Spending a lot of time watching the mainstream news on television because you are worried that something awful has happened and you will not know about it (until it bites you on the arse) means you spend a lot of time listening to the ideology of the day. This, alas, is because so much of what passes for news these days is actually filtered through a lens of the prevailing “far-right” ideology; gone are the days when you could turn on the televised news and actually simply find out what is going on. You must, if you are a news junkie, actually supplement the televised news by reading newspaper sites and reading news sites (e.g., AP, Reuters) to be able to ascertain what may actually be happening.
What has become increasingly obvious is that the political inanity and garbage (and I would add hatefulness and viciousness) of the far-right ideology so prevalent in the US often becomes the terminology that is adopted by the MSM and politicians in Britain. The dangers of being “woke” and evils of “cancel culture” are only the latest in a pile of crap that has washed onto British shores propelled across the Atlantic by the so-called special relationship between Britain and the US. But it is more than just the “special relationship” (which literally boils down to being junior partners to the US especially in foreign policy and economic matters); this is part of a general shift to the right internationally and the normalisation of the far-right as part of mainstream right-wing political discourse. But it is not really about the “special relationship” it is about a coincidence of political interests that is at work here! (the fact that sort of speak the same language does not help; nor does the fact that the Atlanticists of British politics tend to be on the right).
The fact that the same marginalised groups of people are under attack in the UK and the US should come as no surprise. Neither should it come as a surprise that the government opposition also rarely opposes these attacks and often gives up ground to them by refusing to take a stand against this continuing oppression. Unsurprisingly, given that the ideology of the far-right has become internationally dominant, there are similarities between the way reality and stories are spun in countries in which the far-right’s ideology has been normalised as part of mainstream discourse. But what is extremely worrying is how so much of this ideology closely resembles that of Umberto Eco’s notion of Ur- fascism that is now accepted as part of mainstream discourse. While I don’t completely agree with him on everything written there it is a cogent reminder of the danger we are facing; it holds as much in the UK as it does in the US; we have moved beyond creeping fascism to be honest.
“We must keep alert, so that the sense of these words will not be forgotten again. Ur-Fascism is still around us, sometimes in plainclothes. It would be so much easier, for us, if there appeared on the world scene somebody saying, “I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Black Shirts to parade again in the Italian squares.” Life is not that simple. Ur-Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to uncover it and to point our finger at any of its new instances—every day, in every part of the world. Franklin Roosevelt’s words of November 4, 1938, are worth recalling: “I venture the challenging statement that if American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land.” Freedom and liberation are an unending task (Umberto Eco).”
As we watch a politically appointed (sorry Repugs, originalism is not a mainstream judicial philosophy), unelected and corrupt Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) undermine the last vestiges of what passed for liberal democracy in the US with the overturn of Roe vs Wade and Casey vs Planned Parenthood (and the elimination of women’s bodily autonomy on a national level), the elimination of affirmative action policies in university admissions (of course, because somehow a country with a long history of racism which is still extremely evident is a post-racist society), and the latest decision about a hypothetical case about a right-wing woman’s website and gay marriages (no, hypothetic situations should never be the basis of a legal decision, it is nonsensical and probably incoherent in any concept of law); it should not be surprising that we are on the lookout for some of that shit to wash up on the shores (as opposed to it being released by the Thames Water Company into our drinking water). The fact that gerrymandering is so appalling in Alabama that even this SCOTUS (ruling in Allen vs Milligan) decided that 24% of the population which is Black cannot have only 1 representative. While the pretences of the US to be a democracy are being rapidly destroyed in many states controlled by far-right Republicans due to gerrymandering and laws disproportionately preventing Blacks and the poorest from voting, Americans should not be surprised that we are watching in concern overseas.
Current Britain and the adoption of American Far-right Discourse
Just as in the US, there are of course attacks on the most marginalised; people of colour, refugees and migrants, LGBT+ people, and women. Britain has some of its own garbage as well; an historical ideology which places the responsibility for poverty on the poor and blames them for not contributing to the great society that is Britain. The US ruling class also has a similar ideology because it is far better for the victims of the system to blame themselves rather than the system which has caused their misery. It is just how that ideology is used and what resonates better with its citizens. But my concern is how far-right (rather than mainstream) ideology makes it way across countries disguised as truth rather than hate.
