Is Britain’s Far Right Really A Threat?

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The Far-Right in Britain. Pic: You Tube screen grab.

by Neil Bamforth

The answer is, of course, yes. Thomas Mair, a far-right terrorist, murdered Labour politician Jo Cox. He also confessed that he’d intended to murder Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan. His motivation was clearly a hatred of left-wing political views and racism along with a particular hatred of Muslims.

Now it would be fair to say that extreme Islamism is currently far more dangerous than far-right terrorists, mainly because there are more of them.

Ignoring far-right terrorism would, however, be a grave error of judgment.

One possible, even plausible, reason why the majority of British people do not tend to focus on the far right, is almost certainly because they are both white.

If asked, I suspect most white British people do not feel unduly threatened by the far right – unless they are politically active and of a left and/or liberal persuasion.

Black and Asian British, along with Eastern Europeans will almost certainly feel more threatened – as indeed will British Jews I imagine.

That, I personally think, is the nub of the matter.

The far right in Britain is not going to harm indigenous white Brits in the mindset of indigenous white Brits, other than politically active left-wing people, so why worry about them?

I don’t claim any knowledge here but, I wonder whether indigenous Germans had similar thoughts in the 1930’s?

Yes. Extreme Islam is far more of a concern in Britain than the extreme right and has to be but, we ignore the behaviour of far-right activists at our peril.

I have no sympathies with extremes yet I know many who do.

Some Muslims have been brainwashed into believing the dangerous doctrines of Islamic State.

Some Brits are starting to believe the dangerous doctrines of the far right.

Why?

The far right is populated by white British people. Those listening are white British people.

Old chums were members of Britain’s notorious and outlawed Combat 18. I didn’t approve of their beliefs but I never let disagreements get in the way of friendships. Besides, there is always the probably naive view that you can influence chums for the better perhaps?

It did feel extraordinarily bizarre to spend a couple of hours in one bar of a pub I frequented in the company of skinhead racists and then move to the bar on the other side of the pub to chat to my Asian chums. Yep. It really was that weird.

Related: America’s Right and Britain’s Left: Democracy Under Threat

Mind you, back then, the pub was, for want of a better description, ‘neutral turf’. Neither side transgressed onto the other side so an odd status quo was in place. The landlord of the pub did no more than making sure nobody transgressed into the other group’s side of the pub.

I’ve always been quite chuffed that I was the only person welcomed on both sides – albeit both sets of chums must have liked me a lot as neither could get their heads around me being pals with Asians and white racists at the same time.

Anyway, back to today.

Yes, Islamic extremists are greater in number in Britain than far-right terrorists so, it is easy to understand why Islamic extremists get all the media attention. The number of incidents involving far-right extremists is minuscule in comparison but should not be ignored lest they increase.

White indigenous Brits not politically aligned to the left / liberal side of things feel safe from far-right extremists and, in truth, they generally probably are safe unless inadvertently caught up in something in a ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ sort of way.

This is 2018, not 1979 so there will be clear differences. I doubt far-right extremists would ‘share a pub’ peacefully with Asians anymore for starters. There are similarities however that are very worrying.

The far right of the late 70’s early 80’s ‘brainwashed’ many people into believing only white British people should be in Britain. The technique worked alarmingly well on a significant minority.

Islamists are successfully ‘brainwashing’ some Muslims into believing they are fighting a holy war against non-Muslims. The existence of Islamic State and homegrown Islamic terrorists show how effective they’ve been.

The far right of today is using the same techniques to ‘brainwash’ susceptible white Brits in their doctrine.

If they are as successful as Islamic State have been then we live in very alarming times indeed. Ultimately, I suspect they will be as successful. Increasingly Brits want to blame someone for their problems.

The easy targets are always the ones to blame.

About Post Author

Neil Bamforth

I am English first, British second and never ever European. I have supported Oldham Athletic FC for 50 years which has made me immune from depression. My taste buds have died due to too many red hot curries so I drink Kronenburg beer and milk - sometimes in the same glass. I have a wife, daughter, 9 cats and I like toast.
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Bobbie Peel
6 years ago

The Right are all Far-Right. No such thing as a tolerant Nazi or White Supremacist, which right-wingers tend to be.

Shirley Tuantolee
6 years ago

Anything that is prefixed by “far” is usually cray-cray!

jess
6 years ago

Your far right and our far right, pose far greater issues than Islamic extremists, no two ways around that Neil. They hide in plain sight and are tolerated because they are “native Brits” same way our far right are excused because… duh… white supremacist people. Islamic extremists are only “greater in number” because some of the people speaking about them, have the loudest voices and are screaming and showing fear porn into the eyes and ears of regular Joe and Jane citizen, who let’s face it, can be so uninformed about goings on. Joe and Jane Public are trying to be busy living life and doing things they need to do to stay afloat. Does not make it so, as much as some want it to be.

Neil Bamforth
Reply to  jess
6 years ago

Maybe so but Islamic extremists have killed way more in Britain than the far right.

You are right but it’s what’s in peoples heads….

Timmy Mahoney
Reply to  Neil Bamforth
6 years ago

The US can’t make that claim as domestic terrorism is far more of s threat than Islamic terrorism.

jess
Reply to  Neil Bamforth
6 years ago

I think maybe we are looking at Islamic extremism from two different angles and I’ll tell you why. In my mind, Islamic extremists are the ones that are not born here in the USA but came say 9-11 to fly into buildings, because of religion right because we hardly have any Islamic extremists here, it’s mainly good ole boys that follow the babby jeebee that are shooting things up causing havoc and destruction? You consider your own British brethren that practice the Islamic religion to be extreme. So your homegrown terrorists are the exact same as ours are, but you have two different groups, the white Britain first type people and the religion of Islam followers that are extremists but also many of them are native born Brits. In summary, they are all assholes that follow different guide books to the afterlife.

Reply to  jess
6 years ago

“they are all assholes that follow different guide books to the afterlife.” Well, hell’s bananas, and I’ll be toothless in Topeka. That’s the best way I’ve heard this put since I don’t know when. OoohRah girlfriend!

jess
Reply to  Caroline Taylor
6 years ago

Oh Caroline, they don’t have dentists that can help with dentures in Kansas? That is so very sad, do you need us to do a go fund me 😉

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