Английская Википедия:British fascism

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Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Use dmy dates Шаблон:Fascism sidebar

British fascism is the form of fascism which is promoted by some political parties and movements in the United Kingdom.Шаблон:Sfn It is based on British ultranationalism and imperialism and had aspects of Italian fascism and Nazism both before and after World War II.Шаблон:Sfn

Historical examples of fascist movements in Britain include the British Fascists (1923–1934), the British National Fascists (1924–1928), the Imperial Fascist League (1929–1939), the British Union of Fascists (1932–1940), the British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women (1937–1948) and the Union Movement (1948–1978). More recent examples of British fascist groups include the British Movement (1968–1983), the National Front (1967–present), the British National Party (1982–present), Britain First (2011–present),Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn National Action (2013–2017), and the Sonnenkrieg Division (2015–2020).Шаблон:Sfn

Ideology

Origins

British fascism, like other fascisms, doesn't have a neat "intellectual genealogy"; it developed its ideas from various sources, British and foreign.Шаблон:Sfn

British fascism acknowledges the inspiration and legacy of Italian fascism and Nazism but it also states that it is not a mere application of a "foreign" ideology, alleging roots within British traditions.Шаблон:Sfn

Early British fascism, as seen in the British Fascists, initially had "little evidence of fascism in its ideology".Шаблон:Sfn It evolved its ideals in response to conservative influences on the domestic scene and the post-war anti-labour movement.Шаблон:Sfn From Italian fascism it took inspiration of strong leadership and strong opposition to communism.Шаблон:Sfn

Later British fascism, as seen in the British Union of Fascists, while inspired by, for example, Italian fascism's ideas on the Corporate State,Шаблон:Sfn claimed both its economic and political agenda intend to embody that of Tudor England (1485–1603).Шаблон:Sfn It claimed that its advocacy of a centralised national authoritarian state was based upon the Tudor state's hostility to party factions and to self-interested sectional interests, and upon the Tudor goal of national integration through a centralised authoritarian state.Шаблон:Sfn Supporters saw the Tudor state as a prototype fascist state.Шаблон:Sfn In 1935 A. L. Glasfurd, a member of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), praised Henry VII's subjugation of "lawless barons who had brought about the Wars of the Roses"; he also praised the "Tudor dictatorship" for introducing national policies and restrictions on the export of English capital by self-serving private speculators.Шаблон:Sfn Glasfurd also praised the Tudor state for instituting a planned economy that he claimed was a predecessor of the "scientific" national economic planning of fascism.Шаблон:Sfn

British fascism also claimed the legacy of Oliver Cromwell, who dominated the British Isles in the 1650s; Oswald Mosley claimed that Cromwell brought about "the first fascist age in England".Шаблон:Sfn English political theorist Thomas Hobbes in his work Leviathan (1651) systematised the ideology of absolutism that advocated an all-powerful absolute monarchy to maintain order within a state. Hobbes' theory of absolutism became highly influential in fascist theory.Шаблон:Sfn British fascists claimed that its corporatist economic policy accords with England's historical medieval guild system, with its enlightened regulation of wages, prices and conditions of labour providing precedents for a British fascist corporatist economic system.Шаблон:Sfn

Specific policies could take ideas and inspiration from theorists and politicians of various stripes: for instance, as well as being informed by Italian and Nazi fascism, Mosley's economic policy took inspiration from Keynes and Roosevelt.Шаблон:Sfn Mosley is also seen as taking political and economic arguments from the Edwardian radical right and was influenced by Hegel and Nietzsche.Шаблон:Sfn

Шаблон:Clear left

Tenets

There have been a number of British fascist groups, each with their own emphases; some less developed than others. Below are tenets shared by many of the groups, or those set out by the most established groups.

Societal degeneration and renewal

Шаблон:Seealso Like others on the right, British fascists diagnose the nation as in decline and under threat.Шаблон:Sfn For the BUF, the fragmenting of the British Empire and the changes in gender roles following WWI were examples of the weaknesses of British society.Шаблон:Sfn The BUF and the Union Movement described the weaknesses they saw in misogynistic terms, equating them with femininity.Шаблон:Sfn The decline was blamed on liberalism and outside (usually Jewish) influences and propagandists.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

The fascist cure to this decline was renewal of the nation.Шаблон:Sfn Renewal for the BUF included the assertion of masculinity as virile, strong, hard and fortitudinous, and saw man as rightfully the authority.Шаблон:Sfn Under a Britain run by Mosley's fascists, girls would be educated up to the age of 15 so that they would be able to serve their families and the nation, and married women would be allowed to work but wouldn't need to because men, who are better suited to work, would receive higher wages so husbands would provide for their families.Шаблон:Sfn Mosley called for a 'return of seriousness and the restoration of social values' to curb homosexuality.Шаблон:Sfn

Nationalism and racialism

British fascism is based upon British ultranationalism.

