Many came by train from elsewhere. Some stayed overnight at campsites. Many were not from the local area. Holidaymakers who had not seen the warnings from the local media were confused. Many police officers were drafted in. Many of these officers are only used to following orders and lack the knowledge to comprehend what they are really part of. Some of the reporting created tensions. People have their own take on reality and see it from a different place. Then the trains filled and most went back to where they came from.
Local man Jason West shares his experiences and perceptions of the event.
‘I snuck away around seven. By then it had become an Olympic bladder lasting event and the council had cunningly locked all of the loos (hopefully nothing kicked off and everyone was safe).
But the psychological pain, on both sides, felt very palpable the whole time I was there.
Yes there were the composite 80s-style casuals looking to express their manliness, the stereotypical bulbous angry red faces and the masked youths looking a bit bewildered in the eyes. I’d seen their ilk at work in Marseille in ’98 and recognised them. They always appear when a punch up beckons.
However, there were others, mainly fringe operatives, who just looked and sounded completely and utterly desperate. Some had made signs which stated exactly that. I saw “We Are Not Racists We Are Just Fed Up”. Fed up and badly let down for a very large chunk of their lives by powerful people who’d told them one thing and yet did another. Or promised to fix stuff and failed miserably. All whilst flaunting immunity from anything remotely resembling consequences. As consequences of a more domestic and existential nature have absorbed an ever increasing chunk of stagnant wage packets, mortgages have risen, rents similarly and job security has become a perk of the wealthy.
People look confused.
On both sides.
And it all felt really sad.
Those on our side of the police cordon spoke of their incredulity at witnessing events they never thought they’d see. We figured there were those on the other side who felt just the same.
When your leaders rally you from afar and twist narratives to energise your anger there have to be moments when even your rage level can’t mask the strange feeling that maybe, possibly, it has been deliberately misdirected again.
The truth is probably that those on each side had far more in common with each other than they realised and far less in common with their smartphone orchestrators or the slick political sidesteppers. Whose collective efforts have proven so explosive.
Remember this? As relevant as ever:
— People's Assembly (@pplsassembly) August 9, 2024
"I’m closer to a Jamaican born brickie than I am Jacob Rees-Mogg. I've got more in common with a Polish hotel maid than I do with Nigel Farage…All this anti-immigration, anti-foreigner shite is doing is dividing the working class” pic.twitter.com/lTy8yk1dpB
What I stood amidst today was systemic human failure on a massive scale. It needs to stop and more of the same under a different name simply won’t help.’
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