Cold Rage

Britain did not become divided overnight. It became vulnerable.

For years, something has felt different. Trust in institutions has weakened. Politics has become angrier. Social media has turned outrage into an industry. Ordinary people, facing genuine economic and social pressures, have found themselves living in a country that no longer seems able to agree on what is true.

Cold Rage argues that these are not isolated events. They are connected.

Drawing on court records, official reports, public inquiries, government strategy documents, investigative journalism and open-source intelligence, Jack Rebbick examines the intersection of political grievance, foreign interference, online information environments, democratic institutions and public order. He follows a trail from Brexit and the cost-of-living crisis, through the Southport riots and the changing nature of political activism, to the wider geopolitical forces reshaping Britain and Europe.

This is not a book about conspiracy. It is a book about systems.

Its central argument is that modern democracies are trying to confront twenty-first century problems with a twentieth century vocabulary. The political and legal language inherited from the last century was built for parties, protests, campaigns and nation states. Increasingly, however, we are confronted by movements that are simultaneously communities, media ecosystems, business models and vehicles for foreign influence. They do not fit the categories we have, and so we struggle to understand them.

Part history, part investigation and part political analysis, Cold Rage explores:

• foreign interference and influence operations;
• political extremism and radicalisation;
• social media algorithms and information warfare;
• nationalism, populism and democratic resilience;
• the changing relationship between Britain, Europe and the United States;
• the hidden structures that shape modern public life.

At its heart, however, this is a book about something older and simpler.

It is about the quiet agreement that allows millions of strangers to live beside one another as fellow citizens. The trust that facts matter. The belief that disagreements can be settled without violence. The fragile understanding that tomorrow's opponent is still part of the same national story.

What happens when that agreement begins to fail?

Written while many of the events it describes are still unfolding, Cold Rage does not claim to offer the final historical verdict. Instead, it attempts to provide something that contemporary Britain increasingly lacks: a language capable of describing the forces acting upon it.

Because before a society can respond to a threat, it must first learn how to name it.

Perfect for readers interested in politics, current affairs, Brexit, democracy, foreign influence, information warfare, social media, geopolitics, public order, national security, modern Britain, political extremism, and the future of the Western world.