The Ghosts of Fascists Past

Politics, Policing and the 21st Century 'Far Right'

Combat 18 was as much of an exercise in branding, merchandising and dodgy rock music as it was a neo-Nazi terror group.

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I’ve kept my powder dry on the recent disturbances in England and Northern Ireland. Why? I was on holiday. Secondly, I wanted the dust to settle; there is, as the kids say, a lot here to unpack.

I won’t go over old ground; I’ve written on public order intelligence and policing here. There’s stuff on the pro-Palestine demonstrations here and here. This piece, on football disorder, is also tangentially relevant.

As for my bona fides, I was a policeman for 25 years. At one point, I was a specialist in domestic extremism and politically-motivated crime. I’ve attended more than my fair share of public disturbances, by demonstrators of every political persuasion (and none). I’ve also dealt with with activists from across the spectrum of political extremism.

So let me set out my stall before I continue; I don’t much care about a rioter’s skin colour, beliefs or religion. All disorder should be robustly policed. Yes, ‘robustly’ is a euphemism for physical force. If it escalates? Apply more force, until the King’s Peace is restored (which is why I remain persuaded of the efficacy of constitutional monarchy; it’s the King’s Peace – not Sir Keir bloody Starmer’s).

Now, let’s turn the clock back to the riots of August 2011. A young black man called Mark Duggan was shot by police during a pre-planned operation. The widely accepted narrative is the shooting was the spark igniting an inferno of resentment among London’s disadvantaged, and especially black, communities. They then spread across the UK. As now, there were inaccurate rumours about the initial incident propagated via social media – and a subsequent panic about sinister technologies like BB messenger. And, as usual, some tried to exploit the shooting for their own agenda. Nonetheless, it became clear most of the rioters were apolitical. Eventually, as the violence and looting grew, the issue of Duggan’s death seemed to become a secondary issue - I suspect the kids legging it from JD sports with stolen trainers weren’t particularly troubled over the issue.

Despite the subject of police shootings being deeply sensitive, nobody suggested the 2011 riots were ‘far-left’ disturbances planned by sinister Marxist agitators. This is because (a) that would be inaccurate and (b) for historic and cultural reasons, left-wing causes don’t provoke the sort of emotional response the far right does. Was there a crackdown on people for spreading misinformation about Duggan’s death, or on those with leftish, rabidly anti-police views? No, of course there wasn’t (and nor should there have been). And remember, the 2011 disturbances were significantly more serious than those of 2024.

And what of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the UK, organised by a Marxist group with a nakedly revolutionary agenda (specifically targeting police, leading to officers receiving significant injuries)? Furthermore, those protests flouted otherwise strictly enforced Covid lockdowns.

This isn’t necessarily about ‘two-tier’ policing (a simplification of a complex issue) – it’s more about the spectre of the far-right and the response it conjures in politicians, particularly those on the left. And, perhaps, the way it risks becoming a convenient label to pin on those with ‘problematic’ views on subjects such as culture or immigration. Down that road, in my professional opinion, lies more trouble. The grievance monster demands feeding.

The infamous BLM protest knee-taking. Performative virtue-signalling is one of the luxuries of opposition, especially when police officers are being hospitalised. Until one day, you’re no longer the Opposition.

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I’m not trivialising the threat posed by extreme right wing groups (which in my old world was abbreviated as XRW, which I’ll use throughout this piece). I know from experience how the XRW remains a live issue (particularly in the context of lone-wolf, self-radicalised actors). There’s an unambiguous duty to monitor, investigate and prosecute those committing or encouraging political and racially-motivated criminal offences. I vividly remember watching smoke rising over London from the Admiral Duncan bombing - I was working on the case at the time.

Nonetheless, and perhaps inevitably, there’s also an antifascism industry that enjoys a symbiotic relationship with the XRW - it needs them in order to justify its own existence. Do they ‘gild the lily?’ This perspective is necessary, especially when considering resource deployment; compared to post 9/11 Islamist terrorism, the XRW is a niche problem.

