by Jim Chimirie on X
Before the fires in Belfast had been extinguished, the government had identified the threat. Not the border. Not the system that granted Hadi Alodid legal residency in seven months without a verifiable European asylum history. Not the Albanian gangs advertising guaranteed passage to England on TikTok this morning. The threat, as defined by this government, was the conversation.
Liz Kendall announced on Wednesday that social media firms would face new legal curbs during times of crisis. Platforms would be required to remove incendiary content more quickly when tensions were heightened. The definition of crisis and the definition of incendiary would be set by ministers. On the same day, Jonathan Hall, the government’s own terror watchdog, said he had raised the national security dimension of mass migration with the government and received no reply. One question got legislation within forty-eight hours. The other got silence. Stephen Ogilvie lost an eye on a Belfast street. The government’s legislative response targets the people describing what happened.
This is not new. After the summer 2024 riots the same reflex operated. People were jailed for social media posts within days of the disorder. The sentences handed to those who wrote the posts sat in the same range as those who burned the buildings. The machinery of the state was directed at speech about disorder rather than the conditions producing it. Belfast is the same pattern at higher intensity. The border stays open. Discussion of what happens at the border will be suppressed more quickly next time.
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