Roma Children being mocked by England fans; fair use.
The EU referendum has transformed British politics. In just a matter of weeks a devastatingly rightward shift has become evident. It is a shift defined, above all, by the politics of race and nation.
Let us briefly map the terrain: a socialist MP has been murdered by a fascist on account of her support for Syrian refugees entering Britain. Overt racism is becoming normalised in a way not seen since the late-1970s, so much so that last week Nigel Farage felt confident enough to brandish a billboard explicitly invoking colour-coded racism and fear of the ‘non-white other’. Later that same day, a video emerged of England football fans taunting and throwing coins at Roma children in Lille. This came on the back of footage of the same supporters chanting “fuck off Europe, we’re all voting out”. The deep-seated, racist resentment that has been unleashed by the politics of Brexit is creating a climate in which some migrants and British-born minorities will be looking at their options. The terms of this debate have been set entirely by the right, from the neoliberal mainstream to the fascist extreme. The left, owing to its historic position of weakness, is simply nowhere in this discussion. In short: we are in a state of emergency.
