Latest news with #farRight
Irish Times
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on the riots in Ballymena: unequivocal political response essential
The recent rioting in Ballymena and surrounding areas is troubling on a number of levels, not least that it is unlikely to be an isolated event. What started out as a peaceful protest following an alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl in Ballymena on June 7th quickly descended into race riots when it then emerged that the alleged perpetrators, two 14-year old boys, needed the services of a Romanian interpreter during their court appearance. Studies of what happened show that Ballymena became the locus of far-right social media activity. At the most acute phase of the rioting, Ballymena was mentioned nearly 80,000 times across different platforms. Crucially, most of these accounts were from outside Northern Ireland. An analysis of these posts shows that many of them fall within the legal definition of incitement to hatred. It also became clear that many of the rioters were not from Ballymena and were intent on exploiting local tensions. Sporadic violence spread elsewhere in Northern Ireland as well. READ MORE This is similar to what happened in Southport in southern England last year. Far-right activists are opportunistically co-ordinating through social media to stoke tensions and foment race riots. There are some lessons to be learned. One is the need for ongoing improvement in social media controls. Elon Musk, the owner of X, has dismantled most of the guardrails on his platform on the basis that they undermine free speech. The reality is that X has become an unmediated platform for hateful content that has very real consequences for the more vulnerable in society, such as the migrant community in Ballymena. Against this backdrop, the EU has no choice but to resist any pressure from the Trump administration to lessen controls on social media as a quid pro quo for a US-EU trade deal. A key goal of the EU rules is to place responsibility on social media companies to ensure online content is safe, fair and secure. However, local factors were also at play in Ballymena. The town has become an unemployment blackspot in recent decades. Meanwhile, the 2021 census shows the arrival of non-English speaking migrants into the town and surrounding areas in recent years. While some tensions have been reported, the recent riots are a dramatic and worrying escalation. In responding to this, political leadership is important. Wrapping criticism of thuggish, racist violence with suggestions that shortcomings in managing immigration in some way provide a rationale – as at least some politicians seem to have done – is not acceptable. Condemnation of what happened must be unequivocal.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Liz Truss Hits Back After Jess Phillips Says She Started 'Far-Right Bandwagon' Over Grooming Gangs
Liz Truss has rejected claims from minister Jess Phillips that she started the 'far-right bandwagon' over a grooming gangs probe. The government suddenly decided to hold a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal over the weekend. The announcement was a shock, considering prime minister Keir Starmer accused any politicians calling for such a probe of 'jumping onto a far-right bandwagon' back in January. The grooming gangs scandal went viral at the start of the year when tech magnate and then-Donald Trump ally Elon Musk called safeguarding minister Phillips a 'rape genocide apologist' for not ordering a national inquiry into the historic abuse. While defending her boss's past remarks last night, Phillips claimed former Tory prime minister Truss actually 'started' that far-right bandwagon. The minister told BBC Newsnight: 'I think that what the prime minister was saying – this was in the wake of Elon Musk furore – was that the Conservative politicians, Kemi Badenoch, the shadow home secretary Chris Philp, he was saying they were 'jumping on the bandwagon of Elon Musk.' Phillips then interrupted herself, noting: 'I think it was actually Liz Truss, she gets forgotten in all this story, Liz Truss who started it and then Elon Musk carried it on.' On Tuesday morning, Truss replied on X: 'I accused Jess Phillips of excusing masked Islamist thugs – which she did. 'And of rejecting Oldham's calls for a government inquiry into grooming gangs – which she did. 'It was not a 'far-right bandwagon'. 'It was about holding her to account for her complete dereliction of duty.' I accused @jessphillips of excusing masked Islamist thugs - which she of rejecting Oldham's calls for a Government inquiry into grooming gangs - which she was not a "far-right bandwagon".It was about holding her to account for her complete dereliction of… — Liz Truss (@trussliz) June 17, 2025 Labour insisted in January that a fresh inquiry was not needed as they were still implementing the recommendations from a 2022 report into the scandal, despite substantial backlash. The prime minister has now U-turned, and claims to be following the recommendations of the new independent review from Baroness Casey into child sexual exploitation. The Conservatives have subsequently called on Starmer to apologise for his 'far-right' accusations. But Phillips told the BBC that Starmer was essentially just asking the Tories: 'Where have you been?' She pointed out that Badenoch was the children's minister and Chris Philp was the policing minister under the last Tory government. Phillips also rejected claims that the 'far-right bandwagon' accusation was a 'knee-jerk reaction' to their opponents on the right. She said: 'I think it was because they're politicians who have never cared and thought it was political expedient.' 'We Have Lost More Than A Decade': Labour Unveils 'Damning' Results Of Grooming Gang Review Top Tory's 'Excuse' As To Why Party Didn't Call Grooming Gangs Inquiry In Office Torn Apart Keir Starmer Performs Major U-Turn As He Backs National Inquiry Into Groomings Gangs
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
TikTok fuelling rise of fascist youth movement in the Philippines, experts warn
In a TikTok video viewed more than 170,000 times, the eyes of senatorial candidates from the Philippines ' ruling coalition are blacked out with a caption that reads: 'Liberal politics is the most corrupt thing you can get.' Another video, more ominous still, flashes the phrase 'Fight them before they kill you' over symbols of Muslims, Jews, communists, Freemasons and the LGBTQ community – each struck through by a sword. They are just a few examples of an increasingly visible fringe movement brewing in the Philippines' online underworld, where a new generation of far-right extremists is using social media platforms such as TikTok and Discord to recruit, radicalise and rally disaffected youth. The movement, known as the Philippine Falangist Front (PFF), is part of a small but growing network of digital communities promoting fascist ideology in Southeast Asia, according to a recent study by the Global Network on Extremism and Technology. Example of Philippine Falangist Front (PFF) online propaganda. Photo: TikTok Their message is incendiary: the Philippines is a nation in crisis, and only a return to authoritarian Catholic rule can restore order. 'They commonly produce content or engage in discussions lamenting the Philippines' and the world's descent into a so-called godless society,' said Saddiq Basha, the report's author and a research analyst at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Turkish court sentences opposition politician for inciting hatred, but orders his release
ANKARA, Turkey — A Turkish court on Tuesday sentenced a far-right politician to more than two years in prison for inciting public hatred and hostility , but ordered his release because of time already served. Umit Ozdag, the leader of Turkey's Victory Party, was detained in January over accusations that he insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with comments that he made during a party meeting.
