The far-right group Britain First faces a backlash after posting a message about “fish & chips” and “cream teas” during the Armistice Day silence.
The organisation, which claimed this week to have become the first “political party” to receive 1 million Facebook supporters, mixes patriotic celebrations of the Queen and Armed Forces with xenophobic and Islamophobic fear-mongering online.
While many extended the two-minute silence held at 11am on 11 November to their online activities – and the London Ambulance even stopped using sirens as a mark of respect – Britain First posted a message to Facebook showing a meme of UK stereotypes.
“Proud to be British! A nice cuppa, the Queen, rainy days, cream teas, the seaside [and] fish & chips,” the message read.
In an almost immediate backlash, Facebook users accused the group of a lack of “respect for the fallen”.
Luke Sebastian wrote: “Did you really post about fish and chips making you proud to be British at 11am on November 11th?”
Jack Evans said it was “disgusting you would write this at 11am on Armistice Day”.
And Parveen Nabi wrote: “WOW!! You claim to be British and patriotic and yet you were posting during the 2 minute silence on Armistice Day. Where is YOUR respect for the fallen and the veterans?”
Earlier this week, Britain First boasted of passing the milestone of more than 1 million Facebook “likes” in a post on its website.
But Matthew Collins, a member of the organisation Hope Not Hate who has been following the far-right group for a number of years, estimated that less than a third of Britain First’s Facebook followers were genuine users.
Mr Collins said that even if the group had only around 300,000 genuine “likes” on Facebook it was “still worrying”.
“But politics is about a lot more than just a page on Facebook,” he told The Independent. “There are other far-right groups out there doing a lot worse, and genuine political groups doing a lot more.”