The XRW’s real power is it’s potential impact on ‘community cohesion.’ The possibility of interethnic unrest in the UK terrifies senior police and politicians - it’s quite literally the Pandora’s Box of the apocalypse (I saw this first hand in 2005, during the 7/7 bombings). The State takes this stuff terribly seriously - check out how sophisticated the Home Office is in arranging ‘organised spontaneity’ in order to calm community tensions after terrorist incidents. It’s theatre. A genuine psyop.

Similarly, the performative anti-fascist protests in parts of London reminded me of the ritual banging of pots and pans for the NHS during the Covid era. (Or, as Ed West waspishly commented, ‘LARPing the Spanish Civil War’)

I’m not a tinfoil hat wearer. I worked inside the machine too long for that. I simply understand why the threat from XRW groups is occasionally misunderstood. Too many are stuck in the past, remembering the heyday of the National Front in the 70s and early 80s, or the British National Party in the 1990s to mid-2000s. Even the much-discussed English Defence League (EDL) is moribund and has been for years - the EDL, and ‘Tommy Robinson’ are like ideological blu-tack for hooligans with limited organisational skills.

And, as we shall see, the biggest single difference between the XLW (yes, we have an acronym for loony lefties too) and the XRW – apart from their ideology – are their organisational skills. The 21st Century XLW, largely middle-class, are adept at getting their act together. They have more ‘social capital’ and respectability (even if the society they agitate for involves authoritarianism). The more plebian XRW? Traditionally not. They rely on Millwall-esque ‘everybody hates us and we don’t care’ tribalism.

‘These are not the Nazis you are looking for’; Oswald Mosley and members of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), circa 1936.

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Things change; there’s a new generation of online geeks, edgelords and alt-right types who are far more educated and internet savvy. Someone with an unnatural interest in Parapolitics (I plead guilty) could bore you rigid about the percolative impact of Dark Enlightenment philosophy on contemporary neoreactionary politics. Ideas move downstream, in much the same way as haute couture on a Milanese catwalk eventually influences high street fashion.

Now, as a former domestic extremism investigator, I’m not suggesting rioters who plunder sausage rolls from Greggs are reading Curtis Yarvin or Steve Sailer. Nor are the rioters akin to Mosleyite Blackshirts or NF skinheads of yore. Most of those appearing in court appear to be listless members of the underclass from forgotten-about post-industrial towns. Or buffoons who simply enjoy violence; I’m sure there’s a spectrum. Interestingly, the majority of those arrested, according to CPS stats, live close to the areas where they rioted. This is deeply significant; if you honestly think the modern-day XRW has a network of sleeper cells waiting to spring into action upon receiving a TikTok message, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Yet for activists and politicians, conjuring visions of swastika-tattooed hordes is a useful meme (as is the corollary when right-of-centre populists do the opposite with minority groups).

One school of thought on combating the XRW involves banning right-leaning content, even if it isn’t unlawful (I give you the Kafkaesque Online Harms bill, PREVENT and the UK’s political flirtation with the possibilities of network-level blocking).

The other is to explore why the great unwashed are unhappy in the first place. It’s not easy when they’re committing racially-motivated crime, but in the deconfliction game you play the hand you’re dealt.

An example: the Labour Party, in an earlier incarnation, broke bread with murderers in Northern Ireland, didn’t they? I refer you back to the political lizard brain, courtesy of this chap, who suggested cutting throats was the way forward. Except, er, he’s a Labour councillor.

Now, which of these solutions do you think is easiest for the New Establishment, who are (a) utterly convinced of their world view, (b) view change as problematic and / or unnecessary and (c) find themselves occasionally beholden to politicians obliged to think in terms of five-year electoral cycles?

