It is by no coincidence that far right activist Jack Buckby, used his opportunity on Channel 4 to stir up shocking comments against Barbara Ntumy, telling her "I hope you don't get raped" by a Syrian refugee, live on air on Channel 4 news. Gasps of exasperation could be heard as Ntumy looked shell-shocked at the verbal violation of her body, but also against at the inflammatory nature of the statement.
This is precisely how such far-right extremists use news platform opportunities to play to the fears and insecurities within sections of populations, as a means of reaching out to the angry, vulnerable and conspiratorial mindsets that go onto to make up their follower base.
Far Right Liberty GB activist Jack Buckby has previously been described as the 'heir apparent' to BNP leader, Nick Griffin. A young man who uses shocking statements to generate publicity, he once stated that the "Labour Party has blood on its hands" after the extremist murder of Batley and Spen MP, Jo Cox. He also stood for the Batley and Spen seat for the far-right party, Liberty GB, which has used the Rotherham Grooming scandal to post social media graphics, one of which stated, "are you an English girl living in a Muslim area - stay safe, stay away from Muslim men." This graphic was circulated through Facebook and was a clear alarm call along racial and religious lines at a time when the Rotherham grooming scandal was causing real tensions on the ground in Rotherham. Other postings by this extremist far right group have involved a focus on 'genetics' and 'breeding' of Muslims and with Islam being promoted as an 'ideology' that is a 'wolf in sheep's clothing' - further expounding the view that Muslims cannot be trusted and have some form of secret agenda, tropes that have previously used against Jews over millennia by groups who attempted to push them to the margins of society.
Heading up this far right group, has been Paul Weston, who has previously claimed in a speech in 2013 that, "if you go into schools in London, very rarely do you see white children these days." Moving back onto the issues of demographics within that 2013 speech, (which should send a real shudder down the spine of all reasonable minded people given the background of this group), he stated, "But we only have between one to one point three children each. The Muslims are having four children each. If 10% of the population has four children, that 10% becomes 40%. If 80% of the population has only one to one point five child, they get down to fifty-five, fifty, forty percent very quickly. Within one generation we are going to be looking at comparable numbers of people aged twenty to thirty, and that's a big problem because that age group are capable of inflicting violence." Not to be outdone by such alarmist talk, Weston also has previously spoken at Pegida gatherings in the United Kingdom, (for example in Newcastle) and compared Islam's prophet, Muhammad, to Jihadi John and to Mohammed Emwazi, who was responsible for the beheading of several Western hostages.
The themes that far-right ideologues like Buckby throw out reek of white nationalism, where they attack 'diversity', talk about 'genetics', 'breeding' and 'demographics' and where they pander to the bizarre and twisted notion that the 'white race' is on the verge of extinction. Here for example, is a tweet from Buckby saying that "Pakistanis in Britain have a huge inbreeding problem". He goes onto add that the "Muslim world is fond of inbreeding", promotes dangerous inflammatory views that the "West is at war with Islam" and believes that Trump should just ban all Muslims from entering the United States.
Furthermore, demonstrating how marginalised and extreme fringe thinking is perceived to have moved to the mainstream, Buckby tweeted in January 2017 that, "In 2009, I was an outcast and ostracised for my 'crazy' political views. In 2017, the world is waking up & we're winning." Within the same month he had tweeted that, "The left are kidnapping & beating special needs people. Muslims are raping women and kids."
This is who Channel 4 gave air time to, a Harry Potter lookalike who looks innocent, though whose views are deeply corrosive to communities in our country.