Democracy is a fragile thing.
Across the UK and Ireland, politicians are manning all the usual pumps this morning. Left wing politicians are speaking about racist rioters, 'conservatives' speaking about law and order. Others will make vague statements about people's right to live in peace. All falling back on tried and true soundbites.
But few to none will tell the obvious truth - democracy is fragile and a business for serious and judicious people unafraid to take tough decisions for a longer-term good.
Politicians (in Ireland and the UK) have not upheld their side of the democratic contract in terms of mass migration. In particular, politicians from parties of all stripes, left and (supposedly) centre and conservative (FF/G and Conservatives in the UK) have granted leave to stay to hundreds of thousands of unvetted fake asylum seekers in their respective countries and they have then rammed them into closeknit communities - without consultation with locals and without a veto for locals.
This has pushed people's backs to the wall.
Communities have, time and again ,said no to this but they have been met with deaf ears and accusations of racism.
So when things go wrong - as they do with increasing, violent, frequency - such as a fake asylum seeker trying to saw the head off of a well-liked disabled local man - communities know there's no point turning to politicians for help.
Democracy, based on common law, asks that people forego retribution with the promise of restitution by serious-minded and judicious people in the name of the state. In other words, people can give up clannish, sectarian or other collective units capable of doling out retribution because the state has promised to take on the burden of ensuring justice will be done.
The problem is that for decades deeply unserious and non-judicious people have taken up roles in politics and judiciary. Activists with dangerous ideologies regarding open borders and the forced settlement of illegals in close knit communities have taken charge and told people - like it or lump it. That is authoritarian and a direct rejection of the state's responsibility to act both judiciously and to act in a manner that makes resort to retribution and clannishness necessary.
Today, unserious politicians and their activist backers in the media and NGOs will slander, deflect, scapegoat and look to score points for the very actions that led to the riot in Belfast last night. Some 'conservatives' will speak in solemn tones to sound judicious but their words will ring hollow.
Few will admit the root of the issue, democracy in Ireland and the UK has reached a crisis point that's been two decades at least in the making. When politicians act in an authoritarian fashion, leaving the people they supposedly represent with their backs firmly against the wall, all contractual agreements, all rational actions go out the window and people revert to their natural understanding of justice - clannish retribution.
And that is the fault of the politicians.
Any politician offering anything other than a mea culpa and a commitment to radical political change that acts in support of the people today is signalling their commitment to the further destruction of democracy and the state.
Image: Reuters