What we know about the young people who rioted this summer – and why

Good morning. As autumn arrives here in the UK, the nine days of rage and violence that erupted on the streets of more than 20 cities in late July and early August seem a long time ago. But the sentencing of the more than 1,200 participants in the summer riots goes on, and politicians are continuing to wrestle with their causes.

Guardian reporters have been speaking to victims, crunching the numbers and reporting from the courts, to try to understand more about what happened in those chaotic days – and why.

Today, we speak to the Guardian’s North of England editor, Josh Halliday, who covered the Southport riot, and has recently spent time in the youth courts, where children as young as 12 were tried for their part in the disorder. First, today’s headlines.

Five big stories

In depth: ‘It came back to wanting to be part of something’

Rioting kicked off in Southport on 30 July, in the wake of a horrific attack on a children’s dance class in which three young girls were murdered.

Fuelled by online disinformation, many hundreds of people took to the streets in the days that followed, in towns and cities including Plymouth, Middlesbrough and Sunderland. In perhaps the most horrific scenes, rioters in Rotherham tried to set light to a hotel housing asylum seekers.

Despite the racist motives behind much of the disorder, Josh says his experience watching some of the youngest rioters is that they had few overtly political views. Instead, many seemed to have been drawn to the scene by curiosity, fuelled by what they were seeing online. “They’d seen it on social media, their friends had told them about it, and they’d gone to see what was happening,” says Josh.

In his piece on Thursday, he recounted the case of a 16-year-old boy caught on video hurling a rock at police from the steps of Bolton’s cenotaph. His solicitor said the boy’s political views were “generally nonexistent,” and his parents said he was not racist and had a mixed-race sibling.

Asked to explain what the cenotaph represented, he replied: “I don’t even know what that is”.

Different treatment

Analysis this week by the Guardian’s data team of the first 500 people charged in connection with the rioting suggests their average age was older than in 2011, when disorder broke out in Tottenham, north London.

Back then, just 5.6% of those charged were over 40. Among those sampled by the Guardian this time, it was 34.6% – more than a third.

Josh injects a word of caution, however. “The Crown Prosecution Service treats kids very differently now compared to 2011,” he says. “Whereas kids would have been hauled before the courts, this time around the CPS will have looked at it and it’s only really the exceptional cases that result in a charge.”

Of those cases that have ended up in the courts, some of which involved children as young as 11 or 12, he says social media appears to have been important. “It came back to wanting to be part of something – because friends were there [and posted] on TikTok or other social media. I think that’s a very interesting factor.”

Local rabble rousers

Another finding of the analysis chimes closely with what Josh witnessed on the night of the Southport riot.

While local leaders were keen at the time to suggest the violence had been promulgated by out-of-town rabble rousers, three quarters of those charged lived within five miles of where the violence broke out.

“You sort of sensed people were fairly local, because you saw people say, ‘alright mate, I haven’t seen you for a while’: it was people who knew each other from school,’” he says.

Josh’s first-hand experience also corroborates another finding: that many of those joining in the clashes were from less affluent areas.

The Guardian’s number-crunchers found that well over half of those convicted in their sample came from one of the 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in England. They were also likely to come from areas with high levels of ill health.

‘They feel the government has done nothing for them’

Josh says his experience from reporting on the riots and their aftermath, as well as the Guardian’s findings about the profile of those involved, helps to throw light on the factors that may have allowed far-right politics to take hold.

He points out that the summer disorder followed the cost of living crisis, when inflation spiralled. “Research academics have shown for years that there’s a very close link between periods of financial hardship and civil unrest. And it’s those communities in Rotherham, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, that feel the pinch more than anywhere else. So there is that kind of anger that builds up.”

He adds that what Keir Starmer called in his conference speech this week “legitimate” concerns about migration, may have been fuelled by government policy in some of those areas.

“The Home Office has moved asylum seekers into these areas because housing is cheap. Several houses on one street become turned into multiple occupancy dwellings by contractors like Serco and G4S, in these overwhelmingly white areas which are struggling with deprivation and ill health”. This can create a “difficult atmosphere,” he says, adding, “it’s really unfair on vulnerable asylum seekers to plonk them in these areas where there is not the support network there for them.”

Starmer’s much-praised reaction to the riots was to fast-track justice for those involved. “I will never let a minority of violent, racist, thugs terrorise our communities,” he told Labour conference, to applause. What we have learned about those involved and their circumstances suggests other responses may be relevant too, however – including tackling deprivation in areas where, as Josh puts it, “they feel like the government has done nothing for them”.

