Hope of a better Scotland can defeat the far right

Racists complain that migrants don’t want to learn English and integrate, but when migrants do want to learn English and integrate, racists mount a protest outside the school where English language lessons are being given to the mothers of some of the pupils, insisting that they are “protecting our kids” from unvetted adults on school premises. The school in question is in Dalmarnock in the East End of Glasgow, a sober lesson in the unsettling truth that the threat posed by far right intolerance is very much present in Scotland too.

The English lessons are being offered to the mothers of children in the school who come from households where English is not spoken. Offering English lessons to the children’s mothers will not only assist in the integration of the family into the local community, but will also facilitate the children’s acquisition of English fluency. In other words it’s everything which members of the far right anti-migrant movement claim that they want when they insist “I’m not racist but…”

Yet when faced with a genuine measure which aims to assist the integration of migrant families, the far right pivots to its traditional trope of “saving our children” from an imaginary threat. Misinformation spread on social media falsely claimed that the lessons were available to anyone, scaremongering that children would be exposed to the threat of random strangers in the corridors of the school. This led to intimidating demonstrations outside the school, scaring children about a ‘threat’ which did not exist, and frightening women attending the lessons and making them feel threatened.

The lessons were available only to the mothers of children attending the school and were held in a part of the campus away from the main school building. Attempts to inform the demonstrators of the truth of the situation were dismissed as “lies”. The protestors have vowed to continue their campaign against a non-existent threat.

This is the great difficulty when it comes to countering the far right, its supporters have bought into a false narrative and refuse to acknowledge information which challenges their prejudices. That’s only to be expected when you consider that the far right peddles itself as the solution to an imaginary threat and imaginary threats are emotionally, not rationally, based, making them very difficult to counter with rational arguments. The far right has more in common with a religious cult than with a political movement. It trades in fantasy and imaginary demons from whom charismatic shamanistic demagogues promise protection, falsely claiming a solution to all that ails their followers. People who feel that they have little to lose will always be drawn to those who offer seemingly simple, indeed magical, solutions to complex problems. That is what has allowed snake oil salesmen and American evangelical pastors to keep raking in the cash for centuries. Farage and his Temu rip offs on social media are engaged in essentially the same con trick.

It’s not just Dalmarnock where the far right are on the offensive. In an incident in which the far right don’t even have the fig leaf of claiming to protect the children as a cover to their racism, a primary school in Inverness has cancelled its planned Christmas play after receiving “racist and abusive” online messages.

Cauldeen Primary in Inverness had planned to stage a musical written nine years ago which included a scene telling the story of refugee children caught up in the Syrian conflict. News of the planned performance was greeted on social media with racist abuse and insults insults directed at the school and its staff. The incident follows recent protests in the city after an announcement of UK government plans to use a city army barracks to house asylum seekers.

Not even the far right could pretend that in this situation there is any threat at all to the well being or safety of the children at the school. Rather it seems that their objections are to any sympathy or compassion being offered to children forced from their homes into becoming refugees. How dare we teach children that refugees and asylum seekers are human beings deserving of understanding and human kindness. And at Christmas too, the very horror.

This incident and the one in Dalmarnock that the recent hysteria about migrants and asylum seekers which is being whipped up by the far right is legitimising and fomenting naked racism and hatred. Members of minority groups are reporting that they are increasingly afraid in public spaces.

These ugly incidents come as Judith Sijstermans, a lecturer in politics at the University of Aberdeen, told The National newspaper that her research has found a “noticeable rise in extreme right activity in Scotland”. She said that the far right is increasingly mobilising people by scaremongering against migrants and asylum seekers and the trans community.

She told the newspaper: We can measure that [the rise in far right activity] in a couple of different ways, in terms of polling, but we can also measure that through some of the work I’ve been doing, observing how much campaigning is occurring on the extreme right.

“Campaigning, protest, social activities, and we see a noticeable rise from earlier this year through 2025, we see an increase month on month.”

She said that the reasons people have for engaging with the far right essentially come down to “emotions of resentment, anger, disappointment” which far right politicians and social media influencers claim to be able to solve.

As Scotland heads towards the Holyrood election in May next year we can expect far right activity to intensify, fed in no small part by an anti-independence media which is determined to minimise the political differences between Scotland and England. It’s up to us in the independence movement to give a positive message of hope to those in our country who feel angry, disappointed and excluded by mainstream British politics and divert them from the self-destructive rabbit hole of the far right, the greatest con trick in modern politics. We can’t save the UK, but we can save Scotland, hope of a better country can defeat the far right.

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