INSIGHT - Sowing the seeds of division!

Friday night was Sunak night at the Downing Street podium. Not to announce the starting gun for the General Election but to warn us of "forces here at home trying to tear us apart" - but no repeat of the phrase 'mob rule' that he had used in a statement following a meeting with police on Wednesday.

Instead there was a reference to "small groups" hijacking protests. He was careful to reference both Islamist and far-right extremism, as well as condemning anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred. As far as I read the thrust of what he was saying, he followed his right wing trope of finding some scapegoat, like they have with asylum seekers, ‘feckless’ jobless, and in this case protestors exercising their legitimate right to protest. 

But the response from Conservative-lite Starmer shocked me most, as he parroted the same trope.

Thanks for Ed Davey who hit the nail on the head when he said ‘The British people will take no lessons from a prime minister and Conservative party who have sowed the seeds of division for years.’

A wrecked and impoverished society will be the Conservative party legacy when they finally quit office, not a day too soon.

Stephen Hardy MBE

Chair, Bexhill & Battle Liberal Democrats