“Victory is claimed by all, failure to one alone.”
It seems the Tacitus words about war don’t translate to the riots that rocked Britain this summer. Many are to blame – but no-one’s claiming responsibility. The media and campaigners have reported an anti-migrant “hostile environment” created by a Tory government using the “boat-people” threat to distract from their cock-eyed policies. Aided and abetted by the anti-migrant rhetoric of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.
There’s also social media that amplifies racist and factually wrong comments, helped along by Putin’s online agents who do the same thing only better.
Then there’s the “extreme right”: fascists stirring up the racism and putting jackboots on the ground.
Like everyone else, all the extreme right leaders deny any involvement in the riots. After all, who wants ten years in prison on a rioting conviction?
The BBC among others report that no single group was responsible for the riots.
So the riots “just happened”? An amorphous nationwide right-wing mob reacting spontaneously to the awful murder of three little girls in Southport by, they claimed, a Muslim migrant who was actually a non-Muslim British citizen?
Is it possible that the extreme right” is more organised than it admits? Here’s a round-up of the usual suspects in the North East.
Since the 1970s the north has been an “area of interest” to racist organisations, probably because its poverty should make it fertile ground for racist scapegoating.
The area was a target for recruitment by the National Front (NF) which in the 1970s was the fourth largest party in Britain. Many of today’s groups are descended from the NF and its successor the British National Party (BNP).
The aims of the extreme right groups are pretty much the same: an all-white Britain with expulsion of all people of colour, especially Muslims.
The only policy difference is that some support Israel while others persist with traditional anti-semitism, complete with swastika tattoos.
The groups’ identities are built around leaders who are narcissists unencumbered by talent but handy with a megaphone. Hence the splintered nature of the extreme right scene now.
The first riot occurred in Southport on 30 July after a protest about the murders. Then they spread across the UK for five days, some more successful than others. Al Jazeera’s map of the disturbances shows a cluster in the North East: Sunderland, Hartlepool, Darlington and Middlesbrough. While the protest in Doncaster drew one solitary soul.
Tommy Robinson and the undead EDL
The English Defence League (EDL) was established in 2009, its de facto leader Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. It drew recruits from the football hooligan firms and the BNP. Robinson left, claiming he couldn’t control member violence.
Robinson went on to set up the UK branch of Pegida, a European anti-Islam party. After being banned from Twitter, Elon Musk invited him back to X where he now has 800,000 followers.
Robinson addressed a rally of between 20,000 and 30,000 in Trafalgar Square, London on 27 July. He then flew to Cyprus for a holiday while the riots raged.
The EDL folded ten years ago after differences over “merchandise”,ie. cocaine. According to anti-racism campaigners Hope Not Hate they “marched on their marching powder”. But despite claims that the EDL is finished, their name pops up everywhere in coverage of the riots.
There are news reports that the EDL faces a “ban” despite being defunct.
Merseyside police have identified EDL as a key element in the Southport riot.
The Sunderland Defence League was a local spin-off of EDL, its leader Billy Charlton who has an interesting criminal record including spreading a paedophilic image and dangerous driving. He was not seen at the Sunderland riot.
The trial of Sunderland rioter Josh Kellet-Washington heard how he and others chanted, “Whose streets, our streets” during the disturbance – a familiar EDF slogan.
There is also the North East Infidels, a Nazi EDL offshoot. Their flag was spotted by local Labour MP Lewis Atkinson at the Sunderland riot.
Jake Wheatley who organised the “peaceful” pre-riot rally in Middlesbrough was formerly involved in the EDL, reports suggest.(6)
He was careful to state at the pre-riot gathering that the demonstration would be a peaceful protest.
Patriotic Alternative and National Action
Patriotic Alternative (PA) is the largest extreme right group in the UK.
According to Hope Not Hate, PA is the “continuity organisation” of the Neo Nazi group National Action (NA) banned in 2016. A splinter group of the BNP, NA had branches across the UK and supported the murder of Jo Cox MP.
Seven years ago ITV exposed an illegal NA training camp.
The former NA activist Matthew Hankinson, was spotted at the Southport demonstration. Last year he completed his six-year jail term for membership of NA in Merseyside.
Hankinson’s trial in 2018 was one of six prosecutions of leading NA Merseyside members. A Hope Not Hate infiltration exposed their plan to murder an infiltrator as well as Labour MP Rosie Cooper.
PA’s brand slogan “Enough Is Enough” was on online posters advertising the pre-riot “peaceful” rallies in Sunderland and Middlesbrough as well as other events across the country.
There have been other “Enough is Enough” events such as anti-migrant rallies and counter-protests against demonstrations supporting Gaza. At the latter the fascists brandished Union Jacks, England flags and Israel flags.
Blood And Honour
Blood and Honour is a secretive NeoNazi group and music promoter.
Two of the Sunderland rioters told the court they were in town on the riot weekend for a Blood and Honour gig.
Combat 18
The paramilitary group Combat 18 (C18) was set up in the 1990s to protect BNP events. In 1992, C18 carried out attacks on left-wing locations including an anarchist bookshop and the headquarters of the Morning Star Communist Party newspaper.
Billy Charlton of Sunderland Defence League has attended a C18 event and posed for photographs with a C18 flag. One of his pals wore a Rudolph Hess T shirt.
British Movement
Hope Not Hate reported that the Neo-Nazi group British Movement shared information about the protests on social media.
Fellow Travellers
The court hearings following the riots displayed the far right’s unemployables with long petty criminal records, drunk on the cheap alcohol of the bingo halls and tanked up with Class A drugs.
A special mention for Euan Corbett who supported but did not attend the Middlesbrough riot. He is currently on the run from charges of killing by dangerous driving, posting photographs of himself around the world. He posted on Facebook:
“..this is a full scale riot so everyone from every estate on the full of Teesside needs to be there. Im pay £500 for every police car that gets set on fire..”
Then there’s the football hooligan firms.
The football clubs in the North East all have a history of mob violence among their supporters and the local gangs have often fought with each other. The best known local firms are Middlesbrough’s Front Line and Sunderland’s Seaburn Casuals.
There have always been links between the hooligan firms and the far right, locally and nationally. ADL and PA recruited from their ranks.
The firms make up a small minority of the clubs’ supporters. But there has been a spike of youth violence since the return from Covid lockdown.
Football Banning Orders (FBOs) are used to counter anti-social behaviour on the terraces. They can last for up to ten years and breaching the order can incur a prison sentence.
Jake Wheatley who organized the pre-riot rally in Middlesbrough had an FBO in 2012, according to a photograph shown on a parody Facebook page.
Middlesbrough scored 230 new FBOs in the 2022 to 2023 football season. That’s the third highest in the football league.
Known unknowns
That’s the pick ‘n’ mix of groups that might have been involved in the riots of the North East, plus a few fellow travellers.
The only organisation described that has been banned is National Action. The government list of proscribed extreme right wing groups are otherwise British branches of -to us – obscure European and US organisations
The question is: did any of the groups seen at the riots plan the unrest? Perhaps that’s a “known unknown” that requires more research by the authorities.
There are two things we know for sure. Firstly, the riots will keep issues about immigration and social integration high on the government’s agenda.
Secondly, the extreme right makes parties like Reform UK look moderate in comparison, despite their longstanding connections.
If we look back at 1930s Germany, Hitler was regarded as the “moderate” ring-winger. And look what happened there.
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