This week alone I listened to several accusations of cancel culture in reference to criticisms of anti-trans campaigners and courses in schools which prioritise respect and solidarity as though this is somehow anti-British. It is becoming painful to watch the news; I have long avoided the BBC, now Sky is becoming appalling. Literally, how have we come to a situation where people who spread hate and are trying to prevent opponents from speaking have the nerve to say that they are being cancelled when people do not want to listen to them spew hate? As is often the case with the far-right, they accuse others of doing what they are doing.
During Trump’s tenure in power in the US, we were often treated to standard hard right-wingers criticising Trump (think, John Bolton) versus Sebastian Gorka defending Trump. There is nothing resembling a political position that is not on the right and really how bad is it that John Bolton of all people is presented as holding a mainstream political position? How normalised has the far-right been that someone like John Bolton has become a mainstream commentator? I literally had the dubious pleasure of watching an interview during the American election with a white supremacist candidate Mark Finchem who was running for the Arizona Secretary of State insulting and berating the woman journalist covering the elections for the BBC (and that was the last time I watched the BBC reporting on anything serious; casual misogyny is beyond my limit of toleration honestly)
Trump accusing people of colour of being racist when they criticised white supremacists is a classic example of this form of behaviour and the denial of history to justify statues to confederate generals has also crossed the pond when people demanded that statues of people (who became philanthropists) that made their money in the slave trade be removed some government Ministers were appalled that one of these statues (of Edward Colston) was thrown into a river during an anti-racist BLM protest in Bristol. A history of racism, colonialism and imperialism is yet another thing shared by the US and the UK.
The fact that the current British government is on the hard right and contains several Ministers who are on the far-right and who think that “woke ideology and cancel culture” are the biggest threats to British civilisation ever (in other words, Brits forget the Nazis, the real danger is people of colour, women, disabled people, and LGBT+ people), that refugees are “invading” our country (should we be grateful that she – the Home Office Secretary – didn’t describe them as parasitic animals?!), that non-white and Muslim people do not share British culture and values (this was the Home Office Secretary again in the context of her accusation that men from Pakistan and Bangladesh were running grooming gangs despite there being no concrete evidence in a recent report; yes, groomers of young white woman and girls come in all colours and creeds).
As with all right-wing ideology which we find by both the British and US government, there is the attack on refugees and migrants which leads to increasing racism. You must have heard of the British government’s plan to send refugees crossing the Channel on small boats from France to Rwanda; in fact, it was one of the 5 pledges that Rishi Sunak made in a major speech. It seems that people arriving in small boats are at the same level of urgency as the cost-of-living crisis (inflation), the lack of economic growth and the crisis in the NHS.
This policy is combined with the appalling conditions that refugees and asylum seekers have to live under if they make it here (including not being able to work despite the “labour shortage”) to disincentivise refuges and migrants from crossing the channel. Current British law only allows people from certain countries to get legal political asylum (e.g., Ukraine, Hong Kong; Syria and Afghanistan were on the list, but no more) and the only way that some refugees can apply for asylum is by entering the country illegally. Of course (just like in the US), it is all the fault of people traffickers rather than the ridiculous laws that only allow people from certain countries to enter legally. The Channel crossing is dangerous, but it would not have to happen if all people could apply legally to enter the country. To describe the situation as an invasion (thank you Home Office Secretary) is absurd; taking into account the 300,000 people from Hong Kong and Ukraine, 21,000 Afghan national, UNCHR resettlement schemes of 26,366 and 78,000 asylum seekers, we are clearly not being overrun by refugees and migrants. The use of this disgusting rhetoric is unconscionable and of course, there have been attacks on places where asylum seekers are housed by fascist protesters.
