This summer is particularly hot for Britain, not because of the heat but because of the extraordinary situation that has prevailed in recent days as the country is shaken by violent far-right incidents.

The violent riots that now take place daily in its streets come after the murder of the three girls in Southport, while the demonstrations are heard with strong anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic slogans. The incidents erupted the day after the attack, amid unconfirmed reports, later partially denied, about the religion and origins of the 17-year-old attacker, Axel Rudakubana.

Keir Starmer’s government is trying to control the situation as best it can. Yesterday, he announced the mobilization of 6,000 specialist police officers and the provision of more than 500 places in prisons to house those arrested.

During the episodes of the previous days they have over 400 arrests were madewhile more than 100 arrested.Violence spread quickly across the country following misinformation in the wake of the Southport attacks.

At the same time, according to the Daily Mail, messages leaked by far-right channels of Telegram show those involved in the incidents threatening the lives of activists, using offensive comments as they prepare for new protests. A message on the encrypted Telegram platform shows that 38 cities should be prepared for the outbreak of new violent incidents.

Messages with extreme racist content posted on Telegram and inciting violence form a “potential target list” of rioters, who appear undaunted by the UK government’s crackdown on them. The report in the British newspaper says that the authors of these messages are targeting structures for refugees, anti-racism activists and human rights lawyers.

The country is almost paralyzed by the daily conflicts. Doctors are canceling appointments the with patients and nurses they are afraid to go to work, law firm dealing with immigration issues, pubs, hairdressers and other businesses are shutting down, fearing a new wave of violence and asking for protection from police forces.

A number of medical clinics in Middlesbrough and Hartlepool also canceled appointments earlier this week because of the riots.

“I have been advised to work from home because my office is right where the protests start, I feel threatened and I haven’t felt this fear since the BNP was in full force. Lawyers, especially those focused on asylum and immigration, should not be targeted anyway. Politics is not in their hands, politics is in the hands of politicians. To go after the people who represent asylum seekers and legal immigrants who come here to get a job and secure other benefits is a disgrace,” Aziz Deen, who works as a lawyer, told the BBC.

The Law Society of England and Wales denounced a “direct attack” on the legal profession, while Justice Minister Shabana Mahmoud denounced the unacceptable threats against lawyers and warned those involved in such actions “will be found the hundreds arrested by the police last week”

On Monday night, there were again violent incidents with protesters attacking police, burning cars and looting shops. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, a 30-year-old man was seriously injured in an attack that investigators believe was motivated by racial hatred, according to police, who did not specify the victim’s profile. In Plymouth, southwest England, six people were arrested and officers were slightly injured, police said. The protests have been accompanied by hundreds of arrests.

Government v. Musk

The CEO of Tesla and owner of the X also took a position on the riots that are rocking Britain. Elon Musk who posted on the platform last Sunday that “civil war is inevitable” in response to a post that blamed the violent protests on the effects of “mass immigration and open borders.”

On Monday, a spokesman for the UK prime minister commented on Musk’s post, telling reporters “there is no justification for this.”

Musk’s decision to step up his anti-immigrant rhetoric highlights the role that misinformation spread online plays in fueling violence – an issue of growing concern for the UK government.

“We see police officers seriously injured, buildings set on fire, I truly believe that everyone who has a platform should exercise their authority in a responsible manner,” she said. Deputy Minister of Justice Heidi Alexander.

On Tuesday night, the British Prime Minister refused to respond to Elon Musk’s statements. When asked about it by LBC radio today, former Chief Inspector Thomas Winsor said Elon Musk would “do well to look at batteries, cars and rockets and leave it to the British authorities to manage the protection and safety of of our populations”.

Tough summer for Keir Starmer

After a new meeting of the Cobra committee on crisis management concluded on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) between 2008 and 2013, said the system of criminal justice has shown a “robust and swift response” to the ongoing unrest and stressed that it expects “severe” penalties to be imposed against rioters.

With Britain’s public services at breaking point and prisons full Keir Starmer is certainly having a tough summer, which probably he himself did not imagine so. Starmer knows the criminal justice system very well and the problem that exists in prisons. And he might have been ready to take immediate action to shore up the criminal justice system, but he couldn’t have known that the large-scale upheaval was about to make the situation even more difficult.

Britain’s prison system had only a few hundred vacancies ahead of the election, while courts faced a significant backlog of cases that has grown every quarter since 2019.

Starmer has some advantages in dealing with this particular threat to the social order, in the form of a fairly united party, fresh from its recent victory. Also, Starmer may know the justice system well, but how he reacts to these new challenges is crucial.