Well, there you go then! That seems to be the conclusion of at least some on the far right regarding arrests and charges arising from the Notting Hill Carnival. Which ‘there’ this data is meant to lead us to is far from clear. There you go then… assemble a huge, predominantly black crowd and there […]
United front blocked Le Pen’s path to power
Scaremongering about a so-called left threat failed to panic French voters. Instead, writes ROGER PEARCE, the majority set aside their differences, voting against Le Pen’s toxic xenophobia and so stopping her taking a step closer to the presidency As part of her effort to disguise a reinvention of French fascism, Marine Le Pen renamed the National Front […]
2024 European elections – a paradigm shift for the far right
This article originally appeared here on 14 June. It has been updated to include the far right realignments in the European Parliament following the elections. It also appears in the Summer 2024 issue of Searchlight, Shock gains for far-right parties right across Europe saw France face a snap election and Belgium’s PM resign. Although the […]
CAR26: the puzzle that is former UKIP Leader Lois Perry’s company
When Lois Perry video-thanked UKIP members for somewhat unexpectedly electing her as their new leader, she revealed that her focus would be on “future, family, food”. In fact, a fourth “F” would dominate her immediate plans – fleeing for the hills. What spooked her into quitting after mere days at the helm remains unclear. It can’t […]
Down in the UKIP snake pit …
If chopping and changing leaders were a competition, UKIP would be running the Tories a close second, though the calibre of its candidates is even less savoury. Tony Peters charily inspects the vipers slithering in and out of the pit. This article first appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of Searchlight When the previous issue of […]
Settle back and enjoy the sideshow
This article first appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of Searchlight The 2024 UK election saw far-right candidates bomb spectacularly but, warns PAUL GALE, even as we delight at the squabbling and scrapping among the factions, we must not get too comfortable and must stay alert to the gains made by Reform UK The British […]
National Rebirth Party attacks ‘nazi nonces’
National Rebirth Party leader Alek Yerbury and his partner Katie Fanning have ramped up their bitter public dispute with rival nazi outfit Patriotic Alternative, of which Yerbury was once himself a member. Yerbury has already seriously cheesed off Patriotic Alternative leader Mark Collett by ridiculing PA’s strategy of building white homeland communities, and then successfully […]
Anti-fascists roll back most dangerous far-right upsurge in decades
This article appears in the Summer issue of Searchlight On Monday 29 July, a teenage boy armed with a knife entered a Taylor Swift-themed holiday dance class in Southport and attacked children and adults. Three young girls were killed, others seriously wounded. It was a terrible crime and a dreadful tragedy. A time for grief […]
Britain First’s Grift Too Far
MARK SCHOLL investigates Britain First’s campaign to whip up a race hate storm in Stoke, which culminated in a planned mosque being attacked in the recent riots. “The entire area where the cemetery used to be, where our ancestors are still buried, has been turned into a car park for Mosque goers.” So screams a […]
Fear and grifting on the British far right
As the dust begins to settle on the right-wing riots that plagued the country at the start of the month, so the begging bowls are being brought out for another round of shameless fascist grifting. First out of the blocks was Britain First leader Paul Golding (above left). In an absurd video posted yesterday and […]
100 years ago: a grim anniversary Italy’s far right leaders would prefer to forget
By Alfio Bernabei On 16 August 1924 the body of Italian Socialist MP Giacomo Matteotti was found in woods about 15 miles outside Rome. The five men who had kidnapped and killed him on 10 June, all identified within days and all members of Mussolini’s secret police, had agreed not to disclose the place where […]
Plymouth racist rioters brilliantly taken apart by judge.
Two racist rioters were brilliantly taken apart by their sentencing judge in Plymouth. John Cann (left) and Ryan Bailey (right) both pleaded guilty to violent disorder and appeared at Plymouth Crown Court for sentencing. Judge Robert Linford rounded on Cann telling him that according to his police interview he discussed with them “about the better […]
The curse of Searchlight, pt 2024 – more UKIP resignations
It seems our UKIP-related posts of the last couple of days have prompted yet further desertions from the upper echelons of the party. Dr Chris Ho (pictured left) a Glasgow-based doctor who had been the party’s Health and Social Care Spokesman, was so dismayed at our story that leader Nick Tenconi had a conviction for […]
UKIP opens door to Yaxley-Lennon and anti-Islam, Christian crusade
Back in 2018, UKIP began tearing itself apart when party leader Gerard Batten appointed Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, as the party’s ‘grooming’ adviser. Batten, who had only recently become leader, was passionately anti-Islam and wanted to move the party firmly in that direction. But an association with the likes of Yaxley-Lennon was too much […]
Are Robinson and Farage ‘Russian assets’?
Remember we mentioned a couple of days ago that there was wild talk from the fringe about Tommy Robinson possibly being a Kremlin asset. You thought we were making it up, didn’t you? Well, it just became a bit less wild or fringe – and it’s got Yaxley-Lennon twitching again. Former MI6 agent Christopher Steele […]
The Fugitive’s sweat-free adventures in the great Mediterranean outdoors
’Tommy Robinson’ seems to have calmed down just a little. In his latest video missive, he has at least for a moment lost that eyes-popping-out look that is so reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenneger in the Martian near-vacuum in Total Recall. It’s all the clean living, apparently. There was a time, he tells us, that he […]
Is it time Katie Hopkins was arrested?
It is reported that a Chester woman has been arrested for an online post containing inaccurate information about the identity of the suspect accused of killing three young girls in Southport. She is alleged to have posted it on the day of the killings. So, let us not forget that one of the very first […]
Putin on the Ritz…
Internet-monitoring police and intelligence agencies have, according to some journalistic sources, uncovered evidence that Russian trolls and bots have infiltrated the British far right on social media in order to foment rioting and anti-Muslim / anti-immigrant sentiment more generally. Reports Bloomberg: ”Along with homegrown posts, UK authorities now suspect foreign state-backed actors are using bots […]
That sinking feeling…
This is where it sinks in. Your brief sits you down and says the prosecution have got loads of cctv and bodycam footage showing you bang at it. The sentencing starting point for violent disorder is 3 years. It goes up for aggravating features – like wearing a mask, or carrying a weapon. But you […]
A historic day for the anti-fascist movement
Searchlight send its heartfelt greetings to all those who worked so hard to pull off Wednesday’s remarkable mobilisations around the country and to those who turned out in response. Sadly, the movement was caught unawares by the events which unfolded so rapidly after the Southport killings, but in the days since anti-racists have rallied and […]