Book description
What do you do when everything you know and believe in crashes
around you in a hail of fists and boots, flying chairs and broken
glass? And not just once, but seemingly every time you leave the
house? When it seemed that no one was listening, that I was just
another white face from a council estate, and that there was nowhere
else to go and nothing else to do, the violence and racism of the far
right offered me an alluring escape from the mediocrity of school,
work and boredom. In 1980s Britain, the belligerent sentiments of a
few hundred lonely white men went almost unnoticed...But this tiny
minority had grand designs. Fuelled by alcohol and violence, they
built a party that would go on to hold seats in council chambers
across England and in the European Parliament. And hidden behind those
large union flags were individuals - me included - prepared to bomb
and kill to make their dreams a reality. But what do you do when you
realise that the hatred, patriotism and violence haunting you - from
the playground to the pub to the ballot box - stem from your own
demons? The answer: you switch sides.
Matthew Collins now writes and carries out investigations for
Searchlight magazine. He is the magazine's Northern Ireland
correspondent and is noted for his work in Britain investigating and
exposing the English Defence League.