The attack against trans people has been continuous, but the refusal of the UK government to pass the Scottish Gender Recognition Act (which allowed self-identification of gender from age 16 above) for Royal Assent to allow it to become law was a clear government attack not only against a political opponent (Nicola Sturgeon) but against trans rights. It didn’t help that the head of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, does not think that 16-year-olds should be able to gender self-identify. Yes, Keir Starmer also said that Black Lives Matter in Britain is a moment, not a movement. In other words, I really don’t see him actually standing with oppressed people if/when a Labour Party under his control comes into power. While yes, it is better than the rabid psychopaths of the current Tory party, it is by no means sufficient … desperate measures and all that … To add to the unpleasantness, fascists (yes, we have them here as well) and anti-trans “feminists” have come to an agreement and are protesting outside of Drag Queen Story hours around England because they are “grooming children” rather than teaching inclusion and solidarity.
Contrary to the belief that the issue of abortion has been settled in the UK following its legalisation in Northern Ireland in 2019, this is not the case. Recently, a 44-year-old woman and mother of 3 was sentenced to 28 weeks in prison following her obtaining medication for a very late term medication abortion (32-34 weeks) during the pandemic; rather than being concerned about how dangerous this could have been to her life, the court used a law from 1861 which criminalised abortion against her. Normally you can get an abortion up to 6 months in Britain, but it is done in an hospital after 10 weeks to ensure the mother’s health is protected. Despite the objections of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives, she was criminalised and sentenced to prison. The reason for her sentencing is that in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) abortion is still criminalised based on a law from 1861 called the Offences against the Person Act which classified abortion as a crime (see sections 58 and 59 below) which forms the basis of much of British law.
“Section 58 - offence of using drugs or instruments to procure abortion, replaced section 6 of the Offences against the Person Act 1837, and provides:
58. Every woman, being with child, who, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, shall unlawfully administer to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or shall unlawfully use any instrument or other means whatsoever with the like intent, and whosoever, with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman whether she be or be not with child, shall unlawfully administer to her or cause to be taken by her any poison or other noxious thing, or unlawfully use any instrument or other means whatsoever with the like intent, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable . . . to be kept in penal servitude for life . . .[24]
Section 59 - offence of supplying or procuring poison or instruments for the purpose of criminal abortion, and provides:
59. Whosoever shall unlawfully supply or procure any poison or other noxious thing, or any instrument or thing whatsoever, knowing that the same is intended to be unlawfully used or employed with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman, whether she be or be not with child, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable . . . to be kept in penal servitude.”
When the 1967 Abortion Law was passed, it never decriminalised abortion and allowed it in certain circumstances. This law did not apply to Northern Ireland, but a law was passed by the UK parliament (there was no working Northern Ireland Assembly) in 2019 Specifically:
Across the United Kingdom, abortion is permitted on the grounds of:
- risk to the life of the pregnant woman;
- preventing grave permanent injury to her physical or mental health;
- risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family (up to a term limit of 24 weeks of gestation); or
- substantial risk that, if the child were born, they would "suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped."
While it is obvious that abortion must be decriminalised (in other words, removed from the 1861 Violence Against the Person Act), the Tories have refused to discuss this and argue that the issue of abortion is settled in law. One can only hope that when they are removed from power, that this decriminalisation takes place. When I asked the Labour MP from local area (I am the women’s officer in the constituency) whether he will stand with those that can get pregnant and decriminalise abortion, I got the “it is a matter of conscience how people vote” response rather than of course I will stand together with you.
Finally, last but not least, there are the attacks on Trade Union’s right to strike, the right to protest (leaving it to the police and the Home Office secretary to determine if a protest is too loud and disruptive to be allowed) which not only constitute attacks on the right to protest, but also the right to freedom of assembly and speech. One of the main points of the Brexit agenda, the elimination of European Human Rights Law needs to be disassembled here; contrary to the stupidity advanced by Brexiteers, these laws were not eliminated when the UK left the EU as they were adopted into law during Blair’s period as PM. The same ignorance (and hate) that is promoted as “making sense” seems to pervade right-wing political discourse no matter what country you are in.