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
The housing crisis could erode Ireland's middle class to a point of collapse
For all our problems as a country (struggling healthcare system, growing numbers of homeless , absurd cost of living ) there is some cause for pride in our status as one of only a small number of western nations where the far right has so far failed to gain any kind of serious electoral foothold. These people make a lot of noise, certainly – whipping up hysteria about immigration , committing arson and other forms of violent intimidation – but none of it has translated to anything like a coherent or potent political movement. Some of this can probably be accounted for by the obvious lack of political talent among their ranks, although it must be acknowledged that the parties we routinely elect to power in this country are not, themselves, exactly overrun with great and charismatic statesmen. There is also the fact that an Irish far right, unlike its counterparts in other English-speaking countries, is in no position to draw on the usual reservoirs of reactionary nostalgia. No one is going to get elected with a promise to 'make Ireland great again', because the closest thing we have to a cultural memory of a lost imperial grandeur is Italia 90. But if and when the far right does come to gain significant ground in this country, it will be because it has been able to effectively exploit a disaster created by the parties of the coalition government, and compounded over many long years of political inaction. The housing crisis in this country has been so dire for so long that it feels conceptually mistaken to even refer to it as a crisis, as though it were some kind of dangerous inflection point, beyond which lay the risk of potential disaster. The disaster is our everyday reality, and has been for some years now. And that disaster is, primarily, generational. Just 7 per cent of people aged 25-39 own a home. That already appalling statistic is compounded by the fact that rents are climbing faster than at any time over the past two decades, with the national monthly average for newly advertised properties having recently exceeded €2,000. Unsurprisingly, given this situation, according to the most recent figures from the CSO, 41 per cent of those aged 18-34 live at home with their parents. READ MORE [ A key social housing scheme is in danger of falling apart. Why? Opens in new window ] There is no question that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, who between them have run the Republic since independence, are to blame for this situation. Even if they had the will to address it – and were not ideologically averse to doing so by building social housing, rather than pumping public money in to the bank accounts of landlords – the prospect of any kind of meaningful improvement during the lifetime of this Government would be vanishingly small: the measures necessary to tackle a disaster of this scale involve the kind of long-term planning, in terms of labour and infrastructure, that the Coalition parties have never shown any serious intention to undertake. There are, of course, people who benefit from the ever-increasing value of property, and the entirely dysfunctional rental market. Quite a few of those people are TDs, and many more are in positions of power and influence in the country. But even people who own their own homes, or who otherwise stand to benefit from rising property values, have to live in this society, among other people; they, too, have to live with the social consequences of this disaster. One of these consequences may be that the Coalition's middle-class voter base erodes to the point of collapse. The prospect we face in this country is that of a middle-class incapable of reproducing, from one generation to the next, the social conditions – property ownership in particular – necessary for its own existence. Far-right movements have historically been very effective at profiting from this kind of social crisis, at exploiting widespread fear of status loss. Writing about the fundamental characteristics of fascism, the Italian writer Umberto Eco argued that it always 'springs from individual or social frustration, which explains why one of the characteristics typical of historic Fascist movements was the appeal to the frustrated middle classes, disquieted by some economic crisis or political humiliation, and frightened by social pressure from below.' (And fascism is, among other things, a response to crises created by the inherent instabilities of capitalism. It is no coincidence that the rise of right-wing populism in Europe and the US followed the great financial crisis of 2008, and the long years of recession that came in its wake.) [ Power struggles, resignations and Conor McGregor's toxicity: The fracturing of Ireland's far right Opens in new window ] The far right have precisely one solution to offer to a problem like this housing disaster: blame the immigrants, who are the cause of almost all our social ills, and whose preferential treatment by the Government is at the cost of the impoverishment and indignity of the true – which is to say, native – Irish. As Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN's special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, put it in an interview last year: 'Far-right parties prosper when they can exploit the social gaps that emerge out of underinvestment and inadequate government planning, and when they can blame outsiders.' The irony here, of course, is that placing the blame for the housing crisis on outsiders does the government an unintentional favour, in that it distracts attention away from the actual causes. The scapegoating impulse that drives almost all far-right movements diverts anger about real social problems away from the powerful people at fault, and toward the powerless people in society. It's a profound insult to our national dignity that so many people, in this supposedly wealthy country, no longer feel they have any prospect of owning their own home. It's an even deeper insult that so many have been driven into homelessness – by a lack of social housing, by ever-increasing rents and by the effects of poverty. On its own terms, this is a social disaster that demands an urgent response; the longer it continues to unfold, the deeper the damage will be to our future. In terms of the opportunity it presents to the far right, it may well prove more disastrous still.
