"Richard Pearson is visiting Surrey to close down his late father's home and settle his affairs and, everywhere he looks, the flag of St George is flying from suburban gardens and filling stations and branch post offices. How nice, he thinks, how festive. Soon he learns the truth. So runs the opening not of a recent piece of journalism, but a novel by JG Ballard, Kingdom Come, which despite being almost 20 years old anticipates today's Britain with eerie precision."
"In the mid-2000s, Pearson reads up on his new surroundings, only to find the same headlines that assail us in the mid-2020s: Every day the local newspaper reported attacks on an asylum hotel, the torching of a Bangladeshi takeaway, injuries to a Kosovan youth thrown over the fence into an industrial estate. The crusader crosses of St George, the hair clay and bloviating of GB News and the live-streaming, selfie-gurning, hate-spewing of Tommy Robinson"
An Englishman arrives in a town festooned with St George flags that conceal escalating xenophobic violence and vigilantism. Local headlines chronicle attacks on an asylum hotel, the torching of a Bangladeshi takeaway, and the assault of a Kosovan youth. Mainstream media personalities, live-streaming agitators, and nationalist symbolism amplify and normalize hate. Analysts often point to foreign money or historical analogies, but those explanations overlook domestic dynamics and ordinary supporters. Analogy substitutes for analysis, and focusing on wealthy funders neglects grassroots followings. Britain faces a tangible, near-term risk of rightwing extremists gaining electoral power.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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