It is a darkly dystopian vision of Britain’s future, in which tens of thousands die in a bitter civil war in just a few years time.

Yet such forecasts are no longer limited to niche corners of the internet or the X feed of Elon Musk, condemned by Downing Street for claiming that war in Britain was inevitable after the post-Southport rioting.

What remains a rallying cry for the extreme right can now be found across a far broader cross-section of public discussion, appearing everywhere from the opinion pages of the Daily Telegraph to neighbourhood Facebook groups and the speeches of MPs such as Nigel Farage.

Less prominent, but increasingly influential, has been the role of some in academia quietly arguing that civil war is coming to a “culturally fractured” Britain amid economic stagnation and a collapse of trust in politics.

“I think you will see something like Belfast during the Troubles, or Baghdad circa 2008 and 2010, in largely urban areas where people are essentially fortifying their neighbourhood for protection,” said David Betz, a professor of war in the modern world at Kings College London, in one of a plethora of interviews over recent months to right-leaning podcasts where he has found an eager and sympathetic audience.