I often talk about the far right, because I think it exists, that real people and far too many politicians are part of it, and it is very dangerous to the well-being of most people in this country.
It is good then to note that I am not alone in thinking that is the case. This ten-minute report from Lewis Goodall, once of Newsnight, now of The News Agents, is well worth watching, albeit that it is a difficult and disturbing report:
There are too many people claiming those orchestrating the rallies at hotels housing asylum seekers aren't the organised far right. They're either ignorant or have an agenda. Take a look at the one I went to in Rotherham and judge for yourself. pic.twitter.com/SCnxB8Dcss
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) February 23, 2023
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We urgently need the Labour Party and even the next SNP leader to sign up for PR and then these people will be a represented soft few %, rather than the unrepresented hard few that they are becoming.
You don’t see Koran burnings and protests at migrant camps in Sweden and Germany.
The only SNP candidate with that imagination is, I think, Ash Regan
And she is last right now
Of course, there always has been a strong ultraright/fascist movement in Britain. Starting with Oswald Moseley leaving the Labour party in the 1930s and mobilising /forming Black Shirt demonstrations harassing Jews in the East End and elsewhere After his imprisonment in WW2 he continued after the war and later the National Front took up the “fight” against black and Asian immigration. This was further fuelled by Tory government’s tacit support from Enoch Powel and rivers of blood speeches (but Edward Heath wisely banned him from the Tory party and Powell went off to Northern Ireland to stand as a bigoted Unionist,
Thatcher faithfully followed Powell by supporting Apratied South Africa and Fasxcist Pinochet in Chile. This led later to Theresa May’s infamous “hostile environment” policy of illegally trying to deport or refuse British nationality to children of West Indian parents and from other former colonies. Patel and Braverman have continued this Tory racist policy with the backing of the far right which has spread from the National Front to the British National Party (BNP) and various groups such as the English Defence League EDF and, Forward Britain, elements in UKIP and other similar groups promoting racist, homophobic antii trans and ant-vax propaganda. Not a pretty picture indeed
The Financial Times agrees with you, describing “The Tories are now the most economically right-wing major party in the developed world”.
Source: “The Tories have become unmoored from the British people”, John Burn-Murdoch, September 30 2022
https://www.ft.com/content/d5f1d564-8c08-4711-b11d-9c6c7759f2b8
The Canary Workers’ Co-op, a radical working-class media outlet that is run by the workers, describes “Keir Starmer’s week has been more right-wing than the Tories”, Steve Topple, 24th November 2022
https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2022/11/24/keir-starmers-week-has-been-more-right-wing-than-the-tories/
I can recommend the book: The Death of the Left: Why We Must Begin from the Beginning Again (2022), by Simon Winlow and Steve Hall
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Left-Begin-Beginning-Again/dp/144735415X
Thanks Ian
I value the posts of this sort that you make here
It’s not just the Tories, in this post-truth era it’s politics itself which has become unmoored, not just from the British people but from reality itself. We are in danger of running out of food, water, light and heat and our politicians, instead of addressing these vital issues, are concerning themselves with people in small boats and blame-shifting. Oh, and looting. Lots of looting via essential utilities. Societal collapse is inevitable unless this is all stopped and soon. We need answers but I don’t see them coming from politicians. Perhaps we now enter a post-political age, one of unfamiliar shape and substance.
Thanks for that – very interesting broadcast. Arguably, Cam-moron and Gidiot’s austerity led to the Brexit vote (= demonsation of EU). Brexit accelerated the UK’ss economics decline with a different bunch of tories deflecting attention from this decline onto immigrants, and implying that it is the fault of immigrants. With tories from immigrant families actually demonsing immigrants (Goebbels and Streicher will at this point be nodding with approval).
Missing from this is some sort of charismatic figure who can organise/mobilise the mob. So far the right whinge have produced inept “leaders”, hopefully this will continue. But if one does arise then watch out.
My view on this is that it’s much more serious than what is portrayed here.
Working in West London in the 1990s, we had an influx of Kosovan refugees onto our estate.
The people on the estate saw the help that the Kosovans got and complained and were resentful of it. The people who complained and kicked up a fuss were mostly BAME – wearing hijabs, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Rastas. It really struck me at the time – a real eye-opener. These were nice people BTW – I was amongst them as a housing officer 5 days a week.
