BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: Tommy
By Nick Lowles
Published by Partisan Books,
rrp £13.99
REVIEW BY TIM BARTON
Recently, I reviewed The International Alt-Right, a book whose judgement when written seemed insufficiently pessimistic by the time publishing schedules had the book out in print. I began that review by looking at two major reports on internet propaganda issues that had just come out. This time, the subject is closer to home. Hope Not Hate have compiled an in-depth biography of Stephen Yaxley / Stephen Lennon / Andrew McMaster / Wayne King / Paul Harris / …Tommy Robinson, its subtitle ‘Politics, Drugs, Sex, Money’. If that sounds a bit tabloid, don’t be put off, the book is a detailed and balanced overview of the ‘Tommeh!’ phenomenon, if anything pulling its punches.
There’s possibly no better way to destabilise a country than to wrench the frame of its ‘Overton window’ firmly to the nationalist right. Wikipedia says ‘The Overton window is an approach to identifying the ideas that define the spectrum of acceptability of governmental policies. It says politicians can act only within the acceptable range.’ There is no doubt that many factors link up in forming this ‘public space’, nor that many are either secretive and unaccountable, such as cellular extremist groups and ‘think tanks’, whilst many others are very public, such as the tabloid press or TV broadcasters. It is clear the relationship between these forces is not, as newspaper editors claim, simply reactive and responsive to ‘what the readers want’, but at least as much forms and directs ‘debate’. In the case of, say, ‘GB News’, rather overtly and with no little grandstanding.
REFUGEE SHELTERS WERE TARGETED BY FAR RIGHT FASCIST GROUPS
This time my topical reports relate to party politics, and anti-immigrant sentiment. In current times, it becomes increasingly clear that policies of the left currently deemed ‘radical’ or ‘unthinkable’ were quite mainstream, even centrist, in the not so distant past. Here is a letter, widely shared on social media in mid-February, from the New Statesman: ‘In 1962 I was a Conservative. I believed privilege could only be justified by service, high taxes on very high incomes were necessary to prevent an entrepreneurial economy becoming a rentier economy, and Keynesian growth would finance public service improvements and a welfare state that steadily reduced inequality. I was suspicious of ideologically driven, large-scale change. These were the mainstream policies of the Macmillan government at the time. In 60 years I have moved from centre right to hard left without changing my opinions. (Dr Stephen Watkins, Oldham, Lancashire).’
Meanwhile, in Liverpool and Glasgow, and elsewhere, refugee shelters were targeted by far right fascist groups such as, allegedly, so-called ‘Patriotic Alternative’. These planned riots are a part of a right-wing ratcheting of the ‘Overton window’, enabled by the media and the Tory government, a process with characters like Tommy portrayed as patriotic heroes. The police responded and the anti-fascists turned up too. Other anti-fascist protests followed. The police responded and the fascists turned up too. Business as usual. But our ‘Overton window’ on fighting fascists now tends to deem Antifa as just as bad, or sometimes worse, than a few neo Nazis.
These divisive little far-right groups are growing like topsy. As noted in my previous reviews, this is an international phenomenon, with international links, and has weaponised social media. These groups, including football ‘firms’ such as Tommy started with, are often seen as a fringy little sideshow and, taken alone, they are. But, they cannot be taken alone. Robinson was a co-founder of the EDL, and advisor to former UKIP leader Gerard Batten. The general rightward drift in Britain has roots in the Natural Law Party, the extra-Parliamentary lobbying of the Faragists and the takeover of much of the Conservative Party membership by various more extreme groups, including many previously in Britain First, UKIP, or the BNP. Most of these had the shared goal, if for different motives, of forcing us out of the EU.
HOW MUCH DAMAGE CAN BE DONE, AND HOW FAST
Brexit was an odd goal, finally to the detriment of the general public, successfully foisted upon us after decades of propaganda. Those that sought it had various, and conflicting, reasons to want it, and the weaponising of anti-immigration and Islamophobic tendencies is one element that, once released, is hard to put back in the box, especially as it becomes increasingly obvious that the true beneficiaries of Leave were those tied most closely to international finance and to ever more free markets. These latter goals are in direct conflict with the far right nationalist extremism they encouraged to get us to where we are now.
Lowles’ book is an excellent guide to how certain individuals successfully weaponised anti-Islamic sentiment across the whole country. At the centre of its public face is, yes, repeat offender criminal Tommy Robinson. The book exposes vast chunks of the web within which he and his acolytes reside, though I feel it doesn’t go far enough as Tommy’s links with other far right allies in America and Israel are all but ignored, and it went to press too soon to include recent overtures to India’s Hindu extremists, though it does show the links to the toxic Andrew Tate. It maintains balance by showing how some specific issues involving a minority of Muslims in Luton and elsewhere are nominally at the core of Tommy’s supposed hatred of Muslims. The book is extremely illuminating as to how much damage can be done, and how fast, by one evil fifth-columnist asset (of several masters no doubt, none of whom I think he respects).
Corruption in this country goes very deep. Pandora’s Box is jammed open and good luck shutting it, at least not without breaking some legs. Hope Not Hate would likely balk at this. Antifa, however, founded in the 20s and 30s to fight Nazism, would not. Now, I wonder why the state sees them as the enemy.
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