Britain’s own garbage
This is not to say that Britain does not have its own poisonous hate; it does. Just like in the US, the society is institutionally and systemically racist, misogynist, disablism, homophobic and transphobic. As such, people of colour, women, disabled people and LGBT+ people are oppressed in the society; this means that there is systemic political, social and economic injustice against these marginalised people. I’ve discussed a lot of it above,
In some senses, we can be grateful that much of the garbage that comes from the US comes absent of the religious bigotry in which it is so often couched in the US. However, the absence of the “religious bigotry” in Britain does not make it less pernicious or divisive; because instead of basing it on what some religious bigot says that it says in the Bible or their version of what Jesus says, they have to come up with other excuses for their divide and rule hate. Most often, this boils down the fact that there are people who simply refuse to contribute to the society or do not understand the rules of “British civilisation.” So, anything that they believe is a threat to their understanding of British civilisation becomes suspect; this includes refugees and migrants, disabled people, unemployed people, people of colour, LGBT+ people and more recently we have begun to see attacks on abortion rear their head.
This is a similar argument to the one Eco talks about “traditionalism” and how something that doesn’t fit into this narrow understanding (often racist, misogynist, disablist, homo and transphobic) is a danger to the civilisation itself. This is very similar to divide and rule ideology that has always been a part of how the ruling class continues ruling.
If your society is institutionally and systemically racist, disablist, misogynist and homophobic and transphobic, your police will be the same. Also, just like in the US, since the police are essentially a microcosm of the society as a whole, they and their policing are systemically racist, misogynist, homophobic and transphobic; the fact that public inquiries have determined this and it is on the record, does not change the situation. Understanding what the role of the police is, makes that easy to understand; the role of the police is enforce the laws of society which reflect the class basis of the society. In many senses, the police force reflects a microcosm of the society itself. Even more so, given that the police have a bit more power than those they police, people attracted to the job often are people that abuse that power given the ability to do so. This is a dangerous combination and everyone says it will require a root and branch clean-up of the police; we are still waiting.
Like in every capitalist society there is also systemic discrimination of a class nature. In Britain, austerity was far more complete than in the US. The introduction of austerity in Britain forced the costs of the 2007-8 economic crisis onto the backs of the working class and was especially hard on women (84% of austerity measures landed on the backs of women; especially women of colour) and disabled people who are more dependent upon the benefits system. The transformation of the benefits system into one which actually subsidises the poor wages offered in paid employment. Much of the attack was based on forcing people into work that pays poorly in order to get crappy wages which are then supplemented by benefits. Disabled people were put through assessments to determine if they were disabled enough to avoid work. Benefit sanctions became part of the system which were given against those that did not find work. Accusations against those on benefits that it was their fault that wages were too low to survive on became normalised despite it making no sense as though workers can set their wages and the number of hours they can. The notion of the working poor has become normalised (both in the US and the UK).
Then recently there was the revival of that old chestnut blaming the economic crisis on the victims of the economic crisis. We’ve seen this a lot recently. Liz Truss blaming the working class for not having enough graft (so it is the fault of the working class rather than the lack of capitalist investment that the British economy was not growing); so the British working class is lazy and doesn’t work hard enough. The latest pile of crap is that disabled people and women were lazy as they refused to work (we are in a labour shortage and clearly it means that disabled people and women with children and other caring responsibilities are just lazy and refuse to contribute to this great society). The Tories have proposed forcing single mothers and home carers (with no childcare and social care to replace them) back to work along with the disabled who are also clearly lazy (note reasonable adjustments are necessary at workplaces to allow disabled people to work).
Again, the damage caused by austerity and neoliberal ideology (which led to increased privatisation of state services and attacks on the welfare state) is reflected not only in appalling wages and the destruction of working conditions, but also in the destruction of the social welfare safety net which was created to provide some protection against the inherent instability of the capitalist system by providing benefits for unemployment, housing support, disability benefits, support to cover costs of heating, etc has made life extremely hard for the majority of British people due to the cost of living crisis which has impacted costs of food, housing, energy, transport costs, etc in a manner far worse than that of other advanced capitalist countries.
But that is no excuse for the level of hate and far-right poison that has been unleashed on Britain. Yes, it is good old fashioned divide and rule that the British ruling class is so good at doing; but these terms and the attacks on refugees and migrants, on LGBT+ people, on disabled people and women are far more reminiscent of those that are fascist rather than the usual crap that we have to live with here on this blighted island …