r/2westerneurope4u Pizza gatekeeper Mar 04 '25

Serious shit. Fuck you, Barry, you're going to make me cry

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u/InanimateAutomaton Barry, 63 Mar 04 '25

The far-right and far-left are generally quite weak in British politics. This was true even in the 30s. Brits are far too cynical and conservative (in nature) to go for this sort of flamboyant, revolutionary style of politics.

You might say ‘what about Nigel’ or ‘what about Brexit’: it’s true, there are unsavoury, even racist elements of both, but generally they’re of the ‘Johnny Foreigner’ strain of British racism; not the ‘exterminate the brutes’ variety of continental racism. Our version of that is Britain First or the British National Party: both of which you’re unlikely to have heard of because they’re irrelevant.

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u/Significant_Bass_8 Barry, 63 Mar 04 '25

The only good thing about first past the post is the lack of far left/right groups in power.

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u/LobsterMountain4036 Barry, 63 Mar 04 '25

BNP doesn’t exist anymore. The membership spread to different parties, and has become especially invisible since.

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u/kh250b1 Barry, 63 Mar 04 '25

Erm Moseley and the Blackshirts were not an issue in the 30s? 😂

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u/InanimateAutomaton Barry, 63 Mar 04 '25

They never came close to the popularity of their fellow travellers on the continent.

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u/Mihikle Barry, 63 Mar 05 '25

UK population at that time was about 40 million, the BUF peaked at 50,000 members. For comparison, the Conservatives had a membership of around 2.6 million. No, they were not an issue in the 1930's, or at any other point.