And so the forbidden becomes edgy, and the edgy eventually becomes mainstream. Put it like this; I wonder if we’ll arrive at the point where Tommy Robinson becomes Britain’s 2020s version of Che Guevara for radical tee-shirt chic. It’s guaranteed to needle the Millennial cohort who are hitting middle-age and positions of authority. Then, if you’re intellectually incapable of processing that, there’s always throwing bricks at Old Bill (plus ca change, eh?)

This liberator of sausage rolls is unlikely to have read Mein Kampf or The Turner Diaries.

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This is why it’s important we remain evidence-based, as a Nazi bogeyman lurking in the shadows is a useful tool for justifying legislation impacting on civil liberties (I’m not alone in thinking there’s a slightly authoritarian whiff about Starmer). The proof of the pudding will be a cool analysis of those arrested and their links (if any) to XRW extremism. As it stands, police chiefs have been spinning a narrative around impressive levels of online mobilisation. Perhaps there is, but I’ll reserve judgement until I see what the post-investigation data looks like. At the moment, much punditry is blinded by the fog of war, spin and wishful thinking.

I must say it again; the phantom of the XRW is more potent than the contemporary reality. This is its true power. So indulge me, as I offer an example of how stereotypes might - just might - influence the attitudes of senior decision-makers.

Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, co-wrote a novel (after his initial retirement and before he returned to The Met) called ‘The Sleep of Reason.’ The story concerns a team of cops chasing a one-dimensional group of XRW terrorists. The story, written from a classic ‘Centrist Dad’ perspective, features ‘two-tier’ policing, civil unrest and online radicalization. Rowley’s hackneyed, cartoonish XRW bad guys (and a nasty populist political party) are telling; I suggest they point towards a ghost in the machine when it comes to Sir Mark’s Establishment worldview (not least after his curt dismissal of criticism over bias in policing). Journalists who’d like to drop a few choice quotes on the Commissioner’s toes at press conferences might like to read the book (Sir Mark doesn’t appear to much like the Press).

I read this so you don’t have to. Amber Rudd liked it, though.

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The unchallenged groupthink endemic in British elites informs the policing of protest and public disorder. Sir Mark Rowley, for example, probably genuinely believes there’s no such thing as ‘two-tier policing’, which inhibits him from acknowledging any sentiment leading to such criticism. What, then, is this groupthink?

Let’s take Sir Keir Starmer, for example - a technocratic centrist but also a self-proclaimed, dyed-in-the-wool, man of the Left. As such, it would surprising if Starmer didn’t feel a visceral loathing of the extreme right, or (perish the thought) see an opportunity for a spot of political manoeuvring. His political tradition venerates the International Brigades in Spain and scrapping with Blackshirts on Cable Street. Antifascism is a proud, mother’s-milk tradition of the British Left.

Therefore, riots centring on race possibly stimulated Sir Keir’s political lizard brain in a way the pro-Palestinian demonstrations (which involved individuals supporting Hamas - a proscribed fascistic terrorist organisation) would not. An astute politician might recognize their own biases and work against them. Or, alternatively, an equally astute politician with a rump of troublesome leftist backbenchers might assuage them by ‘bashing the Fash’. Or, of course, me might consider the seats of cabinet members threatened by pro-Palestinian protest candidates.

Add to this the legacy of the ‘The Blairite Reformation’ (1997-2010). You can read my take on this as far as policing is concerned here. The liberal-leftish managerialists who run the UK are, in their own way, as dogmatic as their blimpish, right-leaning forebears. Which is to say, ‘retired colonels from Tunbridge Wells’ have been replaced by ‘ex-local authority HR managers from Muswell Hill.’ The Conservative government(s) of 2010-2024 either accepted, or failed to reverse, this New Establishment’s ascension. More than a few simply joined it.

The New Establishment’s views on race, immigration and multiculturalism are settled. This means nothing changes, no matter how Balkanized the country becomes. Most senior police officers are products of this Reformation, and their ‘problem, what problem?’ attitude makes people living in forgotten-about places feel, to use modern parlance, ‘gaslit’. Then there’s the issue of softly-softly policing such as this.

