Ballots & Bullets

Image by Hilton Teper

This post originally appeared in The Guardian‘s Comment is free.

In their quest to avoid relegation from the Premier League, Sunderland Association Football Club have appointed a self-declared fascist. By hiring Paolo Di Canio, who has repeatedly made his fascist beliefs known, the Sunderland board has thrown their club (and by extension English football) …

This post originally appeared on the LSE’s British Politics and Policy blog. 

Amidst crisis and austerity the radical right is in flux. Whereas populist radical right parties have devoted more than three decades to an electoral strategy, recent years have seen the emergence of ‘counter-Jihad’ groups, which are more confrontational, chaotic and unpredictable. Examples include the various defence leagues or Stop …

The British political arena has long been an inhospitable place for minor parties. While UKIP is the latest to turn heads, from one election to the next history is littered with failed contenders. Back in the 1980s, it was noted how one of the more significant attempts to challenge the main parties, by the Social Democratic Party, was akin to an …

Writing for the Guardian G2, Dr Matthew Goodwin offers insight into the case of Wade Michael Page and the shootings in Wisconsin. At the time of writing, the piece was the most viewed story on Guardian world news.

…

Why has the far right in Britain failed? In a new Radio 4 documentary, Trevor Phillips explores this question and draws on an interview with Dr Matt Goodwin. The documentary also includes excepts from infamous speeches by Enoch Powell, Margaret Thatcher, Norman Tebbit and Gordon Brown, and takes a nuanced look at a question that has received much …

‘Last week Human Rights Watch released a major report into changes in global counter-terrorism laws since 9/11. Asked by Voice of America to comment on the reports’ findings that the last decade has seen an expansion of draconian counter-terrorism legislation worldwide, School lecturer Dr Andrew Mumford agreed that the post-9/11 security environment had neglected human rights.

Based on his …

Over at Policy Network, Dr Matt Goodwin has written a letter to the Labour Party that speaks to the current debate about immigration and identity politics. The post follows a recent event at the think-tank, and forms part of its new project on ‘populism, extremism and the mainstream’ (co-funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust).

You can read the essay here…

Neo-liberal restructuring in Europe has come up against its internal contradictions. It has reached its limits. Germany’s export strategy, based on cuts in wages and working conditions, cannot be replicated by everybody else. If one country has such a drastic surplus in trade, others must absorb these products. Even more severely, the Eurozone crisis has highlighted the unevenness of the …

With the Eurozone crisis remaining in full-swing, many politicians and commentators have identified the economic downtown as the main driver of rising public support for extreme right-wing parties,  such as Golden Dawn in Greece. However, writing in the Guardian, Dr Matt Goodwin outlines several reasons for why this relationship is a little more complex than conventional wisdom would have …

Writing in the Guardian Comment is Free, Dr Matthew Goodwin offers his assessment of what the local elections reveal about support for the far right.

 …