>Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts were a menace. So were the Nazi sympathies of many British aristocrats in the 1930s. Today’s ascendant far right poses its own unique dangers, using familiar tropes that have been fuelled and legitimised by the political and media elite – and there is all too little appreciation of where Britain could be heading.
>Brexit, for the Tory right, was a national revolution: not simply a recalibration of Britain’s relationship with the EU but a blunt instrument to roll back progressive social norms. Those deemed to be critics or opponents were now enemies of the people, saboteurs, traitors, all splashed on newspaper front pages. A rising Labour left is portrayed as treacherous, in league with terrorists and foreign powers. For the hard right, in Britain and beyond, the left is an agent of the nation’s destruction because of its support for migrants and refugees, and opposition to anti-Muslim bigotry. Islamophobia is a respectable bigotry, fanned by national newspapers such as The Sun and The Times which are forced to publish corrections after publishing articles which twist the truth and whip up hatred, but by then the damage is already done.
>A classic far-right trope has always been to portray opponents as betrayers of the nation. This week, it reached a zenith with the threatening Daily Express headline: “Ignore the will of the people at your peril”. Little wonder that the Labour MP for Wigan, Lisa Nandy, tweeted: “These front pages are not just disgraceful but downright dangerous. What the hell is happening to our democracy?” This while an alleged member of a banned neo-Nazi group has admitted to plotting to kill her friend and neighbouring Labour MP for West Lancashire, Rosie Cooper, with a knife. Jo Cox was murdered by a fascist terrorist almost exactly two years ago; the anti-Muslim terrorist Darren Osborne drove to London last year hoping to murder Jeremy Corbyn, and mowed down a group of Muslim worshippers, killing one; and four far-right plots were thwarted last year.
>The profile of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (or “Tommy Robinson”), who founded the English Defence League, flourishes despite, or perhaps because of, his being jailed last month for contempt of court. His growing far-right movement benefits from the promotion of bigotry by the media and political elite.
>Today’s far right has many parents. The industrial era should not be glorified: many of the old jobs were dirty, unhealthy and often excluded women. But the disappearance of millions of secure manufacturing jobs under both the Tories and New Labour in favour of the service sector had far-reaching consequences. Much of the work that replaced them was not only lower paid and more insecure: it had less prestige. The old work often conferred a sense of pride. Well-paid, secure jobs for those who didn’t go to university disappeared, as did their communities based around mines, factories and docks. A sense of being ignored and abandoned set in. It nurtured grievances that waited to be fed upon.
>Were it not for Corbynism, the radical right would have a monopoly on resentment of the status quo, and would be even stronger. But the radical left has to better confront the expanding far right. When it mobilises on the streets, the left must do so in greater numbers. The left – from Labour to Momentum to the trade unions – must debate how it can more effectively organise in working-class communities. The far right is effectively using social media as a tool of radicalisation; the left needs a counter-strategy. There is an alarming lack of appreciation of just how dangerous this political moment is, or where we could be heading. The potential consequences should frighten us all.
I've noticed that whenever the center-left tries to analyze the far right, they never make any effort to refute the right's claims. It's just >"they're dangerous" >toxic >problematic >muh democracy
Chase Moore
Does this idiot realize Mosley was pan-european?
Dominic Turner
It was just a trope guys even tho we fucked u over xD
I hope Owen Jones never dies. When the ghost of Mosley is PM, he'll be spared the chambers so he can continue writing the entertainment column for the whole of the Neo British Empire
>familiar tropes that have been fuelled and legitimised by the political and media elite But that's not even remotely true. The political and media elites are so wedded to mass immigration that they'll lie through their teeth to convince people that importing brown people is always good. >Labour left is portrayed as treacherous, in league with terrorists and foreign powers But they are? Importing Islamists is literally being "in league with terrorists and foreign powers"
Ryder James
sounds like he's talking about us like the nazis talked about jews, what a fucking filthy antisemitic nazi he is
Nathaniel Ramirez
His mom is Eddie Izzard?
Cooper Mitchell
They haven't had to prove or refute anything for a while. Peace has cost them their strength.
Christian Parker
The problem is that they're so dogmatically far left that everything appears 'far right.' It doesn't give you any room for authentic analysis.
Wyatt Cooper
If you're white and dont want your race to die out you're a nazi these days
