00:00There is a sense within the police force, certainly the sort of people I've spoken to,
00:05now it's fairly anecdotal, that there's a kind of tinderbox situation.
00:09There's a lot of sort of unhappiness about various issues,
00:13and of course the thing is there's no sort of elections in prospect,
00:17certainly sort of general election,
00:18so people sort of feel that they perhaps have to vent it somehow or other.
00:21But when you've got a sort of febrile situation you've got at the moment,
00:24it only takes sort of a match, as it were, to set sort of fire to the so-called bonfire.
00:31And of course, I'm sort of metaphorising here,
00:33but people sort of want to show their emotions or their anger about the inability to change things.
00:41And of course what we're talking about most particularly is immigration.
00:44Of course, as I speak to you, facts are sort of emerging about the identity of the person
00:51that sort of carried out the awful attack in Belfast.
00:54The motives of which we're not entirely clear about,
00:57the only thing that sort of we do know at present is that it was a Sudanese national,
01:02and, you know, where he sort of, or how he came into the UK,
01:05they're still to sort of, to be established.
01:08But nonetheless, this feeds into sort of the narrative that we've sort of seen
01:12in sort of recent sort of months, if not years, I suppose,
01:14because let's face it, the Brexit referendum,
01:16which of course 10 years ago this month,
01:19almost, you know, we're at the anniversary of that in a couple of weeks' time.
01:24And of course that was also about sort of curbing immigration,
01:27but of course that was from Eastern Europe in particular.
01:31When we talk about Sudan, we'll talk about Africa.
01:33So there is a sort of a definite sort of sense that people are very unhappy,
01:37and of course that they sort of feel when they sort of see hotels being sort of used,
01:40and I know that that policy is going to be closed down, as it were,
01:44and put elsewhere, all those people put elsewhere.
01:47But nonetheless, in the sort of the present climate,
01:50where people are having to cope with the cost of living crisis,
01:53the fact that taxes are going to pay for this,
01:55and there seems to be sort of, if you like, an inability,
01:59you know, we're impotent in able to sort of to close our borders,
02:02which let's face it, that's what Brexit's about.
02:04This could indeed sort of create sort of a greater tension,
02:09which spills over into sort of the sort of scenes that we saw a couple of weeks ago
02:12in the sort of the following the death, the tragic sort of killing,
02:17and of course the sort of the subsequent trial of Henry Novak.
02:20So it's really difficult, and dare I say, police officers are always concerned
02:23that if these things happen to you in the summer when it's warmer, longer nights,
02:27then people sort of tend to sort of be more willing to go out
02:29than they are in a cold winter's night when it's raining.
02:32So difficulties, but of course no instant solutions,
02:36and I think that's why the sort of sense of impotence is really sort of creeping in
02:39and leading to sort of the sense that there may be more disturbances.
02:43And certainly, you know, from what I'm sort of seeing in the social media,
02:46there are sort of attempts to sort of to generate this by sort of far-right elements.
02:50The disorder in Belfast has included vehicles being set alight
02:54and police responding to pockets of unrest.
02:57Political leaders have condemned the attack,
02:59but also urge people not to target wider communities
03:02or use the case to justify intimidation.
03:05People, of course, have a right to peaceful protest
03:08and to ask questions of authorities.
03:11But violence, threats and false claims can leave local shops,
03:15transport services, families and police forces
03:18dealing with consequences far from the original scene.
03:22I think the sort of the great difficulty is not being part of the sort of
03:26the European Union and Schengen area and all of that.
03:30If people sort of came, you could immediately send them back to where they came from.
03:34That doesn't exist anymore because, you know, we are sort of now affecting our own,
03:37which is what Brexit is all about, with, you know, this notional territory.
03:40But of course, if you can't send them back, you have to keep them here
03:43under the European Court of Human Rights, which is also, you know,
03:46that's a different sort of question.
03:48And of course, that is also sort of being raised yet again
03:51and I think will sort of become a sort of an election issue.
03:53But I do think a large part of it was about was the fact that sort of in many areas
03:57there's been a sort of a change in the sort of the local cultures as a consequence of
04:02sort of people moving in and also sort of the narrative was that those people were taking
04:07jobs that sort of the locals could sort of take.
04:10Now, of course, whether they really want to do those jobs is another matter and it's really
04:13sort of difficult.
04:14But nonetheless, and of course, the sort of the unemployment situation has got worse,
04:18not better.
04:19And of course, we've also got, and we've seen this in some recent weeks, NEETs, you
04:23know, the sort of people not in education, employment, training, you know, that's young
04:26people between 16 and 24 who are sort of working, a million of them.
04:30And of course, that number is rising.
04:32This also feeds into sort of the what's going to happen next week, which of course is the
04:36Makerfield by-election and reform and restore more particularly.
04:40They're going to sort of use it to their advantage, which of course is what politics is about.
04:44Well, the next stage is the court process and the continuing police investigation.
04:49Public order planning is also likely to remain under close attention, especially if further
04:55protests are called for or rumours continue to spread online.
05:00For communities in our part of the world, the issue is not only what happened in Belfast.
05:05It is how quickly one serious case can affect trust, safety and day-to-day life in places
05:12with no direct link to the attack.
05:14We're going to stand there.
05:14We haven't started.
05:14Let's break.
05:14Let's break.
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