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“A sieg heil-in’ squirt, you’re an impotent jerk

Yeah, a fascist twerp”

The disgraceful scenes we have witnessed in the last week were, with hindsight, expected. There has always been a undercurrent of violence about the increasingly mainstream, extreme right rhetoric. The rioters are simply thugs who like a fight, who see the opportunity for some looting, and wrap themselves in flags and nationalism to justify themselves.

However, the riots and destruction we have seen this week are more insidious. What we are witnessing is the culmination of right-wing extremism that was legitimised by Brexit.

Right-wing extremists aren’t new to the UK; there was the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s, who initially met attracted a sizeable following, with the party claiming 50,000 members at one point. The press baron Lord Rothermere (Daily Mail)¹ was a notable early supporter.

‘What we are witnessing is the culmination of right-wing extremism that was legitimised by Brexit’

More recently there has been the National Front (“NF”), the British National Party (“BNP”) and the English Defence League. The latter co-funded by Tommy Robinson (Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon), who was a political advisor to former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Gerard Batten.

And it is UKIP where our story starts, because this is when extremism started to meet mainstream politics.

The UK is not alone in this, a number of European countries, including France and Germany are seeing a rise of the extreme right, and then there is Trump in the US.

For the first time in the UK we have a mainstream party of the right, ReformUK, in parliament. The immediate question is why now?

Well, as I have written the economic and social conditions are tailormade for exploitation. In addition, the media input in the 2020s is different; online social media provides a platform for all and every idiot to share their views.

Brexit provided the necessary momentum for this, and gave the players an opportunity. The catalyst, who created much of the support for Brexit was Nigel Farage, then the leader of UKIP, now of Reform and elected MP.

The rise of Farage terrified the Tories who saw support drain away, as a result they have moved progressively to the right, adopting many of the policies of UKIP and Reform, some of which would not have looked out-of-place in an NF or BNP manifesto. As a result, the Tories move to the right and new policies gave legitimacy to hitherto extremist views. But, as we have seen elsewhere, people then favoured the more extremist parties and politicians rather than mainstream tribute acts.

‘Farage terrified the Tories who saw support drain away, as a result they have moved progressively to the right’

Supporting this has been an aggressive right-wing media, including daily newspapers such as the Telegraph, Mail, and Express, and on television, GB News.

Whilst this week’s scenes have been ugly, what is really scary is that Reform received 14% (>4m) of votes cast in June’s election.

Ipsos estimates that 22% of those aged 45-54 voted Reform, rising to 27% for 55-64,and a horrifying 43% 65+! (1).

These are the very people who will be tut-tutting over their cornflakes, when, in reality, all they are watching is their stormtroopers in action.

‘the country is not “on the point of revolt”, despite his best efforts. Indeed , most people just want to rebuild and live in peace’

Whilst the blame for this weeks rioting cannot be laid directly at door of Reform and Farage, past and recent comments have stoked the fires and given credibility to what the rioters feel is their cause.

Contrary to what Nigel Farage tweeted, the country is not “on the point of revolt”, despite his best efforts. Indeed , most people just want to rebuild and live in peace.

Farage is now defending himself against accusations of inciting violence in Southport by insisting that the mosque wouldn’t have been attacked if the police had answered his questions – perhaps, more accurately, insinuations, about the stabbings and the 17-year-old suspect sooner.

In reality, the Merseyside police are best left to work on a murder inquiry rather than spending time appeasing an attention-seeking backbench MP, particularly one who a few days ago wrongly blamed riots in Leeds on “the politics of the subcontinent”. Whilt I am no fan of the police, in these situation they put themselves at considerable personal risk and should expect politicians not to endanger them or the public by escalating things.

Farage released a video on Thursday evening in which he said he did not support street violence but added: “What you’ve seen on the streets of Hartlepool, of London, of Southport is nothing to what could happen over the course of the next few weeks.”

It isn’t just Reform, the continual drift to the right by the Tories has allowed extremism, especially racism, to become acceptable.

