English Uprising: Brexit and the Mainstreaming of the Far-Right

On the morning of Friday 24 June, the United Kingdom entered a new political era. Britons awoke to the news that 52% of the country had voted to leave the European Union. ''Brexit'' reflected perhaps the biggest vote of no confidence in the political establishment in modern British history. Despite the vote leading to shock and dismay across the globe, this backlash against the political elite had been decades in the making. But how did we get here?

Britain''s vote to leave the EU cannot be detached from its social, economic and political context. The past two decades have seen a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment that was once on the fringes. Conspiracy theories which scapegoat immigrant communities, have become increasingly commonplace in print media. Ultimately, ''mainstreaming'' this racism has combined with populism - a growing sense that the political elite does not understand or represent the needs of ordinary Britons - which culminated in Brexit.

In his timely and important book, Paul Stocker examines how ideas of the far right - always a fringe movement in Britain - have become part of the cultural and political mainstream, especially via a noxious right-wing press, and how these issues are not unique to Britain. Rather, the growth of far-right populism is a Western phenomenon and one with trends which can be witnessed in several European countries, as well as the United States.