They were just more polite about it but they felt that they should get the same help.
I’ve always felt that this reaction was indicative of a society where some – quite a few in fact – were not being helped at all, and it being London, the pressure on resources is immense.
But over the years – and especially having been sensitised to the perennial nature of austerity in this country by Clara Mattei (The Capital Order – 2022) all I see here is the result of a country that is still now rolling back the state and abandoning its people.
And this is what you get. Angry people who are so easily wound up, set against each other. They become political fodder for some very dangerous people and their ideas. And those white faces in the video above could easily be another colour in another part of this country in my experience.
It’s part of a brutalisation/normalisation process in my view.
On Netflix there is a 5 part documentary on Flint Town – the now decaying ex-car making town in Michigan USA and how the local police force is working to deal with crime.
One police officer – reflecting on the under funding of his force – says that over time people just get used being neglected. It’s one of the key statements in the film.
So if it is true that people can get used to anything – what are the limits to government and institutional neglect?
The truth of the matter is there aren’t any. And that is a horrific realisation.
When I watched the video above, part of me wanted to roll up my sleeves and set about these fascists with a thick ear or two. But that’s not the answer.
The answer is not to create the environment to propagate racism and other anti-social behaviour in the first place. But we do and have been doing for a really long time.
A key element of this is the inhumane economic idea of using the economies of scale idea to create a group of perma-unemployed people help to suppress wages.
The other key is the undoubted use of austerity to dis-aggregate/split up popular sentiment and suppress the organisation of labour/society in the name of Wealth. Austerity resulting in poor social security; benefits lost at too high a rate when earned income comes into play; job seeking allowances; Universal Credit (a lie); an NHS failing etc.
Wealth has a lot reasons to be fearful at the moment.
We have reached a critical cross roads in our understanding of our impact on the planet and our future; we went through the largest market crash ever in 2008 which reified where money actually comes from and told us perhaps for the final time how irresponsible wealth is; we have unearthed our histories and are awake to their injustices.
All of this has got Wealth scared shitless because is threatens their position.
So wealth in this country is now taking us back to the good old days of the Geddes Axe in the early 1920’s. It wants us to concentrate on surviving with low wages and low standards of everything in order that we leave them alone and don’t ask inconvenient questions. And if we pick on each other – that’s even better for Wealth as far as they are concerned.
So by all means look at the fascism in our streets, but just remember that it is the fascists in our elites who are the real source of the problem. And if you don’t realise that , then you are already probably lost!
Some of you might find the degree of cynicism in this improbable, but I assure that is the case. Look up!
I agree with you
Neglect breeds insecurity breeds extremism
Inequality is probably nothing like as important as neglect and insecurity
Many thanks, Pilgrim, for a profound post.
The “rolling back the state and abandoning its people” is really what today’s government is about.
In the end all this is about money – it is supposed to be short and the failure of the electorate to understand that it is as unlimited as inches or centimetres, is the basic problem.
I fear it all comes back to that – and that is why we are in the state we are in…
An excellent and perceptive summary thank you Pilgrim. That we have had two Home Secretaries with immigrant backgrounds, that have turned out to be amongst the most divisive ever is particularly depressing. When one gets the message that its all the fault of an ‘other’ when canvassing in deprived areas, one realises how effective those divisive messages have been, and that there are plenty of those willing to hear them.
In short it is about divide and rule. The damage will take a long time to fix and will take a brave and radical government to tackle the real ‘elites’ – money and media.
I think this cartoon sums up how the disadvantaged are deliberatley treated: https://twitter.com/Qldaah/status/1181155593211400192
Caption: You don’t need to fight them, you just need to convince the pitchfork people that the torch people want to take away their pitchforks.
Indeed
As someone who enthusiastically joined in the antifascist action in the 70s and early 80s, I am left rueing that we didn’t do more. Even then, you could be ‘treated’ to the sight of NF organisers chatting like old mates to senior police; ridden down by police horse charges; battered around the head by police batons (often with batteries inserted). As Pilgrim and others say above, fascism is woven into the very fibre, the central institutions, of this country, and is far too easily reanimated by the media and the political class, for neoliberalism’s ends.