What Would British Fascism Look Like?

Were a far-Right government ever to win power in Britain - and never get too complacent, for afound a staggeringly high number of voters who said they would be prepared to vote for party of the far-Right if it renounced violence - what might it do in its first year of power?

It has been reported that the National Front (NF) is planning on fielding 35 mayoral and local election candidates in May, the largest number it has put up for election since 1983.

An outfit that most of us thought had disappeared in the 1980s has re-emerged due to splits that are currently ravaging the British National Party (BNP).

All being well of course, NF candidates will take a thorough battering at the polls next month. Fortunately, the economic crisis that began in 2008 has not yet been marked by the racial tensions that characterised large economic crises of the past.

And yet, were a far-Right government ever to win power in Britain - and never get too complacent, for a Searchlight poll last February found a staggeringly high number of voters who said they would be prepared to vote for party of the far-Right if it renounced violence - what might it do in its first year of power?

This is pure speculation of course, but interesting all the same, I think.

Isolationism

Recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are often simplified into a Left/Right question: if you are on the Left you were against them, if you are on the Right you supported them. This is crude and misleading. In the tradition of isolationism, the British far-Right is concerned with foreigners only when they directly threaten the national interest. This includes foreigners dying at the hands of barbaric regimes.

The far-Right believes barbarism to be a product of uncivilised peoples or cultures which cannot exist in this country unless imported from the outside. A far-Right government would see its role only as the protector of the British people from this perceived threat.

The first year in power of a far-right government would most probably see a withdrawal from NATO, an exit from the European Union and an end to all overseas aid spending. Foreign massacres would be dismissed as "savagery". Actual military spending, however, would be doubled.

Which leads me neatly on to...

The worship of monarchy and the armed forces

One of the problems a government of this sort would have is that although the British people like pomp and ceremony, they don't much go in for compulsory pomp and ceremony. People of the Left recoil at widespread enthusiasm for the Royal Family, while forgetting that a good deal of it is based on little more than a detestation of the political class. The Royals are quite obviously establishment figures - they are the establishment - but when set against politicians there is a widespread belief that they are somehow less a part of the ruling class than Parliament is. Such a dynamic only works, however, so long as the monarchy is not viewed as an extension of the government.

With regard to the military, huge hostility would be whipped-up, with the aid of the media, towards any figure who publicly criticised military spending or the increasing deployment of troops to quell internal unrest and break strikes. Such people would be branded "unpatriotic" and denounced as Communists. Several military figures would probably enter the Cabinet within the first year of government.

The economy

Initial nationalisations would see elements of the far-Left align themselves with the new government in the manner of previous alliances with "anti-imperialist" movements abroad. A renegade former Labour MP is perhaps the most prominent Left-spokesperson for the new regime, playing up the Government's anti-American credentials while ignoring the widespread suppression of minority rights.

During unrest the army is drafted in. This is incredibly popular until the children of the middle classes feel the brunt of it. They are protesting at the general decline in living standards brought about by UN sanctions imposed for Britain's treatment of religious minorities. Great fanfare is now made in the press about the "great British tradition of protest".

The minimum wage is abolished along with the right to strike. State intervention in the economy increases albeit unaccompanied by any understanding, let alone indictment, of capitalism as a system. The living standard of workers falls while foreign investment is scared away.

Immigration

All immigration from "culturally foreign" countries - a catch-all term conveniently catching almost all non-whites -is brought to an end. Large numbers of people leave the country, including thousands of white Britains with non-white spouses. Discrimination against non-whites is not enshrined in law but institutional racism is ignored. Racial theorists are regularly given a voice in the media and an atmosphere of general hostility is whipped-up towards Muslims in particular.

A distinction is created in the public mind between 'good' and 'bad' minorities on an arbitrary basis. Wealthy non-white businessmen occasionally line-up alongside the Government to denounce recent immigrants, who they describe as work-shy and lazy.

The government imposes quotas for white players on English Premier League football teams.

Culture

The BBC is told to impose a strict limit on the number of non-white people in its soap operas. LGBT characters are categorically banned. There is a new trend toward jingoist documentary making and revisionism about the British Empire. Most BBC programming harks back to a world that no longer exists and probably never did. The most popular TV entertainment show is Top Gear.

Widespread rioting and looting of Muslim areas breaks out when England are knocked out of the football World Cup by Iran. The government, backed by a formerly prominent member of Ukip, labels all Arabs 'cheats', not realising that Iran is not in fact an Arab country.

An attempt to severely limit abortion causes a split in the Cabinet as some members see it as a potentially effective way of controlling the poor. Homosexuality is outlawed and an attempt is made to re-introduce Victorian sexual morals. The attempt fails when half the cabinet are found to have been having affairs and the wife of a working class minister is found to have once posed in Escort Readers' Wives.

In London, Saturday mornings see uniformed Right-wing militias parading in Hyde Park. The militias are regularly purged due to widespread homosexual activity. Animal rights charities report an increase in donations and the most recent census indicates an unprecedented rise in the number of vegetarians.

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