Divisions left unchecked lead to isolated groups and communities
History teaches us that the arc toward social justice and stability is neither inevitable nor linear - it is made by people and communities who choose solidarity over cynicism and contempt.
When forces seek to stoke the flames of intolerance and division, the best response is a deliberate, collective effort of connection based on humility, such as reaching across the divide, checking on your neighbours, respectfully engaging in hard conversations, and standing with those whose struggles we might not fully share.
The images that have come out of Henry Nowak’s murder (and arrest) and the barbaric attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie will rightly shock and disgust the British public. The response and questions being asked from the public are also completely legitimate - how we’ve got to this point and what our government is doing about it - but what we cannot tolerate or accept is the response from a minority who target communities by creating an atmosphere of fear and physical violence.
We have to call it out for what it is - thuggery and hooliganism intended to inject fear across minority communities.
It is also time for an honest conversation about the moment we’re living in, where public figures are using social media to deliberately sow division - words have serious consequences for people and communities. But more broadly, it is time to look at the role and responsibilities of those who run social media platforms, such as Elon Musk and X, who willingly allow (and contribute to) hatred and extremism to spread like wildfire.
We cannot allow the fabric of British society to be eroded by those who seek to capitalise on these instances by pushing out content that aims to shock, anger and evoke an emotive response. Now is the time for us to push back by bridging the divide between identity, class, religion, and to rebuild the ties that hold British society together.
People in Britain feel angry and their sense of community has weakened in recent years - as demonstrated by the flags on lampposts and polling by the British Red Cross which found two thirds of adults feel the country is divided.
But change and progress are slow which is why we need a collective effort to restore connectivity from the local institutions that bind us together..
Britain to me is one of the greatest countries because of its diversity and tolerance - a country that welcomed my great grandmother when she arrived on a boat from India in the 1940s.
Our history may be littered with problematic moments (and figures!), but its moments of progression includes the abolition of slavery in the 1800s, Mary Wollstonecraft and Emmeline Pankhurst, who fought for women’s rights and political equality, Alan Horsfall and Maureen Colquhoun, who pioneered LGBT+ visibility and rights in politics and society, and Sir Winston Churchill who led democratic resistance to Nazism in the Second World War - to note a few!
We must be clear-eyed about the stakes. Divisions left unchecked lead to isolated groups and communities. The alternative is a plural society which doesn’t seek to erase differences or avoid hard conversations, but instead cultivates a shared commitment to fairness and mutual respect, even while we might disagree.
We can all play our part - check in with our neighbours or stop to say hi to a stranger on the high street. Support those institutions that connect rather than divide. In doing so we can build a future where the fabric of our community is stronger than division.
But ultimately our Government has to grasp this - from the difficult conversations and decisions to invest in our communities to standing up to social media platforms and holding them to account when it matters.