What else we’ve been reading

Sirin Kale’s interview with TOWIE’s Lauren Goodger is a sensitive look at the huge highs and tragic lows of life in the reality TV spotlight. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters

We all know about the harm that social media can cause to kids, but rare birds and flowers are suffering too, as detailed in this piece by Elle Hunt, about the hordes that descend when a wildlife sighting goes viral. Heather

“It’s time to be a man and vote for a woman”: Carter Sherman has a fascinating Guardian US piece about how masculinity has become a hot political topic in the run-up to November’s election. Hannah

As the dust settles from Labour conference, Aditya Chakrabortty argues in this trenchant column that evidence gathered by Keir Starmer’s own backers suggests it is living standards and the NHS voters really care about – not Starmer’s goal of growth. Heather

In case you missed it earlier in the week, here are Anna Berrill’s batch-cooking ideas to help you through autumn, from squash soup loaded with veggie goodness to “emergency cookies”. Hannah

Sport

Football | Tottenham defeated Qarabag 3-0 in their Europa League curtain-raiser, despite having centre-back Radu Dragusin sent off after just seven minutes. Brennan Johnson scored his third goal in as many games.

Cricket | Day one of the County Championship’s final week of the season was a washout at five grounds. Lancashire reduced Worcestershire to 22 for five, before a 63-run eighth-wicket partnership hauled Worcestershire to 119 for seven. Rain restricted play at Trent Bridge to 15.2 overs – Notts were 33 for two against Warwickshire.

Football | The number of arrests at football matches in England and Wales increased by 14% in 2023-24, but the number of matches at which incidents were reported fell. Police said the numbers were evidence of a more “proactive” approach to dealing with trouble at grounds.

The front pages

The Guardian leads with “Netanyahu says Lebanon strikes will go on, despite ceasefire call”. The Financial Times looks ahead to next month’s budget with “Reeves ready to tone down tax raid on rich non-doms”. i reports “Budget rule change risks higher interest rates for longer, Reeves warned”, and the Times says “Reeves set to profit by tweaking debt rules”.

Boris Johnson’s upcoming memoir leads the Mail with “Boris: My ‘manly’ pep talk with Harry in bid to stop Megxit”. The Telegraph has “I told Harry not to leave UK, reveals Johnson”. The Mirror splashes with a story on Mohamed Al Fayed and asks “How did he escape justice?”.

Something for the weekend

Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read and listen to right now

TV
Nobody Wants This(Netflix)
Joanne (Kristen Bell), a freewheeling thirtysomething, hosts a successful podcast about sex and relationships. She is as agnostic as the next gentile-about-town. Noah (Adam Brody), a rabbi, has just broken up with his long-term girlfriend. The attraction is instant, mutual and ever more difficult to resist. It is also that rarest thing – utterly convincing to the audience. You will want to go with them to what, hopefully, will not be a bitter end. Lucy Mangan

Music
Mustafa – Dunya
At only 28, Mustafa Ahmed has already been an acclaimed performance poet, a founder member of the Canadian hip-hop collective Halal Gang, and a director. His debut album brings together an aggregation of talent including Rosalía and Nicolas Jaar, who colour his songs in tasteful autumnal shades. Despite its primarily urban setting, it gives off a surprisingly strong aroma of damp wood and bonfire smoke. Alexis Petridis

Film
Paul McCartney and Wings: One Hand Clapping
This engrossing hour-long documentary was shot on analogue video in 1974 by cameraman and VFX veteran David Litchfield, as the band worked in Abbey Road on a potential live-in-studio album featuring Wings standards, early McCartney compositions and covers. It was to be called One Hand Clapping but both album and film fell appropriately silent. Now the film is restored and rereleased, and it’s a complete joy. Peter Bradshaw

Podcast
Wonder of Stevie
This podcast is such a treat for Stevie Wonder fans, with an impressive analysis of his golden period in the 1970s. Host Wesley Morris has an enviably heavyweight guest list: Barack Obama reveals how loving Wonder’s music was a litmus test for his relationship with Michelle, while Deniece Williams has brilliant stories about Wonder’s very rock’n’roll tour with the Rolling Stones (yes, there were nights at the Playboy Mansion). Hannah Verdier

Today in Focus

Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

The world is nasty, brutish place much of the time. So why not enjoy some funny pictures of animals. The Comedy wildlife photography awards 2024 feature a skating Stellar’s sea eagle, a crooning fan-throated lizard and the above image of a camp Flemish mantis.

“On my way back in the car from a photo walk around a marsh near my town (Onda in Spain), I braked suddenly,” said photographer Jose Miguel Gallego Molina. “This was when I first saw my friend, the Flemish mantis. You can imagine the faces inside the passing vehicles, seeing a car with its indicators on, the door open, and a madman lying on the ground with his camera.”

Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday

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