The myth of British exceptionalism has collapsed in relation to the far right and fascism. Now in Scotland and rest of the UK it is time to wake-up.
Finally, we need a politics of substance – using language, popular culture and symbols – which deals with the concerns of working people. This may sound obvious but our current politics in Scotland, the UK and West, do not. Ask yourself whose interests do Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, Reform and SNP serve? And who in recent years has bankrolled their operations and had access and influence at the highest levels? Politics today serves the corporate class, money and vested interests.
The dynamics of centre-left parties – Labour, the SNP, Greens in Scotland and England and Wales, the US Democrats and others – are about the interests of the professional middle classes and what is in their best interests. No wonder for two decades the right has had such an easy task posing as the insurgents.
If we as citizens do not get our act together the appeal of the populist right, far right and fascism will only grow. How many wake-up calls do we need? We are as we speak in the second Trump term, nearly ten years after Brexit, sleepwalking towards disaster.
The current configurations of mainstream and progressive politics are not fit to take on fascism. Rather they have been enablers of the foot soldiers of fascism. We need to get out and educate, agitate and organise not just a politics of anti-fascism, but on democracy, symbols, class and power.