McLaughlin blames ‘explosion of hate’ on ‘far-right agitators’ with ‘racist and fascist’ attitudes and hails Derry anti-racism rally

Transcript

00:00It's hard to find the words to describe what we've seen in the last week unfold in the

00:07capital city and elsewhere. The scenes of racist attacks, wanting destruction, outright

00:12hatred have been appalling, disturbing and plainly wrong. Last weekend we saw nothing

00:18short of an explosion of hate on our streets and it has shaken all of us. I hope that today

00:24is an opportunity for loud and unequivocal condemnation of that hate and from every single

00:30politician and from every single party. That's the job of political leadership and I hope

00:37that we meet it today collectively. Over the last week far-right agitators have sought

00:43to cruelly and criminally exploit people, often our teenagers, for their own racist

00:49ends. Those agitators have shown the worst of our society. They have shown the dark underbelly

00:56of racist and fascist attitudes that still exist. They made me embarrassed and ashamed.

01:04Not just these elements, not that just these elements still exist, but also the fact that

01:09this is 2024. We still have a society where these kind of attitudes are allowed to fester

01:16and actually grow. Where too many people still point to desperate people coming across

01:22on boats and dignities as the enemy. I know that the vast majority of us know that it

01:31is inequality, not immigration, that is the real enemy. And I was proud to stand in the

01:38Guildhall Square last night, a packed Guildhall Square, and listen to our mayor, our first

01:46citizen giving a powerful, passionate speech against right-wing agitators. It was a message

01:55of hope and it was powerfully delivered by our first black mayor. That gave me hope because

02:03that is who we are, that is who Northern Ireland is, and we heard it loud and clear

02:08at those demonstrations. And that the barriers to housing or employment are not because of

02:14migrants or refugees. Of whom, by the way, we take a staggeringly low share. But it is

02:22because of policy failure. Housing rights has been clear that the housing crisis particularly

02:28is not about migration, but by the devastatingly low levels of social housing that has been

02:35built. We need to get back to the facts in this public debate. And it is the job of all

02:41of us in this chamber to educate and inform, never to demonise. Speaker, in the face of

02:48this violence, many people are rightly asking themselves, what kind of society are we building

02:53for the next generation? I think it is also important today to say that it cannot be the

02:58one where this kind of behaviour is allowed to proceed or go unpunished, or attitudes

03:03unchanged. And nor can it be one where we appeal to criminal gangs to use their influence

03:11to bring down tempers or to quell racist incidents. Some of the language that we have heard over

03:19the last week, as well as some of the silence that has taken place, has been misguided and

03:24has been sinister. In short, Speaker, it is my firm view that the people of Northern Ireland

03:29deserve so much better than this, and that the people of Northern Ireland are better

03:33than this. But unfortunately, I also know that as shocked as many were by the recent

03:38events in recent days, there are others, particularly from our minority communities, who will be

03:44less shocked. They will be less shocked because they have seen this pervasive and perverse

03:51hate before. They see it in their daily lives. And they will be less shocked because they

03:56know that the views that fuel the hate have, for many years now, been given credence and

04:00credibility by governments, particularly across the water. Governments that are more interested

04:06in stunts than solutions. There is no doubt that rhetoric in recent years is coming home

04:13to roost. And the failure of government here is contributing to that crisis as well.