The Far Right Is Moving to the Mainstream

[MsAmerica]

Excerpt from the New York Times assessment, if anyone is interested.

In Britain, the Far Right Is Moving to the Mainstream
By William Davies

As the far right becomes a fixture of British politics, prominent voices are willing to abstain from condemning the violence, excuse it or even appear to encourage it.
The anti-immigrant, nationalist Reform Party, led by Nigel Farage, has been steadily moving from the fringes to the mainstream. With eight lawmakers in Parliament, it consistently tops polls and is increasingly talked about as capable of winning the next general election. Mr. Farage described the reaction of “our leaders” to Mr. Nowak’s death as proof of “a two-tier culture in this country, where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities,” and urged Britons to respond with “pure, cold rage.”

A more explicitly far-right party, Restore Britain — formed by the lawmaker Rupert Lowe, a breakaway from Reform, and endorsed by Mr. Musk — responded to Mr. Nowak’s murder in a long post on X that said, “Enough is enough,” and that keeping alive the “savage” who killed him served nobody.

As Britain’s traditional two-party democracy disintegrates, and voters splinter in five or six directions (Reform may lead the polls, but gets only around 25 percent support), the boundaries that once distinguished the center-right from the far right have collapsed. As the writer Daniel Trilling writes in his book “If We Tolerate This,” flagrantly racist ideas and claims that would have been utterly beyond the pale just over a decade ago now circulate among conservative newspapers and politicians as they struggle to keep up with the rage bait of far-right influencers. Last year, for example, an up-and-coming Conservative lawmaker named Katie Lam told The Times of London that legal residents needed to “go home,” leaving Britain more “culturally coherent.”

There is a troubling sense in Britain that only the right seems to possess the momentum and theatricality that succeeds in this new quick-fire videographic era of politics. Be it in Westminster or on the street, the right — including the far right — takes the initiative and sets the agenda, leaving those in the liberal mainstream to denounce sporadic outbursts of violence without confronting the wider political and ideological climate that encourages and condones it.

www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/opinion/britain-far-right-reform-restore-uk.html

”Far right” just means any concern for or advocacy for white people now, doesn’t it?

And most “far right” views are those which were held by most of the population 20 or 30 years ago.

So in a way, yes. What were mainstream, perfectly acceptable views are now “far right”, but the movement has been of the establishment to the “left” (which is not really left at all as is obvious from its despising of and movement away from the white working class), so that the views of huge swathes of the population are now labelled “far right “.

Far right” just means any concern for or advocacy for white people now, doesn’t it?

Yeah, "advocacy". Nice peaceful advocacy... For British white people. Everyone else can just piss off, right?

Quote : "And most “far right” views are those which were held by most of the population 20 or 30 years ago."

I think you need to define "most" here.

I recall the far right parties of 30 years ago, the BNP for example, only getting a handful of votes in elections. Though I recall there being a couple of BNP councilors in Dagenham.

I’d agree with that yeah. Though wouldn’t personally term it ‘far right’, but I know what they mean.

I've just read the Wikipaedia entry on the 2006 Barking and Dagenham council elections - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Barking_and_Dagenham_London_Borough_Council_election
It's very interesting andhad completely passed me by at the time.

Wiki editor has included the fact that "From 2000 to 2011, Barking and Dagenham underwent one of the biggest demographic change in London's history, the proportion of White British residents decreased from 82% to 49%" makes me think the demographic shifts caused by spike in immigration under Boris has prompted a similar response to what happened in a more confined area 20 years ago.
Actually I think Reform is not nearly as insane as the BNP. Restore, much more similar but are they actually going to set up paramilitary facist youth groups like Combat 18?

That's not defining what the OP means by most. I mentioned Dagenham because that is the only place I remember offhand having had BNP win elections.

If the OP was correct in saying most people in the past were aligned with the Reform of today, then surely the BNP would have had more seats ?

I get what you say about Reform not being as extreme as BNP of the past, but I would have thought that BNP would have had a lot more votes everywhere, if the OP is correct about "most".

I think you're probably right about people's personal opinions. But this makes me wonder if voting for the far- or more-right party doesn't equate with sharing all the opinions of the party. Rather it's a reaction to feeling like "my community is changing too fast and the only people who will talk about it are that far right party". I had no idea something similar had happened decades ago, when I read your post I looked up "Dagenham council BNP" and the Wiki entry came up.
Maybe it's just made me unreasonably optimistic - what happened in 2006 wasn't the start of a BNP takeover. It all petered out. Maybe things will settle in the present, too.

