In this broken democracy – which is no democracy at all – seats are won and power secured in a loop; the media manufactures fears and blames powerless, invariably foreign, scapegoats and the careerists bang the drum of security and ethno-nationalism. This is the state of politics in the United Kingdom today. It is much the same across Europe and even more so over the Atlantic in the United States. Democracy in any meaningful sense has died and we are right now in the rapid descent into the abyss of totalitarianism and fascism – both coming a-creeping like saviours.
Normalisation
This comes about through a process known as normalisation, in which the seemingly absurd is made acceptable over a protracted period of time. Wealthy and powerful corporate agendas, either by ownership or by influence, are packaged by the media and sold to an increasingly docile and depoliticised public – steadily changing public opinion. Ultimately this shift in opinion creates a rising political demand not being met by the establishment political parties.
Safeguarding the Independence Movement
One of the chief reasons I am so opposed to British nationalism is because of the fascism, bigotry, and racism that appears everywhere to be at its heart. This is where I am being consistent to my logic and line of reasoning: Why would I think any differently of Sìol nan Gàidheal when it is so obviously as fascist, racist, and intolerant as British nationalism? I can understand why people think that by excluding this ideology we are making ourselves intolerant, but this is a paradox we must answer.
Understanding ‘Muslim Grooming Gangs’
The grooming of vulnerable children for sexual exploitation is an undeniable reality, and it is a fact that in most of the cases uncovered in England the majority of the perpetrators have been men from British-Pakistani backgrounds. But to limit our analysis of this crime to the criminals’ religions and ethnicities singularly fails to grasp the true nature and scope of the problem. It ignores the facts that most sex offenders who commit crimes against children are lone white males and that organised grooming for sexual exploitation is nothing new.
Facing Down British Nationalism
The presence of the Dutch far-right leader, Geert Wilders, along with representatives from other European far-right organisations, at the London rally makes it clear that the rise of the right is not simply a problem of the British white working class. Neo-Nazi and far and ultra-far-right groups are gaining strength and popular and political momentum right across the northern hemisphere; from central Russia, across Europe, to the rust belt of the United States. These groups and organisations are in communication, learning from and influencing one another.
The Trojan Mare: Islamophobic Racism and Muslim Women
Public discussion and media emphasis since 9/11 (2001), switching racial discourse from diverse racial signifiers to Islam, has been found to bear down heavily upon Muslim women. This essay will examine the use of women and the female body in Islamophobia as it is evidenced primarily in Ireland, critically analysing it through the framework of Said’s Orientalism, the Racial State of Goldberg, and Yuval-Davis’ thesis of women as the reproducers of the nation.
Britain and Greater English Nationalism
Brexit is merely the latest development of this ugly racist British nationalism. In the past two decades ethno-nationalism and racism have played a growing part in British politics, forcing both the Conservatives and Labour to lurch to the nationalist right to win support from an entire section of the British public that has had its mind and soul poisoned by a really horrible and bitter angry nationalism. We might even be correct in seeing in Brexit a completion of what was begun in 1982 with the limiting of British citizenship to those “born here.”
Hatred Rising: Britain’s Real Toxic Nerve Agent
People the likes of Labour’s Jim Dempster, Hugh Gaffney, and Davie McLachlan, and the Tories’ Robert Davies and Alastair Majury ought to be held personally responsible for their racism and bigotry, but we must acknowledge that this is all part of a much larger thing. I can do as I usually do at this point and remind people that this stems from ideas of racial supremacy at the heart of British nationalism – which it does – and that these passions are being stirred up by politicians for political purposes – which they are, but it is bigger than this.
Random Public Journal 