Normies are normies because they are politically disinterested, and - thus - they are extremely easy to control by the leftist indoctrination/propaganda system.

What we are seeing here is the exact same thing we see in every other big news story. You've got the leftists in the government, the media, and the tech companies all conspiring to get out ahead in front of the story. They label everyone daring to not comply with the left's politics as "The Far Right", call everything "racist thuggery", use the government's monopoly on the use of force to go after those political opponents, have the tech companies go to work on the net, banning people from sharing anything that disproves their narrative, etc.

What is going on in England is the same thing that is going on everywhere else. They run the same gameplan over, and over, and over... because it works. It's the system of indoctrination and propaganda the left has been allowed to construct doing their best to control the narrative. Control the narrative = control the normies.