This is an extract from an essay published on Matt Goodwin’s Substack on 21st October.
Europe’s political and media elites are hiding the truth about the riots in France.
They’re not only trying to conceal the scale of the disorder – with the BBC being lampooned for describing it as “mostly peaceful” – but the root cause.
They want you to think this is mainly about schools, education, and spending cuts. Or perhaps Iran and Russia stoking the chaos.
But in reality it is about something else entirely.
What we are witnessing is a highly-coordinated, deeply ideological, and increasingly effective war against not just France but the West more widely.
At the heart of this revolutionary war – as columnist Melanie Phillips pointed out in The Times yesterday – is the so-called “Red-Green alliance”.
An unholy collaboration between far-left extremists, Islamists, and the Palestinian movement. This movement became unavoidable after the October 7th attacks in 2023, as it spilled onto the streets of many Western cities.
But since then, the Palestinian cause has morphed into a rallying point for an array of revolutionary communist, anarchist, Islamist and anti-capitalist groups that do not merely want an end to conflict and suffering in the Middle East.
What they want is to dismantle or “deconstruct” the West – as symbolised by the “ultra-left militant” who has just been arrested for burning down the historic Limoges city hall.
Britain and its leaders should be paying very close attention to these events because all of the factors that are at play in France are now visible in Britain, too.
Europe’s political and media elites are hiding the truth about the riots in France.
They’re not only trying to conceal the scale of the disorder – with the BBC being lampooned for describing it as “mostly peaceful” – but the root cause.
They want you to think this is mainly about schools, education, and spending cuts. Or perhaps Iran and Russia stoking the chaos.
But in reality it is about something else entirely.
What we are witnessing is a highly-coordinated, deeply ideological, and increasingly effective war against not just France but the West more widely.
At the heart of this revolutionary war – as columnist Melanie Phillips pointed out in The Times yesterday – is the so-called “Red-Green alliance”.
An unholy collaboration between far-left extremists, Islamists, and the Palestinian movement. This movement became unavoidable after the October 7th attacks in 2023, as it spilled onto the streets of many Western cities.
But since then, the Palestinian cause has morphed into a rallying point for an array of revolutionary communist, anarchist, Islamist and anti-capitalist groups that do not merely want an end to conflict and suffering in the Middle East.
What they want is to dismantle or “deconstruct” the West – as symbolised by the “ultra-left militant” who has just been arrested for burning down the historic Limoges city hall.
Britain and its leaders should be paying very close attention to these events because all of the factors that are at play in France are now visible in Britain, too.
France today, Britain tomorrow
Like France, our nation has been profoundly weakened by mass migration, open borders, and a disastrous multiculturalism that urges minorities to remain separate. Our country is visibly restless and has been pushed to the very edge – as anybody in Dover, Gosport, Folkestone or Southport will tell you.
But like France, our nation has also been weakened at a much deeper level by how our leaders are no longer giving young people any reason to feel that Britain belongs to them.
Increasingly over the last century, political, media, cultural, and educational elites have trained young Westerners to hate their own civilisation – to reject their own culture, their own nation, their own home.
The West has been profoundly weakened not just because it lost control of its borders and unleashed unprecedented demographic change, but also because its own elites have been attacking the inheritance they are responsible for passing on.
Unless we change course, then the future that we see reflected in the events in France, Belgium, Italy and elsewhere will inevitably arrive here too.
France today, Britain tomorrow.
Subscribe to Matt Goodwin’s Substack here.
But like France, our nation has also been weakened at a much deeper level by how our leaders are no longer giving young people any reason to feel that Britain belongs to them.
Increasingly over the last century, political, media, cultural, and educational elites have trained young Westerners to hate their own civilisation – to reject their own culture, their own nation, their own home.
The West has been profoundly weakened not just because it lost control of its borders and unleashed unprecedented demographic change, but also because its own elites have been attacking the inheritance they are responsible for passing on.
Unless we change course, then the future that we see reflected in the events in France, Belgium, Italy and elsewhere will inevitably arrive here too.
France today, Britain tomorrow.
Subscribe to Matt Goodwin’s Substack here.
