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 |  Subject: Cool: Disillusioned Britons turn to far-right ‘popular front’  Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:28 pm | |
| Study finds majority of public feel they can no longer trust established political parties
More than two-thirds of the British public feel they are not represented by the main political parties, according to new analysis that warns the breakdown in trust is feeding a widening “popular front” of far-right groups.
A survey of UK attitudes, commissioned by anti-fascist group Hope not Hate, found that 68% of people felt there was not a political party that represented them, up from 61% when the same question was posed last July.
Other findings reveal that more than half of respondents believe the UK’s political system is broken, with just a third expressing confidence it is working.
The results coincide with warnings from Hope not Hate of a broad far-right movement which has coalesced under the “anti-mainstream politics” sentiment and is active online and through street protest, but is non-party or organisation-defined.
The polling, released by the group ahead of publishing its annual report on Monday on the state of the far right, also found that less than 10% of people closely identify with any leading political figure.
By contrast, the reach of far-right personalities can be large, with nearly four in 10 revealing that they had watched or heard one of Tommy Robinson’s videos on social media, although only 6% of Britons have a positive view of the former English Defence League (EDL) leader, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
“We are facing a crisis of growing political mistrust across all sections of the population, with no figure able to galvanise the support they need to overcome this disconnect,” said Nick Lowles, chief executive of Hope not Hate. He added: “A mistrust in political representatives adds potency to a mix of unmet expectations, broken promises, and possible further decline and anger.”
This week’s report will warn that this year may see increased support for far-right groups, following 2018, when demonstrations in London attracted up to 10,000, numbers not seen in decades and potentially not since the interwar period of the 1930s.
The demonstrations were notable, says the report, because they brought together activists from across the far right, including the EDL, Britain First, supporters of the youth movement Generation Identity, the British National party and National Front veterans, as well as Ukip and alt-right figureheads.
“They are happy to march shoulder to shoulder, whatever the cause; something approaching a far-right popular front,” said Lowles.
Although Robinson is an important figurehead, observers have been intrigued that he has not attempted to launch a formal group, or adopted a formalised leadership position within one, as he did with the anti-Islam EDL and Pegida UK in the past.
Lowles also points out that the new far-right grouping is so far at pains to remain leaderless and amorphous. During the aftermath of the yellow vests harassment of Anna Soubry MP outside parliament in January this year, much of the media referred to protester James Goddard as the group’s leader, prompting him to tweet: “The #YellowVestsUK has no leader or political affiliation. They can’t silence us all!”
Aside from Goddard and Robinson, other far-right influencers named in the report include former Breitbart London editor Raheem Kassam, Carl Benjamin (aka Sargon of Akkad) and Markus Meechan, who infamously trained a dog to give a Nazi salute.
Further findings from the poll, conducted by YouGov, found that three-quarters of people think politicians put the interests of big business before people like them, whereas only 7% think that “politicians generally work to represent the views and interests of people like me above big businesses”.
Lowles said that one possible development during the year ahead could be the movement evolving from its current leaderless form to a “more formalised” group under the leadership of someone like Robinson. He added: “We cannot wait for a traditional, united, far-right umbrella organisation to emerge before we act. We need to start connecting the dots now.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/16/britons-disillusion-political-main-parties-turn-to-far-right
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