Gordon Brown, prime-minster of the UK from 2008-2010, has described Nick Lowles' book as 'Brilliant and challenging'. I agree. Within its pages, Lowles outlines the history of the rise of the far right in Britain. This is such a useful reminder of the key events that have happened in our own lifetime. We all risk being swamped by the sweep of news that hits the headlines and then fades from memory. Our capacity to manage the future depends on our understanding the patterns that can be traced in the past. Lowles is a good historian and provides that outline - and of course he is also an activist who has been campaigning against the far right for three and a half decades. We need the knowledge that Lowles' book provides - and we also need the spirit of hope that has shaped Nick Lowles' activism.
The Hope Not Hate movement began life in 2004. Here is part of the Wikipedia entry:
Hope not Hate was founded in 2004 by Nick Lowles, former editor of the anti-
fascist Searchlight magazine.[8][9][10] Having experienced street racism as a child, Lowles became involved with the anti-fascist movement as a student volunteer at Sheffield University.[11][12] Lowles had previously worked as a freelance investigative journalist, working for television programmes including BBC Panorama, World in Action, Channel Four Dispatches and MacIntyre Undercover. Between 1999 and 2011 Lowles was co-editor, and then editor, of Searchlight magazine. He was appointed MBE in 2016 for his services in tackling extremism. |
| Nick Lowles - activist, journalist and researcher |
One key inspiring idea behind The Hope Not Hate movement is that we need to listen to the people whose words may be dismissed as racist, Islamophobic or anti-Semitic and understand what has led them to target those with a different skin colour and/or religion. Scapegoating and hatred and violence should not be countered simply by more hatred. We are unlikely to change the hard core of the far right but we can create ways of communicating with those caught up in the tide of anger which malevolent forces on the far right have been orchestrating against migrants and others who are different. We need to expose the flawed character of those at the heart of the far right - and we need to tell a convincing story that explains why people's anger should be directed not at the vulnerable but towards those who have misgoverned this country in their own selfish interests - and left many millions poorer and alienated and without much hope.
Nick Lowles' first chapter is called 'Eleven Days That Shook Britain'. It is a reminder of what far right activists created after the stabbing to death of three Southport children at a Taylor Swift dance class in July 2024 - a cascade of anti-migrant, anti-Muslim hatred. Within hours of the shocking tragedy, the far right social media influencer, Andrew Tate, spoke falsely and told his three million viewers on X, formerly Twitter, in a post that was viewed over 12 million times, that the murderer was 'an undocumented migrant'. Within a couple of days, the local Southport mosque and those trapped inside were under attack. The police, despite a warning from Hope Not Hate, were ill-prepared. Police vans were set ablaze. Over 50 police officers were injured.
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| Southport riots - summer 2024 |
Over the next ten days, more than 25 towns and cities across the country suffered violent demonstrations, with some experiencing multiple nights of trouble. In a video posted online, Danny Tommo, a key lieutenant of the English Defence League founder Stephen Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), called for riots to happen. Lennon's social media reach was and is terrifying. He now has a following of hundreds of thousands of die-hard supporters. In 2023, Elon Musk had allowed him back on X; his posts over five days following the Southport stabbings were viewed 434 million times. Videos with the key-word 'Tommy Robinson' were watched more than 174.8 million times across various platforms over the month that covered his London demo of 40,000 two days before the stabbings and the period of the riots. A Hope Not Hate poll of over 22,000 people at the end of 2024 found that Lennon was liked by 16 per cent of the population and that figure went up to 37 per cent of men between the ages of 25 and 34.
We need to know these statistics and realise the dangers facing our society so we can meet these challenges. Nick Lowles writes that in the aftermath of the Southport murders Lennon repeatedly called Islam a mental-health issue, shared videos of disorder and encouraged people to join future demonstrations. Chants of 'Oh, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy Robinson' were heard at almost all the post-Southport protests.
Even so, there is hope in that there are local heroes who have played a vital part in combatting the far right - and there are a number of dedicated activists who have gone undercover and worked from within far right groups to monitor and reveal their plans. These people and their stories are celebrated in Lowles' chapters. His journey through the far-right demonstrations of the last couple of decades takes in places such as Rochdale, Oldham, Bradford, Burnley, Leeds, Barking and Dagenham where the racist messaging has been pitched at white men. Despite the fact that it is people from ethnic minority communities who experience racism, discrimination and marginalisation, the far right have created a narrative whereby white people and particularly white men - are the real victims.
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| The UK flag has been weaponised by the far right |
Lowles writes:
" HOPE not hate has long understood that in times of economic hardship, community relations become more fragile, and these hardships could brew resentments and frustrations that could be exploited by those seeking to divide."
In response, HOPE Not Hate has sought to build community resilience and cohesion. Lowles' writing identifies the successes in this project. He also emphasises the importance of tackling those issues such as grooming of white girls by men with a Muslim identity which have been avoided as taboo. Lowles argues with passion that 'A society that can't look after its children has failed its first job. Thousands of young girls have been abused in awful conditions, and few have received justice or the ongoing support they deserve.'
Nick Lowles concludes that:
"In many ways, Reform UK is simply a political articulation of the discontent and disconnect in British politics today. Polling analysis by HOPE Not Hate in early 2025 found that the growing group of voters who are turning to Reform are doing so precisely because the Conservatives and Labour have both tried to run the country and failed.
Reform's rise must also be understood in the context of a decline in turnout in elections over the years ... If turnout in elections reflects the health of a democratic system, then ours is on life-support machine.
Now Reform UK, like UKIP and even the BNP before it, has begun mobilising these non-voters ...'
I remember learning that Dominic Cummings had emphasised the importance of persuading alienated non-voters to vote Leave in the 2015 Referendum; that move may well have swung the result. It is telling that Reform UK voters are even more disengaged from politics than the general public. Just 2 per cent trust politicians to tell the truth, while 72 per cent believe Britain is broken and 50 per cent would support a strong leader over a parliamentary democracy.
Do read this remarkable and vital book. We are on the edge of something nasty that would leave this country unrecognisable to the likes of almost all those who will read this blogpost.
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| Financial Times image of a British urban landscape after a violent protest in 2024 |
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