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| The networked far right behind Tommy Robinson is a menace for our digital age | The networked far right behind Tommy Robinson is a menace for our digital age |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Tommy Robinson’s story is best understood as an exercise in showbusiness, and the search by a relentless attention-seeker for public acclaim and influence. Already he has turned his release on bail from prison – he was serving a 13-month sentence for contempt of court – last week into the latest scene in a cunningly curated digital drama. | Tommy Robinson’s story is best understood as an exercise in showbusiness, and the search by a relentless attention-seeker for public acclaim and influence. Already he has turned his release on bail from prison – he was serving a 13-month sentence for contempt of court – last week into the latest scene in a cunningly curated digital drama. |
| Like a sort of low-rent, hard-right David Bowie, Robinson was already thinking of the next mask | Like a sort of low-rent, hard-right David Bowie, Robinson was already thinking of the next mask |
| The first persona adopted by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson” is essentially a stage-name) was that of the founder and leader of the far-right English Defence League. Next, in 2012-13, he allowed his character to follow a classic redemption arc, renouncing the EDL and apologising for blaming “every single Muslim” for “getting away” with the 7 July bombings. He was worried, he said, about the “dangers of far-right extremism”: which was a coincidence, because that’s how the rest of us had long felt when we heard him sound off about Islam. | The first persona adopted by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson” is essentially a stage-name) was that of the founder and leader of the far-right English Defence League. Next, in 2012-13, he allowed his character to follow a classic redemption arc, renouncing the EDL and apologising for blaming “every single Muslim” for “getting away” with the 7 July bombings. He was worried, he said, about the “dangers of far-right extremism”: which was a coincidence, because that’s how the rest of us had long felt when we heard him sound off about Islam. |
| But, like a sort of low-rent, hard-right David Bowie, Robinson was already thinking of the next mask. And it has been provided for him by the transformative impact of digital media, and the capacity of a single person, armed with a smartphone, to posture as an online pimpernel and people’s tribune. As a correspondent for the Canadian Rebel Media network and hero of the US “alt-right”, Robinson has reinvented himself as neither old-fashioned gang leader nor penitent healer, but as a ubiquitous online irritant, an ill-intentioned first responder at the site of terrorist attacks or outside courthouses, stirring up trouble, drawing wildly premature conclusions, and making harder the work of those whose task it really is to treat the injured, investigate criminal activity, and see justice done. | But, like a sort of low-rent, hard-right David Bowie, Robinson was already thinking of the next mask. And it has been provided for him by the transformative impact of digital media, and the capacity of a single person, armed with a smartphone, to posture as an online pimpernel and people’s tribune. As a correspondent for the Canadian Rebel Media network and hero of the US “alt-right”, Robinson has reinvented himself as neither old-fashioned gang leader nor penitent healer, but as a ubiquitous online irritant, an ill-intentioned first responder at the site of terrorist attacks or outside courthouses, stirring up trouble, drawing wildly premature conclusions, and making harder the work of those whose task it really is to treat the injured, investigate criminal activity, and see justice done. |
| What Robinson knows, or at least senses, is that our traditional institutions have been radically weakened in the past 20 years: public trust in parliament, government, traditional media and the financial order is in the gutter. The immune system of our old-fashioned political structures is well and truly shot. | What Robinson knows, or at least senses, is that our traditional institutions have been radically weakened in the past 20 years: public trust in parliament, government, traditional media and the financial order is in the gutter. The immune system of our old-fashioned political structures is well and truly shot. |
| #FreeTommy – the making of a far-right English ‘martyr’ | #FreeTommy – the making of a far-right English ‘martyr’ |
| As the Oxford academic Philip N Howard argues in his fine book, Pax Technica: “The state, the political party, the civic group, the citizen: these are all old categories from a pre-digital world.” To understand the new world, Howard continues, we must look at it “as a system of relationships between and among people and devices”. | As the Oxford academic Philip N Howard argues in his fine book, Pax Technica: “The state, the political party, the civic group, the citizen: these are all old categories from a pre-digital world.” To understand the new world, Howard continues, we must look at it “as a system of relationships between and among people and devices”. |
