Cars burn in Belfast, bricks fly in Southampton – and the ubiquitous cry of ‘civil war’ goes up again | John Harris

For most, what we see in real life is mundane. But those who wish to fan the flames of anti-immigrant feeling share a different image onlineIt was the summer of 2024 when it all decisively started, with the horrific murders in Southport, countrywide violence and that a British civil war was somehow “inevitable”. A year later came a hot season of , protests outside hotels used to accommodate asylum seekers, the of the word “tinderbox” and constant predictions of widespread riots that never actually materialised. Now here we are again, in the aftermath of the of Henry Nowak and frightening violence and arson in Belfast, and the civil war predictions seem to be increasing by the hour.The archive of such material is already bulging. In August 2024, amid the riots, a that 32% of people thought a UK civil war was either “very” or “somewhat” likely. A year later, the UK was only “random viral posts away from riots and prairie fires getting out of control”. Even Labour’s Lisa Nandy that the north of England was so tense “it could go up in flames”.John Harris is a Guardian columnist