Discontent over economy and immigration is plaguing a broken Britain

The social fabric is tearing over illegal immigrants and the economic data shows a country in decline

- Natale Labia

Britain is in the grip of a deepening malaise. Over the past few months and years, a growing and unsettling consensus has emerged: the country is broken. What is less clear is what could be the route towards repair.

Two interconnected crises lie at the heart of the discontent. First is a fraying of what could broadly be termed the social fabric, which ties citizens to having some trust in each other and more generally in the state itself. In the Daily Mail, political commentator Andrew Neil warns that "Britain is on the edge of disaster... I'm scared for what's to come." A recent poll by The Economist found that seven in 10 Britons believe race riots in the near-term future are likely.

This apprehension is easy to understand. Over the past few weeks, protests erupted in Epping, Essex and near Canary Wharf in London, during which locals rallied against the government's decision to house young male asylum seekers in local hotels.

Demands to "send them home" and "save our kids" soon proliferated online, drawing in agitators from both the left and the right. These social tensions, particularly over illegal immigration, have quickly become national flashpoints.

Meanwhile, Britain's politics is rapidly fracturing along both ethnic and ideological lines. Jeremy Corbyn has recently launched a (yet unnamed) new left-wing party with former Labour MP Zarah Sultana that is likely to draw votes not just from the left, but also from those who are furious about Prime Minister Keir Starmer's accommodating stance on Israel. This will further fragment the centre.

And Nigel Farage, whose extreme right-wing Reform Party has been leading in the polls for months, has warned that "civil disobedience on a vast scale" will break out unless migrants stop arriving in the UK from across the Channel in small boats.

Why are the British in such a state of angst? And, more importantly, are they right to be so worried?