The questions are now rapidly piling up. Why didn’t someone raise a red flag when Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was referred not once but three times to the counter-terror programme, Prevent?
When did Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper learn that the then 17-year-old had downloaded a study of an Al Qaeda training manual and had manufactured the deadly poison ricin?
What exactly did Starmer and the people in power know when they were deriding millions of British people as ‘far-Right thugs’?
Most crucially of all, how much more are we not being told?
The horrific murders of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport shocked the country. Ugly riots in its aftermath overshadowed the deep concerns felt by millions of ordinary Britons who simply could not understand how anything so senseless could happen here.
But our voices were shouted down by authorities determined to control the narrative by policing what people could say, ask and even think about the killings. That level of intense control continues now, with a frightening lack of information about what happened and why.
Yesterday at Liverpool Crown Court, Rudakubana pleaded guilty to possessing a PDF document entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual.
He also admitted producing ricin, a toxin used in previous terror attacks. He has said nothing else about his motives or his beliefs.
Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was referred not once but three times to the counter-terror programme Prevent
A court sketch of Rudakubana who, at Liverpool Crown Court, pleaded guilty to possessing a PDF document of the Al Qaeda Training Manual
Summer of violence: A police vehicle burns after protests in Southport in July last year
The Southport Dance School is the latest case to be covered by the No.1 True Crime podcast, The Trial. Listen to The Trial on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts now
Cooper has now announced there will be a public inquiry into the tragedy. All well and good, but this must not become another delaying tactic, still less an expensive talking shop for lawyers. It is imperative the full facts emerge at once.
Before Rudakubana was named, we were repeatedly told the killer was Welsh and born in Cardiff. That was true – but not the whole truth. His parents are immigrants from Rwanda, and yesterday we belatedly learned his father Alphonse allegedly fought with the Rwandan Patriotic Army against the Hutu regime during the country’s genocide in 1994, when at least one million people were slaughtered, often in brutal ways.
If there had been complete transparency from the start, we would not be so suspicious about his motives. But for many, all trust in Starmer and his hapless ministers has been shattered. Every aspect of the official response to the Southport killings and the social unrest triggered is now open to question.
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I have never experienced such a concerted effort by Government and Left-leaning sections of the media to stifle dissenting voices.
The law-abiding British public, and especially the families of the murdered girls and those who suffered life-changing injuries, have a right to know the full facts.
Without facts, conspiracy theories breed and distrust in the entire system grows. Last summer’s riots were fuelled by rumours and half-truths spread on social media. The solution to that sort of poison is not to impose silence.
And it’s not just about Southport. On many more urgent issues, the Government is withholding information and suppressing legitimate questions – because Starmer and his frontbench think it expedient not to tell us.
Instead, they just blather on as they did after Southport, about ‘misinformation’ – the elite’s code word for shutting down debate about things they do not want to discuss openly.
If there’s one lesson to be learned from the horror, it is that transparency is crucial.
- Professor Matt Goodwin is the author of a regular politics Substack newsletter at mattgoodwin.org
For more on this case, search for ‘The Trial: The Southport Dance class’ wherever you get your podcasts now.