Sir Michael Caine has issued the perfect two-word response to the ongoing race riots in Britain.
Over the past fortnight, violent disorder has spread across the country in the wake of the stabbings of three young children in Southport after misinformation spread that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker.
Thousands of police officers have been deployed to prepare for further action after racist and Islamophobic attacks have led to stabbings, street beatings, and mosques under siege.
Follow our live coverage of UK riots and disorders
Piers Morgan and Krishnan Guru-Murthy called out billionare tech owner Elon Musk, who has been accused of fanning the flames of unrest in the UK
But Caine, the 91-year-old star of films including Alfie, Get Carter and The Dark Knight, seemingly hinted at the racist and Islamophobic attacks with a blunt post that’s being celebrated for its succinctness.
On Wednesday (7 August), shared a post on X/Twitter that merely said: “Calm down.”
“Sage wisdom from the OG,” one person replied, with another adding: “He has spoken.”
Meanwhile, a Twitter account dedicated to Downing Street’s Larry the Cat replied, in reference to Caine’s role in The Muppet Christmas Carol: “Sound advice from a great man who knows how to deal with muppets.”
Britain is on the cusp of descending further into civil unrest, with a standing army of 6,000 police officers preparing for a new wave of violence at 39 demonstrations planned around the UK.
Musk’s comments on the situation have called for a travel ban to be imposed on the X/Twitter owner over fears that his tirade of tweets being posted on his own social media website could fan the flames of riots.
Mr Musk, who has 193 million followers on X and is donating millions to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, suggested on Monday that “civil war is inevitable” in the UK – comments which were criticised by Downing Street.
In 2021, Caine clarified his political views, revealing that he “thought Boris Johnson was great” but had grown“very disappointed” with the former prime minister.
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The actor, who has often voted Conservative in the past, shared the view after maintaining his support for Brexit. Two years earlier, Caine revealed that he thought it was important for the UK to be in charge of their own future even if it means being poorer, saying he would “rather be a poor master than a rich servant”.
Speaking on the Today show, he said: “People say ‘Oh, you’ll be poor, you’ll be this, you’ll be that’. I say I’d rather be a poor master of my fate than having someone I don’t know making me rich by running it.”