Controlled Spontaneity: Government Secretly Use Crisis Actors to Control the Narrative After Terrorist Attacks
- Philip James
- 7 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Leaked plans reveal how staged grief, pre-tested hashtags, and crisis actors are used to steer public emotion and suppress dissent after UK terror attacks.
In the days following the Manchester Arena terror attack that killed 22 people—mostly teenage girls—something strange happened. A vigil was held in Manchester city centre, broadcast live in front of the world’s media.
Mourners stood in silence for a minute and when the silence ended, a woman in the crowd—supposedly a random attendee—suddenly began singing the Oasis song Don’t Look Back in Anger. She was an odd-looking figure, and her unexpected outburst caught many off guard. A few people tentatively joined in, but most remained silent, visibly confused by her behaviour. At one point, a man shouted, “Come on, you can sing louder than that!”—a bizarre thing to say in the sombre aftermath of a terror attack.
What looked like an awkward, even cringeworthy, moment from a random bystander quickly became the centre of media coverage. The cameras, conveniently already pointed in that direction, captured the scene perfectly. Sky News and the BBC dubbed it a “tribute” to the victims. The phrase Don’t Look Back in Anger was repeated endlessly across headlines, with video clips of the woman’s warbled performance playing on a loop.
Now we know the government was instructing us 'don't look back in anger': Don't look at the culture who did this; don't ask too many questions; and don't get angry.
Paid Crisis Actors
We can reveal that this, and other seemingly spontaneous events after terrorist attacks both here and abroad, were in fact fake, contrived by the government and carried out by crisis actors.
In the aftermath of terror attacks, what looks like a spontaneous national outpouring of grief and unity is, in fact, a far darker and more disturbing response.
Controlled Spontaneity
Vision News has learned that the UK government developed detailed plans to manufacture public responses to terrorist incidents—plans that involve orchestrating everything from social media hashtags to staged vigils, all under the innocuous-sounding umbrella of “controlled spontaneity.”
According to a Whitehall source familiar with these operations, government planners have drawn up blueprints outlining how to manage 'public emotion' and steer it in the “right” direction after an attack.
These contingency strategies, originally developed ahead of the 2012 London Olympics, include pre-written political statements, coordinated inter-faith events, and even pre-approved images and messages ready to flood Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) before real reactions can surface.
One operation involved testing hashtags in advance, designing “heart” posters specific to target cities, and deploying so-called crisis actors to deliver the optics of compassion. These actors are tasked with distributing flowers, lighting candles, and—most famously—singing pre-selected songs such as that Oasis’ Don’t Look Back in Anger to conjure an image of spontaneous unity.
In fact, the Manchester Arena vigil is now widely cited among insiders as a textbook example of “controlled spontaneity.” A woman of curious demeanour suddenly launched into the Oasis hit just as a minute’s silence ended seemed odd to say the least. Cameras were already rolling, perfectly placed to capture the moment. A few attendees joined in, but many remained visibly confused. What seemed awkward and possibly staged was instantly elevated by media outlets like the BBC and Sky News as a heart-warming tribute. Clips of the woman’s shaky vocals were looped on every major news channel within hours. it was all lies, the (unnamed) woman was there on the instruction of the home office, paid to sing that specific song to brainwash the people out of what should have been a violent reaction to Islam.
“This isn’t just grief management,” the planner explained. “It’s emotional choreography. Our job shifted from preparing for real responses to tragedy to engineering the appearance of real responses. We’re told: This is the emotion we want—how do we get the people there?”
The roots of this operation stretch back to fears that a mass-casualty incident during the Olympics would trigger widespread panic or civil unrest.
According to one insider, the aim was to “corral the Princess Diana-esque grief” expected to emerge—referring to the unprecedented public mourning that followed Diana’s death in 1997.
The Olympics passed without incident, but the planning documents lived on.
Crisis Actors have been deployed following every UK terrorist attack.
Since then, versions of this “controlled spontaneity” playbook have allegedly been deployed following every UK terrorist attack. They’ve become standard operating procedure: shape the public narrative fast, give people a symbol to cling to, and—above all—prevent uncontrolled emotion from mutating into anger or suspicion. state-sponsored gaslighting of the highest order.
What happened after Southport attack?
But the system isn't flawless. Its greatest failure came during the murder of three young girls in Stockport. The attack was sudden, chaotic, and occurred in a location outside the usual high-surveillance zones. With no time to activate the usual protocols, real public reaction surged through social media within minutes. Outrage exploded across platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram—raw, unfiltered, and unapproved.
The government tried desperately to wrest back control. Crisis actors were allegedly sent in, complete with flower bouquets and soft words. Hashtags of love and unity were pumped into the feed. But it was too late. The heart emojis and curated mourning rang hollow. The public wasn't buying it.
“The narrative slipped,” the planner admitted. “We couldn’t contain it in time. So we shifted tactics—we framed the truth as disinformation and vilified those who spread it.”
Authorities began suppressing dissent online. Tweets were quietly hidden. Posters were arrested. Keir Starmer went so far as to claim that half the country had been infiltrated by far-right extremists. But it didn’t work. The dam had burst. People weren’t mourning in silence. They were furious—and they were on the streets.
“This kind of strategy only works if the fake version of events gets out before the real one,” the planner added. “Stockport caught us off guard. The truth got out, and we lost control.”
The episode marks a turning point. It revealed not only the extent to which the British government seeks to manipulate public perception but also the fragility of the entire operation. Once the illusion breaks, no candlelit vigil or manufactured singalong can put it back together.
An investigation by Middle East Eye found that many so-called spontaneous public responses to terrorist attacks are in fact pre-planned government operations.
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