Richard Walker: Post-Brexit Britain proving fertile ground for fascism to grow

But the sight of Britain First vans in my home town on Tuesday gave me such a shock that I don’t feel it would be right to ignore it.

We need to be alert to this organisation’s activities and shine a light on their dangerous beliefs as a warning to those who might otherwise think they batty but harmless.

In case the news escaped you, Britain First is currently launching a “battle bus” tour of Scotland, which on Tuesday visited Ayrshire and then took in the Scottish Parliament and the First Minister’s official residence at Edinburgh’s Bute House.

READ MORE: 'Fascist' Britain First target Bute House and Holyrood amid anger over tour

It’s a pity that Boris Johnson had strangely turned down an invitation to meet Nicola Sturgeon at Bute House today during his two-day visit to Scotland. It might have been eye-opening for him to see the crazies who attracted by his knee-jerk Unionism. Mind you, he may well be all too aware of that already. He hosts cabinet meetings every week.

The two British First vans I spotted in Troon were both adorned with the catchy slogan: SAVE THE UNION STAY UNITED.

Much as I take issue with the arguments in favour of Unionism they don’t in themselves strike fear into my heart. I’m pretty confident independence supporters can muster the arguments to counter the suggestions that Scotland doesn’t have the ability to survive and thrive on its own.

So let’s be clear just how crazy Britain First is. It’s not hard to find out. The organisation’s website makes that all too clear. You’ll find Britain First leader Paul Golding list its clearly racist beliefs and express his frustration at the party being called racist.

Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen

When the website isn’t advertising Golding’s book The Battle for Britain it’s directing visitors to history lessons on what it describes as “British History and Culture”.

There you can learn from Golding that the “British people” are the “Aborigines of the British Isles”, the “most prodigious, the most extraordinary, the most creative, the most ingenious, the most exceptional, the most remarkable tribe to ever grace the annals of history”.

You can also learn about “the British Empire: Building the Modern World” and “The Loss of the American Colonies”. I think you get my gist.

Britain First is not an organisation which any progressive thinker would have anything to do with.

How could it be otherwise when it was founded by former members of the British National. How could it be otherwise when its founders included Jim Dowson, an anti-abortion and far-right campaigner from Airdrie.

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I first encountered Dowson as editor of the Sunday Herald when we revealed his plans to protest outside the homes of leading Scottish politicians at what he described as “the killing of unborn babies in Scotland”.

Dowson was an odious man then and he was still an odious man when he stood in, and failed to gain, the Airdrie seat in the 2021 Scottish election in May.

But Britain First was too nasty even for him when he resigned in 2014 in protest at its initiative to invade mosques.

Dowson quit saying the organisation was attracting “racists and extremists”, which can hardly have come as a shock to him.

Then there was Jayda Fransen, who served as Britain First’s deputy leader from 2014 until 2019 and was convicted on three counts of religiously aggravated harassment in 2018.

Fransen is best known for being called out by Nicola Sturgeon outside a Glasgow polling station in the April election.

A nation rose as one to cheer their television sets when they watch the First Minister tell Fransen: “You are a fascist and a racist”, a description which was undoubtedly accurate on both counts.

So no, I don’t believe it’s right to keep quiet when an organisation like Britain First is seen peddling its message of hate in small Scottish towns, outside our parliament in Edinburgh or in the streets of Falkirk, as it did this week.

I’m worried that post-Brexit Britain encourages an atmosphere in which racism can grow. It’s not just Britain First. Another far-right organisation, Patriotic Alternative, unfurled a “white lives matter” banner at the top of Ben Nevis this week.

This organisation, which wants all non-white people removed from the UK, was set up in 2019 by Mark Collett, who was – surprise, surprise – formerly head of publicity for the British National Party.

OF course Scotland’s politicians, anti-racism campaigners and members of the public join forces to condemn the actions of organisations such as Britain First and Patriotic Alternative.

But political figures elsewhere in the UK are more accepting of a type of racism which is increasingly taking root.

Take recent comments by Nigel Farage describing the magnificent work by lifeboat crews rescuing migrants crossing the English Channel as serving as a “taxi service for illegal trafficking gangs”.

After the comments the RNLI chief executive Mark Dowie had to appeal for an end to verbal abuse and bottles being hurled at volunteer RNLI crew members as they took rescued migrants ashore.

It’s shameful that he actually had to point out that lifeboat crews carry out “humanitarian work of the highest order”.

I still remember with horror the photograph of the lifeless body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach, one of at least 12 refugees who died trying to reach the Greek island of Kos in 2015.

The National was one of the newspapers which carried the truly shocking picture on the front page. We did so in the hope it would shock people into changing their attitudes towards refugees and refuse to allow such a terrible situation to persist. Hours after the photograph was seen around the world it was retweeted thousands of times. But six years later it is hard to point to any positive consequences.

Refugees are still risking their lives in search of a better life. In too many instances they lose that gamble.

Farage’s long and ultimately successful campaign to pull Britain out of Europe has over the years flirted dangerously close to racism.

Yet he was far from contrite about his comments about the RNLI when he raised the subject in an article in yesterday’s Telegraph. He said his “observation” about the RNLI was never intended to be an attack. Perish the thought.

But then he went on to attack the “anti-woke path” the RNLI had “begun to go down”.

If we live in a country where efforts to prevent the dead bodies of toddlers from being found washed up on beaches are regarded as “woke” I honestly despair of its future.

Farage has never been short of a platform for his dubious views but now he has found a new one. He’s been given a show which the beleaguered television channel GB news hopes will reverse a disastrous fall in its ratings.

GB News has demonstrated there are no views so stupid it will not broadcast.

Just this week there was another of the channel’s presenters, “historian” Neil Oliver cheerfully stating he would gladly risk catching Covid if it meant keeping his “freedoms”.

There is still hope for the future. Oliver was roundly condemned. Viewers are deserting GB News – of they were even there in the first place. Donations streamed into the RNLI after Farage’s despicable comment.

But post-Brexit Britain in a place where dangerous ideas can take root. Let’s not turn a blind eye but instead stay vigilant and alert to the dangers of fascism starting to grow.