Conclusion

Abstract

Over the course of the past two decades, as far-right parties rose to prominence on the continent we could congratulate ourselves on having no domestic equivalent to the French National Front, Belgium’s Flemish Block, Austria’s Freedom Party or Italy’s National Alliance. It seemed that Britain was immune to the scourge of contemporary right-wing extremism. Since the turn of the new millennium, however, while our condition is still far from critical, British society has started to present some worrying symptoms of this ‘continental’ illness. Although it is clearly less afflicted by it than many of its West European neighbours, it is nevertheless true that at no period throughout the entire history of right-wing extremism in Britain, has a far-right party registered as much success at the ballot box as today’s British National Party.