‘the continual drift to the right by the Tories has allowed extremism, especially racism, to become acceptable’

Dame Sara Khan, who was Rishi Sunak’s independent adviser for social cohesion and resilience until May and acted as counter-extremism commissioner under Theresa May and Boris Johnson, said the recent administrations had failed the British people, leaving the UK wide open to far-right violence.

Repeated and urgent counsel that far-right extremists were exploiting gaps in the law to foment violence on social media had been ignored while top-rank politicians in a series of administrations sought to gain advantage by waging culture wars, Khan said, in a damning intervention.

“The writing was clearly on the wall for some time,” Khan said. “All my reports have shown, in a nutshell that, firstly, these extremist and cohesion threats are worsening; secondly, that our country is woefully unprepared. We’ve got a gap in our legislation which is allowing these extremists to operate with impunity.

“Previous governments have astonishingly failed to address these trends, and they’ve taken instead, in my view, approaches that have actually been counterproductive and actually just defy any logical rationale.

“They scrapped the counter-extremism strategy [in 2021], including all the resources and funding for local areas across the country who are struggling with extremist activity and extremist actors. And the government, at that time, did not replace it with anything. They left local authorities struggling to deal with consistent extremist challenges in their area.”

Khan, who has previously criticised those who described the pro-Palestine protests as “hate marches”, a formulation of words used by the former home secretary Suella Braverman, said the rhetoric used by some senior politicians in recent years had given a green light to those holding racist views.

One of those standing for Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, hasn’t helped the situation, appearing to justify the riots, saying; “we need a clearer strategy on integration” – if you’re defending your mosque against neo-Nazis, there’s the solution: integrate more – and bemoaning a “culture of silence” around the alleged effects of immigration, while railing against “the cultural establishment”.

‘Another big issue has been festering for years: Islamophobia, an apparently ingrained Tory problem that has never been dealt with’

Politicians have popularised the “We want our country back” chant, a slogan that has been used most loudly by Farage, but that language first entered the modern political mainstream in 2001, in a speech by the then Tory leader William Hague. The spread of these ideas and language was exacerbated during Suella Braverman’s brief spell as home secretary, when she claimed that people crossing the Channel amounted to an “invasion”, and responded to far-right violence outside hotels commandeered by her department with the twisted suggestion that “the alleged behaviour of some asylum seekers is never an excuse for violence and intimidation”. Another big issue has been festering for years: Islamophobia, an apparently ingrained Tory problem that has never been dealt with.

Nahella Ashraf, of Stand Up to Racism Manchester, seems to have a better understanding of the situation, extra policing doesn’t deal with the cause of the riots and doesn’t address the longer-term problems behind them, saying;

“Before the election, with all the attacks on asylum seekers, it’s not surprising we’re seeing this unleashed. We’ve had years where people are feeling angry and neglected and the cost of living crisis feeds into it. It’s the climate the politicians have set.”

An imam from Gloucester, Abdullah, said Robinson and some politicians were responsible for the disorder. “They have perpetuated this. They light a match and they walk off.”

One of the often used criticisms of immigrants is the failure, or refusal to integrate in communities, a comment that is often untrue….

Muhammad Ali Ahmad, general secretary of the mosque said; “We try to serve the community as much as possible – and the people of Hartlepool – and the last thing we want is to feel unsafe in the same place which we love and we care for.”

Ahmad and his colleagues have provided more than 25,000 free meals to people in need since the pandemic.

Parliament, should also not be surprised by this threat, in a press release from the INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY COMMITTEE noted that…”The threat from Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism is on an upward trajectory, populated by an increasing number of young people and driven by the internet. There are reports that groups and individuals have sought to co-opt the Covid-19 pandemic, using conspiracy theories and exploiting grievances to radicalise and recruit. While the full impact of the global pandemic has yet to be seen, we are assured that the Intelligence Community and the police have recognised the impact that events such as the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests may have had on the extremist beliefs of individuals and the possibility that this will lead to an increase in the threat.”⁽²⁾

‘The electoral success of Reform is alarming, Farage often pushes boundaries that our political system struggles to contain’

The electoral success of Reform is alarming, Farage often pushes boundaries that our political system struggles to contain. Barely a month into his Westminster career, he is developing a pattern of saying incendiary things not in parliament where he could be challenged or compelled to correct inaccuracies – but in the more unrestrained territory of X (formerly Twitter) or his GB News show.