This partly (but not wholly) explains allegations of ‘two-tier’ policing. I prefer the term ‘situational policing’ because, as in law, every situation turns on its own merits. Scenario ‘a’ might require discretion. Scenario ‘b’ might require brute force. Public order policing is a numbers game – to successfully manage / contain ‘x’ number of protestors requires ‘y’ number of officers. Violent protests require a 2:1 or even 3:1 personnel advantage. Without that? The police are in containment mode. This isn’t about partiality - it’s about maths.

For example, facing ruinously expensive mutual aid from outside forces and the threat of grave public disorder, the Metropolitan Police effectively surrendered London to pro-Palestine demonstrators in the autumn of 2023. Had it been a smaller demo and as violent as those in Southport? I’m fairly confident they would have been policed differently. And, of course, any criminality on the pro-Palestine marches existed within a bubble of people who weren’t breaking the law. Left-wing demonstrations tend to be extremely well-organised and barrack-room lawyered. Expect to see stewards (often efficient and reasonable), ‘legal monitors’ (seeking to gather evidence against police use of force), ‘citizen journalists’ (ditto), MPs and celebrities.

Within this bubble of respectability, the usual suspects dwell, looking for opportunities to goad police into making using force. This dance is wearily predictable and familiar to anyone who’s ever completed a public order shield run.

Play silly games and win silly prizes (Doggo Edition).

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In my old job, I’d brief senior officers on the motivation of domestic extremists and their tactics. What would I say to them now?

I’d say they were fucked.

It’s okay, I’m not charging a day rate. This advice is entirely free.

These are difficult to predict, spontaneous, ‘post-organisational’ disturbances. Localized, but enabled by small numbers of agitators via social media. Agitators who want nothing, really, but trouble. It’s like a toddler smashing toys for attention - their motives are crude and inchoate. The XRW also amplify misinformation generated by hostile foreign actors (I’m sure there were a few smug troll-handlers at GRU headquarters in Moscow last week). I’d be asking GCHQ to set the Eye of Sauron on the other side (as opposed to, say, lockdown sceptics), but that’s way above my old pay grade.

The intermediate answer? Cleverly-organised covert internet investigation at both national and force level, capable of focussing on critical incidents as they’re reported. Rebuttal is difficult when nobody trusts you (the Chief Constable probably has an establishment chip inserted in his or her brain, remember? One switched on to permanent cognitive dissonance mode). It’s time for chief officers to get real - they need to bring in capable comms people, local commanders (and any special branch staff they have left) to formulate credible messaging and reassurance strategies. White, disadvantaged communities don’t have ‘community leaders’ you can phone when there’s a suggestion of aggro.

Not yet, anyway, because we live in interesting times.

And once a riot kicks off? The police can only do what they do - allow public order cadre commanders to robustly and consistently apply the law and restore the King’s Peace.

But after that? Before the next time? More public-order trained police in forces most likely to be affected by disturbances. Better community policing by motivated, experienced officers capable of proactively engaging with the public and developing trust (and intelligence). More local source unit and intelligence capacity to bake counter-extremism capability into local policing (personally, I’d adapt the old RUC’s local special branch model). The UK is becoming Balkanized. Sectarian. I’d say, like the court jester given freedom to speak truth to royalty, we don’t have to like it, Guvnor, but we police the situation we’re in.

Crackdowns on social media, ‘standing armies’ of gendarmes and restrictions on free speech aren’t real answers. They’re plastering over the cracks. Just like the Government’s ‘strategy’ to handle the small boats crisis - all mouth, no trousers (as my mother used to say). I would argue this stubborn refusal to accept there’s a problem with integration is part of the straitjacket the system’s strapped itself into.

Oh, and one more thing for Sir Keir, while his Government makes hay with the iniquities of the Tories they replaced; the UK Police service of 2024 is a shadow of 2011. Now, there’s a genuine Conservative scandal.

So begin fixing the police, right now. I’ve got a funny feeling you’re going to be needing them.

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