SCOTTISH far-right groups will “do their level best” to use the violence and unrest seen in England and Northern Ireland to help recruit new members, an expert has said.
The far-right violence seen in parts of the UK has not spread to Scotland yet, with some – including Professor John Curtice – suggesting that this may be due to the issue of migration being generally less “polarising” in Scottish politics.
But racism evidently still exists in Scotland, as do far-right groups – from the Homeland Party to Active Club Scotland.
David Lawrence – a researcher for Hope Not Hate, the UK’s leading campaign group against the far-right – said he is a “bit surprised” far-right unrest hasn’t occurred in Scotland given it “doesn’t take many people for it to kick off”.
“I think maybe there's a slight worry [in Scotland’s far-right groups] given the level of violence that has happened in parts of England and Northern Ireland.” he said.
“They obviously want to keep a distance from that.”
The Sunday National has looked into the main Telegram groups for several of the groups and also found calls for no violence. Instead, there appears to be an emphasis on using the momentum from the riots to help with the wider radical right movement.
Multiple Telegram posts from the Homeland Party – a far-right group which calls for “ethnic, ancestral, and cultural unity” in the UK – call for people to join the group.
Active Club Scotland – which Hope Not Hate describes as a “fascist martial arts club” – has also recently called for people to join whilst highlighting the violence in England.
Patriotic Alternative, the UK's most active far-right group, has produced flyers off the back of the riots (below).
"They'll certainly do their level best to recruit off the back of [the violence],” said Lawrence.
The researcher cast doubt on whether ACS would go very far recruitment-wise as they look to be a “kind of small, elite unit”.
But referring to Homeland specifically, he added: “They'll try to present themselves as the ‘common sense view’ of the majority. Whereas, of course, they’re not.
“They're still a very, very small group. Incredibly fringe. They're a fascist group but they will obscure that in their output. Nice, euphemistic language.”
Lawrence was keen to stress, however, that while groups like Homeland are extreme and “do pose a risk in a number of ways”, we shouldn’t overly inflate their influence.
“Perhaps there is a risk that they will be able to recruit more. But they're still fringe so it's difficult to say,” he said.
“Since registering as a party, they had a small boost, I think, in membership. It doesn't seem at the moment like this has translated into a wider activist base in any big sense.”
Lawrence added: “And this may well be the case with this current moment. We've been talking for years about a kind of wider anti-migrant upswell in some sections of society and Homeland do attempt to harness that. But not always entirely successfully.”
