THE riotous events of the last few weeks in parts of Britain are a potent reminder of two important facts.

First, fascism is rarely dormant if there are supporters in the press, the hard right of the Tory Party, and Reform UK who see an advantage in encouraging this poisonous creed.

Second, when faced down by the mass action of the people, fascists reveal their essential cowardice.

A reminder of this second point was when recently, tens of thousands of anti-fascists and anti-racists turned out to protest peacefully on the streets of England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Scotland was free of the far-right mobs), quailing the bully boys from appearing.

Lee Anderson: Man of Steel … or Knob of Butter?

Of course, the personal courage of those seeking to exploit the wave of far-right yobbery is also well documented. To quote the introduction from The Twilight Zone, “Submitted for your approval,” Reform UK MP Lee Anderson, who (as a Conservative), backed the Tory Rwanda Bill this January after being teased by Labour MPs in the No lobby.

“I went into the No lobby to vote No, because I couldn’t see how I could support the Bill … I got into the No lobby, I spent about two or three minutes with a colleague in there. The Labour lot was all giggling and laughing and taking the mick and I couldn’t do it. In my heart of hearts, I could not vote No. I walked out, I’ve abstained. I wanted to vote No, but when I saw that lot in there laughing, there’s no way I could support them above the party that’s given me a political home.”

Truly, a man to be reckoned with; I would say Churchillian, but only in the sense of the many fake quotes supposedly uttered by the great man, churned out frequently by the right online, most commonly, “You have enemies? Good. It means that you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” The stuff that permanently outraged Spectator columnist and Jordan Peterson cosplayer, Douglas Murray, appears to wear as a badge of honour.

The collective bottle-jobbing of crypto-fascists when confronted by public disgust en masse shouldn’t come as a surprise, as events from London’s East End 88 years ago clearly demonstrate.

A lesson from history?

Back in autumn 1936, the British Union of Fascists (BUF) had advertised a march to take place on Sunday October 4, the fourth anniversary of the organisation’s founding by Oswald Mosley, a singularly dislikeable figure, who fortunately turned out to be more Roderick Spode (see PG Wodehouse’s Black Shorts leader) than a British Fuhrer.

Dressed in their black shirts, the BUF were to goose-step (or whatever was Mosley’s version of said marching style) through the heart of the East End, singling out the Jewish areas for their particular brand of attention.

Not unlike their EDL descendants, though the EDL did without the discipline or neat uniforms; Cross of St George vests, “patriotic” tattoos and six-packs of high-strength lager being the preferred rig-out of Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon’s praetorians.

No Pasaran!

However, only up to 5,000 dedicated fascists actually turned up, mirroring recent events where there were far fewer bone-headed miscreants who heeded Tommy Robinson’s siren call, despite being amplified in weedling fashion by GB News, under the guise of so-called reportage.

Similarly, the BUF was decisively seen off by locals, union members, and anti-fascists numbering 100,000 from to 310,000, demonstrating the strength of feeling against Mosley’s Nazi knock-offs, who had to rely on coddling police protection before diverting their parade to Hyde Park. Two-tier policing, anyone?

Wireless vans and a spotter plane were used to keep an eye on events as they unfolded and 6,000 to 7,000 police monitored the march, including the entire Metropolitan Police Mounted Division.

The forces of law and order played a distinctly equivocal part in the affair, arresting far more anti-fascists than followers of Mosley (although admittedly there were a lot more of them), and going so far as to tear up the flag of Jewish ex-servicemen’s Movement Against Fascism.

Reports revealed during the 2024 unrest that “far-right thuggery” (as Keir Starmer called it) is treated with relative leniency (“letting off steam” having drunk too much, etc) compared to teetotal Islamist extremists who are swiftly classified as terrorists.

Incidentally, at what became within a short time to be called the battle of Cable Street, anti-fascist Muslim Somali sailors (part of their country was occupied by Mussolini, the other a protectorate run by the British empire) joined the Londoners to fight the BUF. Something of this community spirit has also been demonstrated across the last few weeks.

And, if another lesson from history is required, readers may want to note that on January 15 1934, Daily Mail proprietor Viscount Rothermere wrote an article for his paper titled “Hurrah for the Blackshirts!” Plus ca change, as the saying goes, despite the Mail’s belated realisation that their readers might not be as gung-ho for the extreme right they believed, at least when the police are on the receiving end of mob violence.

“By their deeds you will know them” — Matthew 7:16.