An AI rendering of protesters in the UK
Grok
A researcher at King's College London warns Britain is on the brink of civil war, with no political solution to avert the looming conflict.
David Betz, a PhD holder and professor of war in the modern world, attributes the potential unrest to mass migration and an elitist majority ignoring the working class.
"One is leading to an ostracization and the other to a balkanization, and they are happening at the same time and interacting with one another, and effectively driving each other," he said in an interview with Wiretap Media.
Betz suggests authorities either misunderstand or disregard the populist working class's desires, noting that many government officials are "post-nationalist" yet exploit nationalist principles when politically convenient, as seen with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's Elbows Up campaign.
"I'm not a quantitative political scientist — I'm not playing a numbers game," Betz told Wiretap. "I'm simply trying to say in human terms, that there is a very significant probability of this occurring within five years, on account of the existence of the indicative conditions for civil war being frankly, very obvious and obvious across a range of countries which are connected in the manner which means that if it breaks out in one place, say, Ireland or France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, it will spread. It will spread elsewhere."
In 2025, the U.K. has seen rising civil unrest driven by frustration over uncontrolled immigration and economic problems.
Economic pressures, including a cost-of-living crisis and high poverty rates in disadvantaged areas, have fuelled public discontent, with 39 per cent of Britons citing the economy and 20 per cent citing immigration as top concerns.
The Labour government's attempts to reform immigration policies and improve social cohesion are being tested as protests and violence expose deep societal divides. Betz compares Justin Trudeau's declaration of Canada as a post-nationalist country to the revival of Canadian patriotism akin to Donald Trump's MAGA movement, suggesting this may explain why legacy media has vilified Trump in Canada.
"Betz believes it's likely the political elites are purposefully pushing the populist majority into a corner to get a violent response to later use as evidence to support their long-time smear campaign against the political right," wrote Wiretap on X.
"According to Betz, the first echoes of the civil war have already arrived through grassroots movements and public defiance — we have already passed the tipping point, and there is no political off-ramp to the inevitable."
Betz, who earned his BA and MA at Carleton University in Ottawa and his PhD at the University of Glasgow, is now a professor at King's College London.