Book review: Bloody Nasty People
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550513512746 |
| Author | Pete Marston |
| Published date | 01 December 2013 |
| Date | 01 December 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book Reviews
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
Book Reviews
60(4) 445–452
ª The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/0264550513512746
prb.sagepub.com
Bloody Nasty People
Daniel Trilling
Verso; 2012; pp 240; £9.99, pbk
ISBN: 978-1844679591
Reviewed by: Pete Marston, Senior Probation Officer, Cumbria
Probation Trust
Whether it is a committed racial extremist, a British National Party (BNP) voter or a
young man attending an English Defence League (EDL) ‘demo’, far right politics and
the associated racism are rarely far from probation work. Although a small part of
the probation caseload is made up of identified hate crime offenders, there is a far
larger population in the orbit of far right ideas, activities and groups. Therefore it
was very interesting to read this authoritative account of far right politics. New
Statesman writer Daniel Trilling has been covering the BNP and the EDL since 2009,
but for this book he has combined interviews with key figures in the movement,
reportage from areas such as Burnley and Dagenham, and historical research to
produce a detailed examination of the far right over the last 20 years.
In ten chapters the book time hops to and fro to maintain the thesis, beginning
with the BNP’s first electoral success on the Isle of Dogs in 1993. From this point
several themes emerge, the first of which is the BNP’s transformation from a street
fighting gang to an organized political party which polled over half a million votes
in the 2010 general election. After splitting from the National Front (NF), veteran
neo-nazi John Tyndell’s founding vision for the BNP was of an organization that
could direct ‘boots and fists’ to ‘defend Rights for Whites’ (p. 35). His strategy was
essentially to wait for what he believed would be the coming race war and then
sweep to power. He was eventually toppled by the book’s central figure Nick Griffin.
Despite his Cambridge degree and intellectual...
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