England will beat Croatia 5-0 this week to take their first steps towards winning the World Cup. OK, you’re right. I really am on fantasy island with that one. What Wednesday and the football will do, however, is remind us how united we still are in the face of those who wish to divide us.We will laugh again, cry again, cheer again, remember how to hug complete strangers again. Honk car horns at randoms in the street again. Commiserate with the people in the pub again when we get so near and yet so far again.OPINIONThe football really couldn’t have come at a better time. Because Britain right now is being set on fire by the racists and xenophobes. The hate-mongers couldn’t care less that we remain utterly united in our condemnation of anyone who inflicts the kind of harm that sparked the riots last week.They are being allowed to challenge that narrative. If you’re a regular reader of this column, you’ll know all about my ongoing concern that the relentless airtime given to those who wish to divide us could result in something terrible happening.Reform’s Zia Yusuf delivers a speech. Darren says: “Rhetoric for which the average person would be sacked is amplified on our broadcast media”(Image: Getty Images)Last week, it did. Belfast erupted into the kinds of pogroms we saw across England during the summer of 2024. People of colour were terrorised. Their houses set on fire, their businesses wrecked. We all know that it was inflamed by the right-wing social media trillionaire who appears intent on spreading the completely false claim online that crime in this country is perpetrated by just one demographic.But the platforms still legitimising stone-cold racism remain in plain sight. Lies go unchecked on TV and radio right now. Rhetoric for which the average person would be sacked is amplified on our broadcast media. Only on Sunday, ex-Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman straight up lied on Sky News, claiming non-white people are treated less harshly by the UK justice system. Garbage.Stats gathered by government bodies, human rights groups, watchdogs, the lot, all consistently prove that Black people are disproportionately targeted by police. Only in March, a study conducted by King’s College London revealed Black people are four times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people across England and Wales.For the Met it is 3.7 times. And guess what? Around two-thirds of stops lead to no action or establish that the person stopped was wrongly suspected. Yet still they lie with impunity on TV. Still they poison our society by amplifying the untruths, fomenting fear and loathing.Still some broadcasters allow racism to be drip-fed by politicians into our homes in breakfast shows disguised as debates over legitimate concerns. Some in the Westminster political class treat the kind of politician who would have been marginalised out of mainstream society 20 years ago like heavyweights today.Even after the Belfast carnage, TV news presenters were asking: “Were they really race riots or protesters voicing their concerns?” Ask the families who fled their homes set on fire by thugs. And bear this in mind when you next hear it: anyone who asks that question is part of the problem.OPINION
