First, there was Musk doing a fascist salute. And the right tried to say to everyone who saw it for exactly what it was that they were wrong to do so.
Then, Steve Bannon did it yesterday at the Conservative Political Alliance Conference event in Washington.
This was not a mistake. This was obviously deliberate. This is fascism on open display. It is the brazenness of Trump writ large.
Farage appeared at the same conference as Bannon.
So did Liz Truss.
So did J D Vance.
The fascists are on manouevres.
We really do need to be very worried. They will be adding the armbands soon.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/21/steve-bannon-jordan-bardella-nazi-salute-cpac
The French far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Friday morning cancelled a scheduled speech at the US Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, after Donald Trump’s former aide Steve Bannon flashed a fascist-style salute there hours before.
I understand that the real ‘Far Right’ look down on Swastikas and Sieg Hiel users calling them ‘Hobbyists’
So there may well be far worse waiting in the wings
LePen (Bardella’s boss) has been trying to detoxify the French far-right party for decades – she has split it, changed its name, expelled her own father, abandoned almost every clear policy (eg. ‘frexit’) – she wasn’t about to let it be destroyed by association with these anglo-fascists, who are generally despised in France.
Just re ‘the Franch far-right leader Bardella’. I do actually think he’s far right, but if we call him far-right, then all of Reform should be called far-right, three quarters of present Tory MPs, including the present leadership, should be called far-right. If we call Bardella far-right, we should even call some Labour politicians far-right.
I wrote to the Guardian asking them why they are very quick to call some EU politicians far-right ( when they are actually to the left of some British politicians who they’d never call far-right) and never British politicians. To be British and described far-right, you need to be a caricature of far-right (man with a shaved head with a lots of taooes). I did actually get an answer – but it was some sort of a word salad saying in short that they aren’t obsessed with labels and I shouldn’t be either. But things have to be called what they are. Far-right is far-right, fascist is fascist. And yes – a privately educated middle class person who went to Oxford or Cambridge can be far-right as well.
Reform is far right
Most Tories are for right
What have you missed about them?
They are decidedly far-right – neo fascist
It’s certainly true that on many economic issues the Rassemblemement National (LePen and Bardella’s paty) is to the left of UK Tories – let alone Reform. For example, LePen voted for Hollande’s wealth tax – which the supposedly centrist Macron subsequently watered down.
This tends to be the case, incidentally, across the Continent – the old Poland ruling party, Law & Justice, for example, significantly raised welfare benefits. These parties don’t really have the commitment to neoliberalism of the anglosphere – they are nativist, anti-globalist, often anti-multi-nationals, focused on paternalistic looking after ‘our people’ (which includes the white working class), but ultra-conservative in social policy – anti-immigration, islamophobic, pro ‘traditional families’ and conversely intolerant of difference – homosexuality, trans-identity, etc…
Make no mistake, this blending of bits of leftist economic policy with fascistic social policy is a very potent electoral mixture – similar, in some ways, to the original fascism of Mussolini.
And that social policy is fascist.
Thank you for highlighting the jailbird Bannon’s Nazi nature.
Here is a fairly bland article about links between the far right and evangelical Christians in the UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/22/judeo-christian-values-uk-populists-mix-faith-politics
It is helpful in highlighting the differences between the UK & the USA, in that the UK is a much more secular society than the US, despite the establishment of the C/E.
2 points –
1. “Judaeo-Christian values” as a code-phrase. Even Fa***e is now using it. (Always ask them – so what ARE Judaeo-Christian values? followed by “Are YOU a Christian yourself?” or “tell more about this Jesus person, what did HE teach?” The results will be interesting!)
2. UK evangelicals are not pursuing political power – they are too few in number, they are more “goal oriented” – allying with far right to achieve key socially conservative objectives (abortion, homosexuality & transgender issues, non-Christian religion, assisted dying legislation).
The article names some key individuals, keep an eye on them, Danny Kruger, Miriam Cates, Philippa Stroud, Paul Marshall, and also the Conservative Christian Fellowship. It doesn’t mention Tim Montgomerie, former editor of Conservative Home who is moving away from the Tories currently.
Key take-away – this is NOT America. In the secular UK this is about a vague cultural reference to Christianity which uses it as code for something else more sinister. In the USA it appeals to a nation of churchgoers with a history of racism built into their southern Confederate religion.
As for me, while I believe in pragmatic co-belligerency, I am amazed and disturbed at who some genuine Christians are prepared to share a platform with at some of these far right gatherings. I do my little bit to warn and challenge my own tribe about it and will continue to do so.
Here is a report on the ARC from an evangelical Christian editor who went to see what was going on.