| Previously, the godfathers of the far right faced a choice: to stay on the street, or to put on a suit and seek a spurious respectability. Nick Griffin tried the latter, with disastrous consequences for himself and for the British National party. What Robinson and newer “identitarian” groups such as Generation Identity grasp is that the quest for electoral office is best left to others. They know where they belong: on the street, on their phones, always online. | Previously, the godfathers of the far right faced a choice: to stay on the street, or to put on a suit and seek a spurious respectability. Nick Griffin tried the latter, with disastrous consequences for himself and for the British National party. What Robinson and newer “identitarian” groups such as Generation Identity grasp is that the quest for electoral office is best left to others. They know where they belong: on the street, on their phones, always online. |
| The absolutely essential corollary is that they do not do so in isolation. They operate in a world of networks, in which the traditional divide between respectable politics and pub-and-terrace thuggery has been abolished and replaced by a web of filaments and connections that, through intermediaries and algorithms, ultimately link the Trump White House to the Kremlin, hacker camps, and thugs posing as enemies of the establishment. | The absolutely essential corollary is that they do not do so in isolation. They operate in a world of networks, in which the traditional divide between respectable politics and pub-and-terrace thuggery has been abolished and replaced by a web of filaments and connections that, through intermediaries and algorithms, ultimately link the Trump White House to the Kremlin, hacker camps, and thugs posing as enemies of the establishment. |
| Nobody incarnates this new landscape of far-right connectivity like Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, who is now busily at work with nationalist parties in Europe. Bannon has been in direct contact with Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg, and has expressed support for Robinson as a “solid guy”. | Nobody incarnates this new landscape of far-right connectivity like Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, who is now busily at work with nationalist parties in Europe. Bannon has been in direct contact with Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg, and has expressed support for Robinson as a “solid guy”. |
| To interpret this as a “conspiracy” is old thinking. Rather, it is a network, in which Bannon is the mains cable linking Westminster and street-level activism. And there will be others like him: you can be sure of it. | To interpret this as a “conspiracy” is old thinking. Rather, it is a network, in which Bannon is the mains cable linking Westminster and street-level activism. And there will be others like him: you can be sure of it. |
| Steve Bannon is on a far-right mission to radicalise Europe | Natalie Nougayrède | Steve Bannon is on a far-right mission to radicalise Europe | Natalie Nougayrède |
| Why should we care? Because of the volatility of the times. Because the political context may soon be alarmingly propitious for the populist right: a hollowed-out Conservative party, vulnerable to seizure by charismatic leadership; a proliferating legend of “Brexit betrayal”, according to which the wicked elite denied the people the glorious fresh start they voted for in 2016; a bleak economic outlook; and the possibility of a genuinely leftwing government in contrast to which a far-right alternative might ruthlessly define itself. | Why should we care? Because of the volatility of the times. Because the political context may soon be alarmingly propitious for the populist right: a hollowed-out Conservative party, vulnerable to seizure by charismatic leadership; a proliferating legend of “Brexit betrayal”, according to which the wicked elite denied the people the glorious fresh start they voted for in 2016; a bleak economic outlook; and the possibility of a genuinely leftwing government in contrast to which a far-right alternative might ruthlessly define itself. |
| None of this may happen, and one must hope that none of it does. But it would be wise to prepare for such a contingency and not get distracted by the secondary issue of how to keep Robinson and his allies off the airwaves. They have their own airwaves, and they are going to use them relentlessly. | None of this may happen, and one must hope that none of it does. But it would be wise to prepare for such a contingency and not get distracted by the secondary issue of how to keep Robinson and his allies off the airwaves. They have their own airwaves, and they are going to use them relentlessly. |
| The correct response to this preening jailbird is not to ban him but to beat him at his own game with better networks, better arguments, and a progressive politics that speaks to the public and not to itself. Robinson’s phoney legend is just a warning. We must be ready for what comes next. | The correct response to this preening jailbird is not to ban him but to beat him at his own game with better networks, better arguments, and a progressive politics that speaks to the public and not to itself. Robinson’s phoney legend is just a warning. We must be ready for what comes next. |
| • Matthew d’Ancona is a Guardian columnist | • Matthew d’Ancona is a Guardian columnist |
| The far right | The far right |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| Tommy Robinson | Tommy Robinson |
| Steve Bannon | Steve Bannon |
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