As so-called ‘Christian Nationalism’ begins to grip the far right in Britain, Mark Scholl asks how long Paul Golding’s Britain First can struggle on with support ebbing away to the newly energised and potentially dangerous ‘Christian’ UKIP under Nick Tenconi.
It wasn’t quite the dead parrot of Pythonesque fame but multiple departures from UKIP at leadership and membership levels almost saw it die an unseemly yet timely death in 2024.
But no. Riding into the fray on his “Christian” Crusader horse came Nick Tenconi who, by often questionable means, has inserted himself into UKIP as leader and pretty much taken it over. At least for now. Tenconi is a wretched example of something fascist watchers have noticed over the last year; the tendency to dress fascism and racism up in theological terms. From Tommy Robinson acolyte Danny Thommo to Hatun Tash to a northern loudmouth calling himself ‘Bob the Builder’ at Speaker’s Corner in London, a new violent, disruptive, hugely extreme and unrepresentative front of ‘Christian’ militants is pushing forward.
Although not under any specific leadership, this group of unpleasant individuals is interested in only one thing: religious war. On the streets. Across the Middle East. And beyond. Their DCCI Ministries (Defend Christ Critique Islam) is small but highly active. From barging into Muslims at Speaker’s Corner, to trying to drown them out, to consistently interrupting and generally making a nuisance of themselves, this effort is now being joined by extremists like Nick Tenconi, himself not averse to turning up at Speaker’s Corner chanting ‘Christ is King’. And, surprise surprise, GB News, every bigots favourite TV channel, is getting in on the act with much talk about so-called ‘Christian values.’
It goes without saying that the behaviour of these characters is far from any understanding of Christianity that most thinking people would recognise. There’s no love. No humility. No ‘blessed are the peacemakers’. Much preferred are cherry-picked quotes from Old and New Testaments about the wrath of God and waging war against one’s perceived enemies. There is no attempt to turn the other cheek, listen to or accept the other, to pray, to humble oneself before God. No, these people are wannabe Crusaders and, worse, violent fantasists. But they’re not playing dress up anymore. They’re deadly serious and violence will be the inevitable result.
For some time, the only people on the fascist right that were peddling this rubbish were Paul Golding, his ex-colleague Jim Dowson, whose puritanical take on biblical matters hasn’t taken him very far, and Jayda Fransen, Golding’s abused ex. All can now arguably be seen as bit part players in this modern-day tragedy. All now appear to have been outmanoeuvred by Nick Tenconi.
Tenconi, of course, is about as far from being a saint as you could get. Violent, aggressive, exposed as a swinger and love cheat, some might say a sex pervert, he recently turned up at a meeting in support of asylum seekers in Aldershot with a group of thugs and tried, and failed, to shut the event down. His blasphemous behaviour appalled local Christians, but such niceties will not dissuade him from pursuing his violent agenda. Thrown out of Southampton as a result of anti-fascist mobilization, Tenconi, ego to the fore, has vowed revenge and plans to march through the city in the new year.
Up in Manchester, or down in Kent, or wherever Paul Golding is currently grifting, it’s panic mode. Golding has been pretty much written out of the script. Previously the sole player on the far right to routinely sign off his social media posts with ‘OCS’ (Onward Christian Soldiers) he’s now surplus to requirements. No longer the go-to guy for Christian bigotry on the far right, he can only look in wonder and amazement at Tenconi who, in less than 12 months, has gone from nobody to somebody by stealing Golding’s religious pretensions and remoulding them in Tommy Robinson’s image.
As Searchlight has reported, Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) now claims to be turning to Christ, taking instruction from a Pentecostalist preacher in prison. And why not? There’s lotsa filthy lucre to be suckered out of the faithful. From Yaxley-Lennon’s point of view, the more divisive the better; he can sell this to his current base of supporters and donors as well as appeal more broadly and potentially rake it in across the Atlantic.
The thing is, Robinson knows that politics itself is limited. Tenconi probably knows this too. They’re seeing how good the Pentecostalist prosperity-type ministries at home and abroad are at harvesting their supporters money. The irony, of course, is that in the UK, about 80% of Pentecostalists are from Africa. How this might sit with white supremacists and thugs seeking to clothe themselves in religious garb one can only imagine.
US Pentecostalism is a multi-billion-dollar industry and many of its leaders – Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis – are both hugely rich and staunch supporters of an ultra-conservative morality (as long as it doesn’t affect them), and waging wars abroad via US foreign policy. They are the children of the 9/11 anti-Muslim reaction and specifically connected to the Trump movement. They might claim to be for America First, but their foreign policy is to fund, aid and influence anti-Muslim efforts across the globe.
They’re a sort of militant tendency within the Trump government with constant demands for more power and recognition. In the UK Tenconi and co see themselves as the militant tendency to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Ltd. They, like their transatlantic inspirers, seek to develop a far-right religious movement that can affect UK politics and, in the process, make them rich.
They also hope, of course, to make Britain white and deport all Muslims. They’re going to need a great deal of divine intervention to square this circle. The vast majority of Britain’s practising Christians won’t touch them with a barge pole. Other faiths will see them for what they are; haters, bigots and troublemakers to be shunned. In a multiracial, diverse society, however one looks at it, Tenconi and friends are an anachronism but can cause a great deal of trouble and indeed have already started to threaten violence, even while their eyes are fixed on the main chance.
As for Golding, his time is running out. Britain First membership has for some time been frozen at an unsustainably low level and is now shrinking. Claims that he has 25,000 paid-up members are utterly risible. Now, even loyal members are increasingly fed up with the incessant pleas for funds whose sole purpose is to keep Golding and Simon living comfortably. ‘National’ demonstrations pull out only a few dozen supporters. Morale is at an all time low. The game is up.
Britain First is the new dead parrot on the far right.