I feel it’s a reasonably objective report, although I still feel the objectionable behaviour and rhetoric of the far right, get a far easier ride than would be given to a similar far left gathering. I personally belive Christian attendees and speakers at these events need to be far more challenging and discerning about who they share platforms with. I fear they may just be giving amoral corrupt politicians the respectability they crave in order to pursue their destructive inhuman agendas. Do they seriously believe the UK will become a better place for her citizens under a Reform government? 14 years of Reform-lite hasn’t worked, and these followers of Jesus are now moving on from the Tory party, trying the next shop front along on the right, without realising that its peddling stolen goods. (Tim Montgomerie is now in Reform).
Philippa Stroud has an interesting background of years of campaigning on poverty issues from the right of politics. I’m disappointed to see her there. Her life experience doesn’t fit the right wing stereotype despite the dodgy think tanks she’s been part of.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippa_Stroud,_Baroness_Stroud
You should be able to view three articles without subscribing.
https://www.premierchristianity.com/culture/conservative-christians-are-flocking-on-board-the-arc-i-went-along-to-find-out-why/18955.article?
She is definitely far-right now
It’s far, far, far worse than you and most everyone think, Richard. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, and I’m always extremely sceptical about a lot of the claims and counterclaims made on the internet. But I know a fair bit a technology, and particularly the internet, and lots about various forms of government, politics and related stuff, given my academic background.
So yesterday evening I spent a good while reading through all the material on the attached link and thinking through the various arguments and claims – the fundamental one being that Musk and his band of right wing billionaires have quietly bought up all the companies that control electronic voting in the US and they have been doctored accordingly. Not in the old fashioned way of ballot stuffing, or anything like that, but much more cleverly. Indeed, so cleverly that only those involved in the project – for that is what it is, with it’s own name, – actually know how this all works. And now several of those techies are part of DOGE – of course.
Anyway, you’re probably going to dismiss this out of hand. But my pointer to this came from an OSINT person who is 100% sound, and know their stuff. So, I’d ask you and other readers of this blog, take five minutes and read the first few screens of the material this links takes you to and then tell me that this doesn’t stink.
https://x.com/ThisWillHold/status/1884704908244640137
Nothing would surprise me….
There is a combination of trolling and dog-whistles.
And it is not new. Here it is, eight years ago, albeit threw it was the racist white nationalists.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/white-nationalist
We need to be very clear that flirting with this sort of Nazi symbolism is just as unacceptable on a conference stage as it was when used on the streets by 1970s skinheads. What next, brownshirts and swastikas?
If a European politician tries any of this shit, I hope they would be pilloried as they would deserve.
CPAC – Conference for Particularly Addled Citizens.
The lunatics are running the asylum – and they are dangerous.
Salutes are just the start — they’re trying to set up private militias to help enforce their fascist oppression:
https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/nassau-county-militia-bruce-blakeman-lawsuit-rcna191568
Brownshirts in the US…
Western democracy is in dire peril.
Appeasing these political terrorists is never going to work.
We have to fight them tooth and nail.
Get our truth out there first.
Hmmm………………hard to say maybe?
What we know is that this bunch of weirdos and capricious opportunists have no class whatsoever, no self awareness (which is why they abhor ‘woke’) and delight in rubbing people’s faces in their new found prominence. I’m sure that they just like to wind people up.
What we are seeing maybe in reality is a bunch of brats (if I called them ‘children’ it would be insulting to children) being in charge – the same sort of mindset that dominates business, taxation etc., – rule breakers not takers, people who must have their own way – the sort of people Hannah Arendt warned us about – having their day in the sun.
What is refreshing now is that there is no pretence. They mean what they say and off they go. The extremism in this is bound to have consequences (but I doubt that under the false flag of ‘freedom’ much change will come about very soon).
Our only ally in all of this is Time. Time – as Gillian Welch points out in one of her songs – is the Revelator. All lies become known over time.
So for me, this battle is already over. We need to prepare for the next battle for when Trump and his cling-ons fall. What will fill the vacuum then? This is where sites like this will show their value. I hope this helps.
I agree – that is the battle we are now fighting
Despite the election of a so called “Labour” Government , due in the main to Conservative incompetence over a decade or more, I do fear that the U.K. will be easy meat for the establishment of a Fascist State.
Basically the U.K. population, on the whole, are too apathetic to come together and challenge any such move towards the far right and appear to actively support it. In my lifetime I have seen the golden age, principally the late 1950’s and 1960’s, be eroded by apathy and selfishness of Thatcherism and self interest, until today we do not even have the basics of a functioning state in many areas.
If the far right fascists, as per Trumpism, get their act together during Starmers spell of political incompetence I can see the U.K. being a fascist state by 2030’s’. A stunning monument to commemorate Hitlers rise to power during the 1930’s?
I fear that they may have it all too easy
I noticed that Bannon’s salute was a bit half-hearted when compared to Musk’s, as though he felt obliged to do it for fear of being accused of not being on message. Or maybe he was testing the waters for a reaction.
Either way it was sickening to see how easily validation from President Musk can shift the goalposts.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and Sieg Heils like a duck, it’s a duck.
No! It’s a fucking Fascist.