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THE far right are trying to violently destabilise Scotland. There can be no denying it. Worryingly, it now looks like they may be succeeding.
For years, Scotland has been a fixation for neo-fascists in the US and elsewhere, obsessed with an amorphous “white heritage” they believe is being undermined by immigration.
In 2022, Nicola Sturgeon’s visit to a primary school in Glasgow led to racists claiming the young children she was pictured with do “not belong in Scotland”. Months later, the founder of the Proud Boys fascist militant group Gavin McInnes attacked this country as an example of white people “sabotaging” white heritage.
Once Humza Yousaf became first minister, he caught the eye of the online fascist-in-chief Elon Musk, who repeatedly attacked the then-SNP leader as a “flaming racist” who “hates white people”.
The list, sadly, goes on and on. And now, the neo-Nazis’ investment seems to be paying off.
In recent weeks, we have seen fascist-style drill squares in Edinburgh and Glasgow, masked gangs attacking people based on the colour of their skin, a blade-wielding maniac screaming about “protecting our country” targeting Muslim people, missiles and Nazi salutes thrown at anti-racism protesters, and violent mobs targeting random addresses based on lies they’ve seen online.
Just today, Police Scotland confirmed that 18 people had been charged following disorder in Arbroath and warned against agitators who “promote racism or violence”. Clashes had erupted in the town after a white British man was charged with sexual assault – but online claims blamed "illegal immigrants".
In Glasgow on Wednesday, a mob of hundreds targeted an address in Castlemilk following similar online claims. Police warned that people outwith the area were trying to “influence” the situation, issued another hate-crime warning, and said the address had been targeted despite an innocent person living there.
It followed similar incidents in Royston and Cranhill, all within the last week, and on Saturday, yet another is planned.
This time, the target is a care home in the Possilpark area, all because of false online claims that it is set to be turned into accommodation for asylum seekers.
To hear those on the far right tell it, this violence is an inevitable consequence of a society pushed to breaking point by immigration from “non-white” cultures.
Of course, they are lying. And one of them, Restore Britain supporter Craig Houston, has given the game away.
“We’ve had spontaneous protests in Royston, Cranhill, Cathedral, and Castlemilk with more planned throughout Glasgow and further afield,” he recently wrote on social media.
But which is it?
Are the protests “spontaneous”, or are they “planned”?
In typical far-right fashion, they are trying to have it both ways – and the facts simply don’t matter.
One Facebook account which spread the lie about the Glasgow care home that will be targeted on Saturday summed this up perfectly.
Sharing a media outlet’s post pointing out their own lies, they wrote: “Aye if you believe that then you are not well? The government and police Scotland are shifting those 3 rapists from Royston to castilmilk Cranhill moving them all around Glasgow until they have a rapists hostel to put them in and that hostel is apparently possilpark.”
Barely comprehensible, but viciously dangerous nonetheless.
In another post also from Friday, that same agitator claimed that the UK is on “the brink of Civil War” and will soon tip “over the Line”.
Does the rhetoric sound familiar?
“Civil war in Britain is inevitable. Just a question of when,” Elon Musk said last year, just weeks after telling a Tommy Robinson-organised rally in London: “Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die.”
The warning signs are no longer just signs. Fascists are organising openly, targeting minorities and those who disagree with them, and mobilising mobs on the back of lies.
Pretending otherwise is no longer an option.
