I have written on similar topics now for the past decade and more. Each time I have shown that the threat of the far-right is significantly greater in Europe, than it is in the UK.
Of course, if you read the news stories, or watch it on of TV you could mistakenly believe that the UK is the very epicentre for the far-right. Below I have extracted results of the most recent general elections from across Europe and mapped what the far-right parties have secured in terms of vote share.
Name % Last Election
ChA Golden Dawn (Hungary) 2.9
DF Danish People’s Party 8.7
FN National Front (France Le Pen) >21
FPÖ Austrian Freedom Party 16.2
FrP Progress Party (Norway) 11.7
JMM Movement for a Better Hungary 6.34
LN Northern League (Italy) 17.6
PS Finns Party (Finland) 17.48
PVV Party for Freedom (Netherlands) 10.81
SD Sweden Democrats 17.5
SVP Swiss People’s Party 25.6
VB Flemish Interest (Belgium) 11.9
UKIP United Kingdom Independence Party 0.1
BNP British National Party 0.0 (too low to register!)
Look at the vote share percentages. Nations such as Switzerland and France consistently show that some 20+% of votes go to their far-right parties. Just imagine, in the case of France with a population of 65 million, that means some 13 million French citizens are proudly voting for far-right parties. In the case of Switzerland with a population of 8.7 million, some 2.2 million Swiss citizens routinely vote for far-right parties.
Now compare that with the UK. I have included UKIP (and I am sure they will say that it is not technically a far-right party) and the BNP. The most successful is UKIP with ONLY 0.1% of the votes. The BNP vote share is so low that it fails to register as a percentage.
The UK, whilst not perfect and still having some issues to sort out, is relatively speaking the best European nation when it comes to rejecting far-right ideology. World War One and Two both started in Europe. I will let you determine the root cause of each.
In Europe the threat from the far-right remains and increases because they are rejecting what they see as the wide-spread appeasement of Islamists. You don’t have to agree with them. You don’t even have to do any data analysis. You see, the far-right thrive on raw hatred. An emotion that can be galvanised to such a degree that people become willing partners to mass murder.
It is therefore imperative that the UK updates it crime and immigration legislation. Illegal immigration is illegal. It is almost impossible for any illegal migrant to get to our shores unless they have first travelled through several safe countries. As soon as people reject safe countries and aim for the UK, it tells me that they are not refugees, that they are nothing more than economic opportunists attempting to get into the country via illegal means. Our laws must now be strengthened so our border forces can eject these illegals immediately.
The extreme left and right seek to undermine democracy and the rule of law, whether using violence or other means. They have differing political objectives, but today both would result in the destruction of the liberties we value and cherish.
Priti Patel can see the bigger picture. She is currently taking a piece of legislation through Parliament that will enhance our capacity to protect our borders not just from illegals, but also from terrorists and extremists. If the UK does not look after the fundamentals, don’t be too surprised if in ten years’ time the vote share for the far-right increases dramatically. Lest we fail to grasp reality, there was a reason why the red wall collapsed.