It's an odd article from the US given that the center of US politics a long way to the right of the center of UK politics (just take the death penalty and lack of gun control). In the US Farage would be seen as a leftie!

Far right = thinking men shouldn't be in women's prisons these days!

So you are saying Trump supports a leftie ?

Farage is a long way to the left of Trump.

And don't forget Keir Starmer’s “nation of strangers”, his fucking Enoch Powell moment 😡 and from a (supposedly) Labour prime minister. Politicians deliberately stirring up hate to try and convince the masses that all their problems are caused by immigration - not by the increasing wealth inequality, gosh no definitely not that at all!! 🤦‍♀️

So you are saying Trump supports a leftie.

Wonder is Trump knows that.

Much of Reform/Restore/UKIPs base is founded in part on the fantasy nostalgia of a bygone 50s idyl that at best is greatly exaggerated and at worst never really existed. However, maybe go and visit some rundown seaside or post industrial town with way higher than average rates of benefit claimants due to their economically disadvantaged position as the lack of investment and being ignored by Westminster for decades have taken its toll. Towns with seasonal unemployment and a reliance on zero hour contracts, low aspiration, where low skilled jobs, never mind careers, are the norm. Town's where migrants/asylum seekers/families are dumped by London councils as it is cheaper to house them there rather then on their doorsteps. Shit on people for long enough they will rally to any cause if they think it might make their lives slightly better or at least give the ruling class a bloody nose. I was not exactly fond of the 'raise the colours' campaign or shouting outside hotels but I'm inclined to believe these actions are symptoms of a much wider malaise affecting many regions of the country and not just down to Farage and Reform's rhetoric.

Of course he does. It's just that there is a massive difference between the UK and US politics. A typical UK center right government like Cameroons would be similar to a democrat government under say Obama. A Labour style government would be unheard of in the US.

This

Far right is just another convenient insult isn’t it? Like the racist line the left like to trot out repeatedly because they have no other coherent argument.

For sure the Overton window in the US is to the right of the UK and Europe, but it's a total stretch to say Farage is a leftie. Likes of Bernie Saunders, AOC etc are as left as any Labour MPs.

Is Farage a leftie same as Bernie ?

I don't think you know what far-right really means.

If the left hadn’t abandoned working class people and pushed fringe ideas, we’d be in a much better position.

The left clutched luxury policies, to the point of decadence. We aren’t in a luxury economy.

I’m a huge supporter of green policies, but the hard targets we are working to are nonsensical. We are burning carbon from other countries, and paying dearly for it, instead of burning our own carbon and putting money and jobs into our own economy. Cut down carbon based fuels? Abso-bloody-lutely! But not while cutting off our own noses to spite ourselves.

You presumably understand that it is a political spectrum and not binary? It is quite possible for Farage to on the left of Trump but to the right of other people?

That article is spot on. I wonder how Americans feel reading it. Maybe they realise the electorate here is just as stupid as in the US.

Honestly I think immigration has amazing benefits and has brought some incredible people to our shores. But there needs to be an understanding that we cannot solve the problems of other countries for them and that needs to happen in these countries.

I think the political problem is on the left with a tonne of wholesale divisive, deviant ideologies that are destroying social cohesion as well as the right rising levels of poverty while trillionaires exist. The left cannot hold itself to account in any way because they are too busy being morally superior to everyone. It really is not a pleasant trait.

It is incredibly concerning that Reform/ Restore are being labelled as "far right" by the media. They are more to the right than the centre but no where near "far right". It waters down what "far right" actually is and means to the general public that if an actual "far right" party becomes popular a lot of people will just think they align with reform/ restore or "they just have legitimate concerns about immigration".

The actual far right are all about killing/ maiming/ experimenting without pain relief minorities/ disabled and non hetrosexual people. They want any minority stripped of all human rights. They think Hitler/ Stalin ect didn't go far enough. These viewpoints are terrifying and "far right wing" should be applied to this behaviour and should not be watered down to describe parties like reform or restore.

Context is all @Icecreamandcoffee. In the context of UK politics Reform and Restore are at the outermost right edge of the political spectrum. Lowe wants to restore the death penalty, that’s pretty hardcore right for most people.