These riots are toxic masculinity at its very worst, tiny hate-filled brains fuelled by conspiracy nonsense and equally toxic male ‘influencers’, says SARAH VINE

Two images of Britain come to mind this week. The first is Emma Finucane, Team GB cyclist at the Paris Olympics, grand-niece of Brendan ‘Paddy’ Finucane, the World War II fighter pilot and Spitfire ace, the youngest ever wing commander in the RAF and a national icon for his heroics in the Battle of Britain.

What a legacy, what an achievement, what a proud moment for our country.

The other, a figure of hatred and intolerance, a strutting villain with his features hidden behind a Union Jack mask. The standard of this country, used to hide the face of a coward: it doesn’t get more shameful than that.

Another viral photo shows a shirtless idiot with a Nazi tattoo on his shoulder, spouting racist cliches.

Another still, also masked, on an e-bike, stops behind a female Sky News reporter and shouts: ‘Free Palestine, f*** the EDL’ [English Defence League]’. His buddy points his trigger finger at the camera; later, one of the group members tries to slash the news team’s tires with a knife.

Finucane and her teammates: the absolute best of us. That other group: the absolute scum. An absolute disgrace, toxic masculinity at its worst, small hateful brains fueled by conspiracy theories and social media, fueled by equally toxic male ‘influencers’ who enjoy (and profit from) turning people on.

The absurd narcissist Andrew Tate with his ridiculous, depilated abs; Tommy Robinson, currently sunbathing on a deckchair in the Mediterranean, firing off venomous tweets; and countless other wannabes, on both sides of the conflict, hoping to ride the wave of violence sweeping Britain, gain a following and gain 15 minutes of notoriety.

In fairness, it’s not just men — there are some rather misguided women too. For example, Home Secretary Jess Phillips somehow seemed to justify the actions of the aforementioned thugs who threatened the Sky News crew by tweeting that they were simply responding to online rumours ‘that racists were coming to attack them’.

Even if we assume that that were the case, does that justify the knife, the threats, the vandalism — and the terrifying of a young woman? Of course not. Any reasonable person in such a situation would stay indoors, lock their doors, and call the police. The threat of a lynch mob is no excuse for starting one: that’s where insanity lurks.

As for people like Nigel Farage and Elon Musk, I wish they would use their frontal lobes for five seconds, assuming they have them. In Musk’s case, tweeting “civil war is inevitable” when the platform he owns is largely responsible for spreading inflammatory and misleading information (starting with the false notion that the perpetrator of the Southport massacre in which three little girls died was an asylum seeker) puts him in a troll category all his own.

Meanwhile, Farage, unhappy with the fact that he had done Labour’s work thanks to his party’s success in splitting the Conservative vote (I confess that in my most feverish moments I wonder whether he’s actually been working for Starmer all along), was apparently bored stiff in his new role as MP for the good people of Clacton and went back to doing what he does best: rile people up by comparing the unrest to the Black Lives Matter riots.

If only someone — anyone, at this stage — would show a little maturity, even leadership. But no. Everyone is too busy pursuing their short-sighted little agendas and in the meantime the country is burning.

At times like these, you really need someone with a clear vision, a solid moral compass — and, above all, courage. Someone who can rise above the accusations and counter-accusations, calm things down — and offer reassurance to the vast majority of people in this country who would never dream of stealing a bag of candy from their local store, let alone carving a swastika into their love handles and heading out into the streets looking for a fight.

In the old days, that person would have been the late Queen. One word from Elizabeth II — nay, even a gentle sidelong glance — and even the most callous idiot would have slunk away like a naughty schoolboy. She just had that effect on people, an ability to unite everyone in total respect for her.

Since her passing, it has felt at times like she was the glue that held this country together and that without her we are slowly falling apart into chaos. The past few days have only reinforced that idea.

But alas, she is no longer here, and King Charles — for all his virtues — simply no longer commands the same level of awe. In fact, he has been conspicuously silent about the recent clashes, presumably because he has been advised not to get involved.

Perhaps he should. Isn’t that the whole point of the monarchy — to be a symbol of something more permanent, a harbor in every storm, the only constant in an ever-changing political landscape?

The only other institution that serves a similar purpose is the Church. And judging by the intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday, with all its spectacular mediocrity, it is no panacea.

And that leaves the Prime Minister, who has so far shown about as much capacity to deal with this crisis as I have to accompany Finucane on that podium in Paris. Almost everything he has said so far has served only to infuriate a bunch of idiots, while he has seemingly failed to investigate the behaviour of anyone else.

Instead of calling for an end to violence on all sides, Labour seems to be blaming one faction over another. Not only is this grossly unfair, it doesn’t help the situation.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that this only fuels hatred. The reason these people riot in the first place is because there is a perception that the authorities are biased against them.

Whether or not these concerns are valid is an important question that needs to be answered, no matter how unpleasant or uncomfortable the conversation may be. But no one wants to go there.

The last person willing to engage with difficult issues in this way was Margaret Thatcher, who was one of the rare politicians who understood that being liked was not part of the job description.

In fact, the refusal of successive governments to have a proper debate about cultural integration, and to dismiss all concerns about the effects of immigration as prejudice, is precisely why it has reached this ugly point. It is the reason people ultimately vote for men like Farage: he is the only one who will engage with them.

When people feel like no one is listening, they eventually speak up — and it’s usually not pretty. If history teaches us nothing else, it teaches us that.

The French and Russian revolutions, the rise of the Third Reich in Germany – catastrophes that cost millions of lives – all grew from the same seeds of deep-seated populist resentment and the idea of ​​an elite impervious to the struggles of the common man.

As a politician, you may not agree with what people tell you, but you still have a duty to listen.

You may not share their concerns; you may find them misguided or ignorant (and they often are); but you can’t simply dismiss them as “deplorables” in the style of Hillary Clinton, because that only alienates people further.

What kind of country do we ultimately want to be? The country of young Finucane and her heroic great-uncle, of tough Andy Murray and sweet Tom Daley with his knitting? Or fighting like rats in a sack.

This is not Britain; this is not who we are. I just hope it’s not too late.