It was heartbreaking to see so many thousands of hoodwinked attendees at Saturday’s Unite The Kingdom (UTK) rally in central London. The event, described by organisers as a demonstration for “national unity, free speech and Christian values”, was in fact soaked in transnational far-right mobilisation and activism.
Not every person attending was a racist, but the rally was racist. Mass deportation on the basis of skin colour or religion is racist. Naive Black and Brown contingent members who joined the march were mocked online by UTK supporters as not being “one of us”. Widely shared clips showed humiliation and sexualisation of women of colour – by other women.
Heartbreakingly, so much of the country is knee-deep in this contagion. Sections of mainstream media are complicit in disseminating the poison of the extreme right, some in the name of so-called “balance”. Previously progressive broadcasters betray sections of their audience by claiming they are “just saying what everyone is thinking”.
Two years after the riots that ripped apart the UK, silence is not an option when racists and xenophobes at the UTK rally can continue whipping up hate and division. Labour and the Tories should be embarrassed that the far right’s traction is based not on facts, but on making people feel seen. Their disgraceful complacency has left this country staring into the abyss.
