In this recent documentary, a Channel 4 film crew follows the life of far-right activist and Tommy Robinson supporter Liam Tomsett, as he organises his East Sussex town against the opening of a nearby asylum-seeker detention centre.
The 50-minute film offers an honest, unflinching portrayal of how the reactionary culture war around migration is deeply polarising British society, and the explosive tensions that are building up in provincial England.
We see how ordinary residents’ legitimate anxieties and concerns about migration are whipped up and inflamed by professional far-right agitators, who stream into the local community from across the country.
The raw anger and unfiltered racism on display makes for an unsettling watch. We also see how powerless and frankly pathetic the liberal anti-racist groups appear, with their ‘love, hope, and unity’ approach completely failing to cut across the town’s division.
But beneath this bleak picture, we also get a glimpse of something else, distorted though it may be: a burning, anti-establishment hatred; ordinary people organising themselves and taking direct action to – as they see it – defend their community; and, as things develop, tension arising between ordinary residents and the more extreme far-right elements.
People in these towns feel left-behind, ignored, and enraged. But they’ve been abandoned to the demagogy of the right. This documentary leaves you feeling like British society is sitting on a knife-edge – and the left needs to seriously get its act together.
