Readers will no doubt have seen the images from Sunday’s so-called Brexit Betrayal March.
It was the one organised by UKIP and English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) that featured a man marching through Westminster with a noose and gallows for Theresa May.
There were all sorts of other things there - signs calling the Prime Minister Judas, others calling her Lady Haw Haw or demanding that the UK leave the EU without a deal.
One in particular stood out. Captured in a photo by the FT journalist Sebastian Payne, it was a plain white board with one word emblazoned across it in big, black letters: lügenpresse.
As I discuss in my upcoming book ‘Not Buying It’, that word has specific, and rather frightening, connotations. It means lying press and it was used by the Nazis to diminish and undermine the media.
More recently, supporters of US President Donald Trump shouted the phrase at reporters covering his rallies. The phrase was widely adopted by the movement around him known as the alt-right.
But it is a Nazi phrase. People who use it know that. In fact, that is part of the reason why they use it. American far right leader Richard Spencer said: “It’s typical Alt Right: serious... ironic... and with a sly reference to boot.”
A sly reference.
Its appearance on Sunday made it clear that the Brexit Betrayal March did not have much to do with Brexit. It was a far-right, fascist rally on the streets of London.
Some people would argue that the Brexit cause has provided cover for such a people – given succour to xenophobes and racists. I’m sure that to some degree that is true. But I am also sure that such people have always existed and that Sunday showed that Brexit is just the latest thing for them to cling desperately onto. They will find something else in due course. They always do.
Sunday also showed that UKIP leader Gerrard Batten et-al intend to build the alt-right in the UK. Having achieved a Leave vote in 2016, it is their way of trying to stay relevant. Just look at the growth of movements such as the Democratic Football Lads Alliance to see what is happening.
Many of these people may well claim to like Jews and Israel – indeed I saw reports that there were Israeli flags at the march. However, I fear that, far from having any real love for Jews or the Jewish homeland, these people tend to be viciously Islamophobic and, rather misguidedly and distressingly, seem to see being “pro-Israel” in that context.
The presence of Nazi slogans was a stark reminder, if any were needed, that we Jews are never too far down fascist’s hit list. Furthermore, a free press correlates perfectly with Jewish values. The post-truth portrayal of the media as the lügenpresse does not.
At the risk of being overly pessimistic, being a Jew in the UK is starting to feel a little bit like the chorus to the song ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’. Except the antisemites to the left of me are not clowns, and those to the right are not jokers.They are people happy to hold and march alongside Nazi slogans in London.
It cannot go unchallenged.
Charlotte Henry is a journalist, writing about culture, media, politics and their collision with technology
