"I suppose I miss the days when watching the toxic right was more of a cod-psychoanalytical pastime: when you could watch the Goodwin of 2024, preaching the superiority of Hungary in openly anti-migrant terms, compare him to the Goodwin of the mid-2010s, when he was an adviser to the coalition government on tackling anti-Muslim hatred, and say, wow, this guy's been on a journey."
"And now I've just landed back in the UK. These talking points are all commonplace on the hard and far right; migration is situated as a wellspring of social ills, from crime and disunity, through drug use and housing crises, and it is stated with so much confidence, so little evidence or logic, that it's really more of a muster point than an opinion held in good faith."
Matt Goodwin has been selected as the Reform UK candidate for the Gorton and Denton byelection and has a strong chance of winning. He moved from being a young academic who wrote researched books on the BNP and Ukip and advised the coalition government on tackling anti-Muslim hatred to openly praising Hungary and promoting anti-migrant, ethno-nationalist positions. His statements frame migration as the source of crime, disunity, drug use, housing crises, and cultural decline, asserted with confidence and little evidence. Observers describe his rhetoric as a progression from questioning to dog-whistle racism to brazen ethno-nationalism, raising questions about triggers and influences.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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