Going forward, it might be necessary to explore whether Parliament has the mechanisms to deal with someone potentially capable of bringing it into disrepute while barely setting foot there, just as ministers must urgently require Ofcom, broadcasters and the big social media platforms to produce plans for countering the clear threat to national security posed by fake news, hate speech and conspiracism.

‘Setting one group against another, setting up the bogeyman, not really coming up with solutions but trading on negativity and division. That worries me a great deal’

I will leave the last words to prospective Tory leader, Mel Stride. Whilst he would not comment on Farage’s statement he said in an interview with the Observer: “I worry about populist politics. You see it around the world. It’s a fairly strong phenomenon.

“There’s nothing wrong with populism to the extent that it means that there are serious issues that people feel should be addressed, because that’s politics. That’s right and proper. But I do get very concerned when I see populism through the lens of setting one group against another, setting up the bogeyman, not really coming up with solutions but trading on negativity and division. That worries me a great deal, and I don’t want to see my country go that way.”

The country needs a proper opposition, not a ragtag bunch of bigots. Just as Starmer grew into the role when he became Labour leader, the Tories must do the same, electing someone who will unite the country rather than setting it on course for emboldened racist violence.

“As we watched the speech of an animal scream

The new party army was marching right over our heads”

Notes:

Things are certainly hotting up, but not in a way that insists the word ‘nicely’ appears in the narrative.

I suspect that at some point between now and the return of this column on the 19th, something will have happened to confirm, or deny Philip’s suggest that theh far-right may have over-egged things.

We can either look forward to a triumphant return or a helping of humble pie!

Elon Musk has unhelpfully suggested that the UK is descending into civil war, although that chimes with one of Philip’s chosen tracks; let’s hope his return doesn’t include ‘London’s Burning’.

So what was he thinking?:

I believe that this week’s events signal the end-game for hardline right-wing politics.

Reform clearly polled well in June, their support amongst over-65s is both amazing and horrifying. Especially, as they will lead the tut-tutting about the riots.

The right has, once again, misjudged the British people, we just don’t like this sort of thing. Mosley’s black shirts found that out after the Cable St riot.

Farage, whose silence had been deafening in the last few days, posted on X this morning. Whilst he condemned the violence against police officers, he said “deeper long-term problems remain”.

He added: “Ever since the soft policing of the Black Lives Matter protests, the impression of two-tier policing has become widespread. The prime minister’s faltering attempts to address the current crisis have only added to that sense of injustice.”

Nigel just doesn’t get it, this isn’t Trumps’ America. Even Pritti Patel can smell the coffee, she said his comments were deeply misleading and “simply not relevant right now. There’s a clear difference between effectively blocking streets or roads being closed to burning down libraries, hotels, food banks and attacking places of worship. What we have seen is thuggery, violence, racism.”

If I am wrong, and the pernicious influence of Farage continues there may have to be a day of reckoning. Whilst he was clearly democratically elected, his words encourage undemocratic behaviour, something which cannot be allowed to continue.

Deep down the British people aren’t racists, there will always be a subclass that is, and that cannot be changed.

Immigration isn’t the problem, it is just being made so by politicians who have nothing else to offer.

What matters is inequality. The government needs to make the majority feel prosperous, at that point the right’s finger pointing is just insolent noise, no matter how insidious or dangerous it might sound.

The column will take a short break and return the w/c 19-08…..

Lyrically, we start with “Youth Against Fascism” by Sonic Youth, and finish with “English Civil War” by The Clash. Enjoy! Philip.

@coldwarsteve

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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