Recent successful efforts to repel fascist groups draw on a long history of antifascist mobilisation in Liverpool. A peaceful but surprisingly large group of people from a range of backgrounds crowded around the entrance to Moorefields train station in Liverpool last month. Warmly dressed against the cold and carrying European and antifascist flags, they were… Continue reading “How Scousers see off the fascists”
Last month, For Britain – Anne Marie Waters’ post UKIP political party – held its conference in Liverpool. One of those speaking at the conference was the former reality TV contestant, Katie Hopkins. Speaking alongside Ingrid Carlqvist – a Swedish anti-Muslim writer who has previously denied the Holocaust – Hopkins told the gathered delegates, “I’m… Continue reading “Katie Hopkins: ‘celebrity’ extremist of the radical right?”
Current leader of UKIP, Gerard Batten, announced recently that he would be taking the party in a new, ‘populist’ direction. Batten defines populism (rather simply but also ambiguously) as ‘policies that are popular with voters’. In their latest manifesto, however, the party’s stance on a range of issues – from the NHS to Brexit, immigration, and prisons policy – suggests not… Continue reading “Towards a new ‘populist’ party? UKIP’s interim manifesto and the future of the UK radical right”
Tommy Robinson has been transformed into a truly global figure, a purported martyr for the dispossessed and the most influential radical-right leader in Britain since Sir Oswald Mosley. Following Tommy Robinson’s imprisonment in May for contempt of court, the #FreeTommy campaign demonstrated just how much the British radical right has changed in a short space of time. It has… Continue reading “Tommy Robinson and the Transformation of the British Far Right”
“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” These fourteen words have been seared into white supremacist folklore. Coined by David Laine, a member of the white supremacist group The Order, they summarise his 88 Manifesto, itself a redaction of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and present an inevitable extinction of… Continue reading “Taking our Children – Why Radical Right Extremists Prey on Our Deepest Human Fears”
As a practitioner working in Prevent I am always grateful for the opportunity to engage with and learn from academia. Whilst I cannot profess to have any theoretical or conceptual expertise in areas such as “cumulative or reciprocal radicalisation” or “interactive escalation,” I do feel that my personal experiences of working in counter terrorism can… Continue reading “Reciprocal Radicalisation – Practical Examples of Prevent Support”
The ‘Battle of Cable Street’ on 4 October 1936 has long been annually commemorated as one of the most significant moment in the fight against fascism in Britain. Yet three years before Cable Street – the British Union of Fascists’ provocative attempt to dominate the streets of East London, with its large Jewish population –… Continue reading “Remembering the ‘Battle of Stockton’”
Themes of conspiracism, betrayal and national decline have become a central feature of British politics and were crucial to the anti-establishment sentiment which contributed to the Brexit vote in 2016. Since then, Brexiteers, such as Jacob Rees Mogg, have accused the Government of being complicit in the ‘management of decline’ whilst others, have recently argued… Continue reading “The Postwar Radical Right, British decline and Conspiracy Theory”
Why are American groups funding a figure on the British radical right? Since the arrest of former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson for breaching reporting restrictions on a trial and his subsequent imprisonment on contempt of court charges, a large movement has gathered to demand his freedom. Despite Robinson’s release from jail following an appeal —… Continue reading “The Far Right’s Transatlantic Money Train”
Having worked in the probation service for over 16 years, I was always exposed, and privy, to the ugly realities of individual and collective drivers for the radical right. However, the punishment and rehabilitative ideal at a practitioner level was far different to that of building resilient communities and engaging civic society groups in my… Continue reading “The Many Faces of the Far Right”