The far right have learned lessons. They use the power of populism to turn opinion, characterising refugees as “invaders” rather than established citizens as “vermin”. In doing this they are inching the bar lower. The same way legal challenges to government policy are conducted by “lefty lawyers”, judges who uphold the law as “enemies of the people”, and protestors who inconvenience others as “illegal disrupters”. Their intent is to create a culture of antagonism, so they can portray themselves as the upholders of the British way of life. Slowly, criticism of any government policy becomes unwelcome, then illegal, then punishable. That’s how it works. This is the hallmark of burgeoning modern authoritarianism.
Gary Lineker was historically inaccurate characterising the language used by Braverman as being not dissimilar to that used in 1930s Germany. But only in the sense that the modern authoritarians use different words to foster similar conditions of antagonism to a group with no voice.
We aren’t burning businesses, we aren’t smashing windows, and we aren’t building concentration camps. Because they don’t need to. There will be sporadic violence against refugees, but it won’t be a focused attempt by the state to eradicate them. Because the far right has learned that having a hate object is useful.
Making comparisons between thirties Germany and modern Britain is fruitless. They are orders of magnitudes different. Drawing attention to the intent of the authoritarians in government who are pushing the bar lower by making exaggerated illustrations might be useful though. Because where we stand now is not where they want us to be. They have unfinished business and if we don’t draw a line now, the 2030s might have more parallels with the 1930s than is comfortable.
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