That we probably shouldn’t give much prominence to the outpourings of actual fascists rings with a certain truth – and we don’t actually give much prominence to such. Oswald Moseley is little quoted these days. However, the idea of no-platforming is rather more dangerous – that we must not quote those who are a little to the right is where that ends up. As with this insistence that even a Republican President of a foreign country shouldn’t go around quoting someone on the British right:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Donald Trump has been criticised for spreading the “hateful and divisive” rhetoric of Katie Hopkins as part of an attack on the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. The US president was widely condemned on Sunday for quoting the far right commentator as part of his latest broadside against Khan, whom he accused of being “a disaster” for the capital who would “only get worse!”. He retweeted a Hopkins post in which she referred to London as “stab-city” and “Khan’s Londonistan” following the deaths of two men in separate attacks on Friday. [/perfectpullquote]Seriously?
Yep, that really is what is being said. The Guardian should be the moral arbiter of what a foreigner can say, who they may quote.
This is rather funny though:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Khan then called on the government to cancel Trump’s state visit to the UK, saying “his policies go against everything we stand for”. His office gave permission for anti-Trump protesters to fly a protest blimp of Trump as a crying baby in a nappy. Earlier this month, just before arriving in the UK, Trump described Khan as “a stone cold loser” and “very dumb”. He said Khan reminded him of the Democrat mayor of New York Bill de Blasio, “who has also done a terrible job – only half his height”. [/perfectpullquote]Politicians could do with a bit more vituperation directed their way.
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What needs to be said is that fascism is now just a rude word shouted at anybody to the "right" of Vince Cable. Too few actually know what fascism actually is, and it doesn't really have a proper poltiical base e.g. the likes of Karl Marx and Marxism - I doubt if Katie Hopkins would have a clue as to what fascism actually entails. What is interesting for example is that Mussolini was a prominent socialist in Italy before going on to invent fascism. Also Oswald Moseley was a Labour minister. .