I believe Britain is sleepwalking into a very dark place. All the elements are in place. Soon it may be too late to push back. As with fascism, it begins with a moral panic about stranger danger.  

Last Sunday, protestors – most of them white – turned up in Gosport, Hampshire, to express boiling hatred against people on boats and dinghies crossing over from France. Earlier, in September, a child with a megaphone shouted “let them drown” and adults joined in. How has it come to this?

Week after week, people gather in various coastal towns to shout and rage against these incomers. Places they are temporarily housed in also draw crowds full of ire. The targets remain unseen, unheard and unknown. Many of the instigators of citizen furies are far-right nationalists. Those supporting them – including a small number from minority communities – have been persuaded that boat people are terrorist invaders or worse.  

Stoic RNLI volunteers who come out to ensure the safety of those on board are abused. In Gosport, the crowd became dangerously volatile. A police officer and an emergency worker were assaulted. Police said racially aggravated offences were committed. A dozen people were arrested. That will, I fear, lead to more “patriotic” uprisings.

Meanwhile, two men, one in his thirties, the other in his forties, died while crossing overnight in a small boat. And two........

© iNews