Like everyone else, I am watching events unfolding in Southport with increasing astonishment and horror. As a blogger, I feel compelled to say something about the situation there, although I know as much about it as anyone else. It is now becoming clear, however, that far right thugs have seized on a very delicate situation to try to stir up xenophobia and animosity: the recent attacks clearly had nothing to do with immigration, yet the far right have pounced on it to try to turn this into an immigration narrative. Thus I fear this feeds into the bigger issue that the far right is having some kind of resurgence, and will now jump on anything it can to try to stir up xenophobic hatred.