On 1 March this year our prime minister Rishi Sunak gave a 10-minute speech at the podium outside 10, Downing Street to warn that there was a growing threat to British democracy from Islamists and the far right which he saw as “two sides of the same extremist coin”.
He was largely prompted to express this opinion following the by-election victory of George Galloway which he saw as part of this trend, describing it as “beyond alarming”. Back in October 2023, Sunak had described a rise in hate crime in the light of the Middle East conflict as “utterly sickening”. On that occasion he had gone on to say that his government would do whatever it took to keep our Jewish community safe.
Fast forward to this month, and we hear widespread reports that Jewish people feel afraid to venture out in parts of London and elsewhere because of the rise in anti-Semitism. Statements made by other politicians continue to add to the impression of increased hatred in our society.
A boundless resource of negativity
In a democracy, people have the right to express their deeply-held convictions through legitimate public protest which are, in fact, mostly non-violent. However, by using inflammatory language and making statements to gain party political advantage, politicians on all sides run the risk of aggravating hatred within local communities and thus encourage the very thing they purport to deplore.
Wars and conflicts have been part of our collective experience for time immemorial. But today with a vastly increased array of social media and online news outlets, we are much more aware of the details on an hour-by-hour basis. We need only think of the wars currently raging between Russia and Ukraine, in Gaza and Israel, the attacks on Western shipping by the Houthis in the Suez Canal and the simmering tensions between China and Taiwan. Apart from various wars and regional skirmishes across the African and Indian continents between Muslims and Christians, there are the protests by women and girls against the hardline Islamic government in Iran.
With widespread access to the internet and ubiquitously used social media such as X and Facebook, more of us than at any time in history can share information. But more significantly, due to all-too-human cognitive biases, we can and do also share our negative impressions about other people and what is happening in the world. Since the Covid lockdowns many of us have increased the amount of time we spend sharing these negative impressions online.
We now spend more time doing this through virtual media with like-minded people. Nowadays, our reach is so much greater, and thus we can vastly enlarge our echo chambers in doing this and reinforce our own impressions to the nth degree. The cumulative effect of negativity is to create a climate of fear or, at the very least, a climate of unease throughout society. Personally, I’m not sure that all politicians realise this, or if they do, are being unscrupulous in exploiting it. Today, more than ever, we need to take care in recognising the dangers inherent in creating climates of fear through the unlimited virtual sharing of constant rounds of negativity.
To what extent does online hatred leach into the real world?
But is hatred on the global scale outlined above matched by hatred at more local levels here in the UK. Is the UK really becoming a less safe place to live in? And what are the facts?
The police service regularly publishes national and regional statistics in this regard. The statistics for North Yorkshire show a steady rise in reported hate crimes from 380 in the year 2018-19 to 602 in the year 2022-23, a doubling of the figure. The number of racially-motivated hate crimes which were reported locally just short of doubled for the period 2019-23 from 380 to 602. However, this needs to be set in the context of North Yorkshire’s population which currently stands at 618,800.
These compare with national statistics for racially-motivated hate crimes which show a rise from 77,850 in the year 2018/19 to a total of 101,906 in the year 2022/23. Again, these figures need to be set in the context of the total UK population which currently stands at just under 67,897,000.
Hate crimes are not just racially-motivated. The police break down offences and report incidents under several categories of race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transphobia. One interesting statistic here is the figure for hate crime motivated by sexual orientation and transphobia. In York, in the year from October 2022 to October 2023, hate crimes based on sexual orientation and transphobia constituted 64 offences, second only to race at 227. But once again, setting this figure in the context of the city’s total population is revealing. The population of York currently stands at 201,700.
A precarious balance
So, what can we infer from these statistics? The figures certainly show increases, but these can partly be explained by greater efficiency in policing and the prosecution of offences. The rises can also be explained by increased awareness on the part of victims about what constitutes specific hate crimes and a greater readiness on their part to report them. Of course, the figures for some areas of the country such as London or large cities will be greater than for others. But the key point is that seen in the context of total populations locally and nationally, the numbers are still relatively low.
The facts imply that Britain is still a safe country to live in even if the impressions given by politicians, the news and social media would seem to indicate otherwise. But there is growing evidence that we should start treading more carefully, especially when we constantly air our negativity on the virtual global network. If we don’t, the results won’t be at all pleasant for any of us.
