right-wing commentators went with an angle of “I don’t condone violence but…” before going down a rhetorical road that in some cases almost excused the violence to place blame on the “liberal elite” or “activist” lawyers and judges.

Social media is inevitably even worse, suggesting violence and fear to make people “go back home” was a “new handbook” to follow.

The Telegraph decided the responsible action to take was to suggest civil war could be around the corner.

This is reminiscent of the Southport riots, shortly after Labour won the 2024, when Elon Musk tweeted “civil war is inevitable”.

“If the white working-class feel…”

Feel. As with Brexit and MAGA, feelings are a driving force, and the media has been stuffed with articles based on misrepresentations that seem intent on rage farming.

An example is a recent story on the Prevent Strategy that has now been covered by numerous outlets. Prevent is the UK’s anti-terrorism programme which individuals thought to be at risk of radicalisation are referred to

On Sunday 8 June the Sunday Telegraph's front page read, “Concern over mass migration is terrorist ideology, says Prevent. Online guidance says ‘Cultural Nationalism’ could be a reason for referring someone for deradicalisation.” The story was based around a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper by Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union.

However, Labour didn't make this change to the Prevent training. The Prevent training was updated in 2023 while Suella Braverman was Home Secretary in Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Government.

Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former advisor suggested the Labour government was like an entity trying to provoke racial violence.

Meamwhile Reform leader Nigel Farage commentated on the recent riots on his own GB News show.

The rage farming and talk of civil war has been imported into the UK from the MAGA playbook, and with such rhetoric comes an increased risk of political violence.

Labour MP Jo Cox's murder in 2016 was during the EU Referendum when the British public faced an avalanche of emotive and often incorrect stories. Since Labour came to power, followed by the horrific Southport attack and subsequent riots there has been a ramping up of this rage farming.

Young’s Daily Sceptic suggested recent arson attacks on Keir Starmer's properties could be representative of a future civil war. Meanwhile other right-wing commentators who had been outraged when a milkshake was thrown over Nigel Farage made jokes about the arson attacks.

The arson attacks have spawned their own conspiracy theories, that the Ukrainian suspects were Starmer and Lord Ali's rent-boys and spies in a conspiracy to replace President Zelensky. Disgraced former MP Andrew Bridgen who was kicked out of the Conservative Party for likening covid vaccines to the Holocaust has been busy spreading a story that could have come from Q-Anon. Bridgen's popularity in anti-vax and conspiracy theorist circles continues to grow on the sewer that X has become with over 300k followers.

https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/video-uks-starmer-embracing-labour-party-donor-is-ai-experts-say-2025-05-08/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Why the rage farming?

While Conservative and Reform supporting sources clearly want to undermine a Labour government, at times it seems like some elements would appear to almost welcome the idea of civil disorder.

This would likely come with calls for Starmer to resign or even for a general election, this would suit Reform who are riding high according to the polls at the moment. Reform are an unstable ship with policies that don’t stand up to scrutiny, maintaining that lead for three or four years will be challenging for them.

Of course there is a simpler, corporate answer, rage farming click bait gets a lot of views.