The prime minister has made a terrifying statement after the Southport murderer admitted his crimes – but Keir Starmer’s warning about a new terror threat is wrong.
The UK cannot be facing a new wave of terrorism from “loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms” because the crimes of people like Axel Rudakubana are missing one vital element: a political motive.
Real terrorists – like the IRA during the so-called ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, or Hamas today – want to enact political change through violence. This is usually a change of government or statehood.
But we know that Rudakubana had no such ambitions. He was just a teenage kid who was obsessed with violence, and with despotic figures like Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler. The fact that he had accessed information about the IRA, and possessed an al-Qaeda training manual, does not make him a terrorist because he did not commit his crimes with an intention to cause political change.
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Even the fact that he manufactured Ricin, a toxin used by terrorists, doesn’t make Rudakubana a terrorist because there would have had to have been a political motive behind its manufacture – and there wasn’t.
The prime minister acknowledged this in his speech, when he said the UK now faced a threat of violence by people who are “fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake”.
Starmer would have been better-advised to say the UK may be facing the rise of aimless violence committed by mentally-unbalanced youngsters who have been influenced by the social media – because that is what Rudakubana seems to be.
In fact, the prime minister may be more guilty of supporting terror offences than Rudakubana – because his word buy into the false narrative that the Southport stabber was a terrorist of some kind, and it was hysteria about this possibility, stoked by lies on the social media, that triggered a series of riots across the UK in the summer of 2024.
The fact that Rudakubana was referred to the anti-terrorism Prevent programme three times but it did nothing about him suggests very strongly that he was not a terrorist, otherwise action would have been taken.
But Starmer is right to say there were institutional failures because, if concerns had been raised about an unhealthy interest in violence held by a young man with an “autism spectrum disorder diagnosis”, then he should have been referred for appropriate mental health treatment.
Perhaps the real problem is that mental health care in the UK has been whittled down to almost nothing by successive right-wing governments (and I include New Labour and Starmer’s administration in this) that simply do not care about the well-being of the UK’s citizens.
So, while a review of the counter-terrorism system is not a bad idea – it should be reviewed on a regular basis, simply to ensure it is properly equipped to tackle the ever-changing threat of terrorism – Starmer should have also ordered the restoration of mental health care in the UK.
He didn’t, because he doesn’t care. He is all about punishing people; he has no interest in helping them at all.
This is a worrying time. Starmer is using a shocking attack in which murders and attempted murders took place to change the definition of terrorism to include behaviours that are not terrorism. He is trying to manufacture fear and terror in us. We must not accept it.
Watch the video clip of this article here: https://youtu.be/0vVPzgkVSi4
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Starmer’s warning about a new terror threat is wrong
The prime minister has made a terrifying statement after the Southport murderer admitted his crimes – but Keir Starmer’s warning about a new terror threat is wrong.
The UK cannot be facing a new wave of terrorism from “loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms” because the crimes of people like Axel Rudakubana are missing one vital element: a political motive.
Real terrorists – like the IRA during the so-called ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, or Hamas today – want to enact political change through violence. This is usually a change of government or statehood.
But we know that Rudakubana had no such ambitions. He was just a teenage kid who was obsessed with violence, and with despotic figures like Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler. The fact that he had accessed information about the IRA, and possessed an al-Qaeda training manual, does not make him a terrorist because he did not commit his crimes with an intention to cause political change.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Even the fact that he manufactured Ricin, a toxin used by terrorists, doesn’t make Rudakubana a terrorist because there would have had to have been a political motive behind its manufacture – and there wasn’t.
The prime minister acknowledged this in his speech, when he said the UK now faced a threat of violence by people who are “fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake”.
Starmer would have been better-advised to say the UK may be facing the rise of aimless violence committed by mentally-unbalanced youngsters who have been influenced by the social media – because that is what Rudakubana seems to be.
In fact, the prime minister may be more guilty of supporting terror offences than Rudakubana – because his word buy into the false narrative that the Southport stabber was a terrorist of some kind, and it was hysteria about this possibility, stoked by lies on the social media, that triggered a series of riots across the UK in the summer of 2024.
The fact that Rudakubana was referred to the anti-terrorism Prevent programme three times but it did nothing about him suggests very strongly that he was not a terrorist, otherwise action would have been taken.
But Starmer is right to say there were institutional failures because, if concerns had been raised about an unhealthy interest in violence held by a young man with an “autism spectrum disorder diagnosis”, then he should have been referred for appropriate mental health treatment.
Perhaps the real problem is that mental health care in the UK has been whittled down to almost nothing by successive right-wing governments (and I include New Labour and Starmer’s administration in this) that simply do not care about the well-being of the UK’s citizens.
So, while a review of the counter-terrorism system is not a bad idea – it should be reviewed on a regular basis, simply to ensure it is properly equipped to tackle the ever-changing threat of terrorism – Starmer should have also ordered the restoration of mental health care in the UK.
He didn’t, because he doesn’t care. He is all about punishing people; he has no interest in helping them at all.
This is a worrying time. Starmer is using a shocking attack in which murders and attempted murders took place to change the definition of terrorism to include behaviours that are not terrorism. He is trying to manufacture fear and terror in us. We must not accept it.
Watch the video clip of this article here: https://youtu.be/0vVPzgkVSi4
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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