The British Union of Fascists (BUF) sought to unify the British nation in a number of ways. The division between workers and employers, for instance, would be resolved, they argued, by the "machinery of government" (i.e., the corporate state) providing an "equitable distribution of the proceeds of industry" to those involved.Шаблон:Sfn

The BUF also sought to by healing sectarian divide between Protestant and Catholic Britons, and in particular it sought to appeal to Catholic Irish living in Britain.Шаблон:Sfn The BUF declared support for complete religious toleration.Шаблон:Sfn BUF Leader Sir Oswald Mosley emphasised the "Irish Connection" and the BUF held both Protestant and Catholic religious branches.Шаблон:Sfn Mosley condemned the Liberal government of David Lloyd George for being responsible for allowing reprisals between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.Шаблон:Sfn As a result of the BUF's conciliatory approach to Catholics, it gained a substantial support amongst Catholics, and several BUF leaders in Hull, Blackburn, and Bolton, were Catholics.Шаблон:Sfn Support by Catholic Irish in Stepney for the BUF increased after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War that involved clerical traditionalist and fascist forces fighting against an anti-clerical government.Шаблон:Sfn

On racial issues, the various British fascist movements held different—although invariably racist—policies. Mosley's BUF believed that culture created national and racial differences—a policy closer to the views on race by Italian fascism rather than German Nazism.Шаблон:Sfn Initially the BUF was not explicitly anti-Semitic and was in fact based upon the views on race of Austrian Jewish sociologist Ludwig Gumplowicz and Scottish anthropologist Arthur Keith, who defined race formation as the result of dynamic historical and political processes established within the confines of the nation state and that the defining characteristics of a people were determined by the interaction of heredity, environment, culture, and evolution over a historical period of time.Шаблон:Sfn However, Mosley later prominently asserted anti-Semitism, invoking the theory of German philosopher Oswald Spengler, who described that Magian Jews and Faustian Europeans were bound to live in friction with each other.Шаблон:Sfn In contrast to the Nazis, however, Mosley's anti-Semitism was largely conspiratorial rather than racial,Шаблон:Sfn with Mosley often stating "he was against the Jews not for what they were, but for what they did".Шаблон:Sfn Arnold Leese's Imperial Fascist League, on the other hand, promoted pro-Nazi racial policy including anti-Semitism.Шаблон:Sfn

Leadership

For the BUF, only a dictator could bring to an end the weaknesses of the current political and economic system and bring in and manage the new.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn The dictatorship would not be constrained by committeesШаблон:Sfn and talk but would be defined by action.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Mosley's idealised fascist leader was stylised in his post-war writing as the "Thought-Deed Man", described by Daniel Sonabend as "a philosopher, scientist and statesman combined, a man whose genius allowed him to see how the world should be, and then, through his prodigious will, make it so".Шаблон:Sfn

Mosely tried to assuage the British public's fears about a dictator by saying they could vote the government out if necessary (and the monarch would select new ministers to take their places).Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Other members of the BUF, however, advocated for a dictator in the style of Italy's or Germany's,Шаблон:Sfn as did Arnold Leese of the Imperial Fascist League.Шаблон:Sfn

Corporatism

For Mosley, the corporate state was to give the nation its direction: it would set the limits within which individuals and the economy function and "[w]ithin these limits all activities would be permitted and private enterprise and profit-making encouraged".Шаблон:Sfn Foremost, this politics was to be economic:Шаблон:Refn employers' groups and employees' groups within their specific industries would be grouped together into "corporations" that represented their sector (e.g., agricultural, iron and steel, textiles, etc.—there would be twenty of them) in a National Corporation and the government would nominate consumer representatives. The corporations would make decisions on prices, output, and competition, and on expansion and contraction of industries.Шаблон:Sfn The corporatism of the BUF was often talked about using the metaphor of the (healthy, youthful, athletic) body, in which "[e]very organ plays a part in relation to the whole and in harmony with the whole".Шаблон:Sfn

Corporatist policies would also be spread to the empire.Шаблон:Sfn It was seen as natural that the Dominions would accept these policies as it would be beneficial to them.Шаблон:Sfn The spread of corporatist policies would have also led to an increased hold on India and British fascists argued that it would have improved working conditions there.Шаблон:Sfn

Economics

In economics, the BUF opposed both socialism and laissez-faire economics for being an outmoded system and proposed instead a national syndicalist economic systemШаблон:Sfn guided by a corporate state.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Refn While Mosley was against liberal or, as Matthew Worley puts it, "untrammelled" capitalism,Шаблон:Sfn he wasn't against the system as a whole—rather, he wanted to retain capitalismШаблон:Sfn and "make it more perfect".Шаблон:Sfn For Mosely, a more perfect system was for the State to manage capitalism,Шаблон:Refn with the government regulating "the factors of supply and demand by the manipulation of wages and price levels".Шаблон:Sfn Mosley declared: "Capitalism is a system by which capital uses the nation for its own purposes. Fascism is a system by which the nation uses capital for its own purposes".Шаблон:Sfn Thus, Webber categorises Mosley as a "capitalist statist"Шаблон:Sfn and Rubin describes the BUF's economics as "fascist capitalism".Шаблон:Sfn The BUF also wanted Britain and its empire to be self-sufficient, an autarky.Шаблон:Sfn

In contrast to Mosley, Imperial Fascist League leader Arnold Lees was, according to Webber, an "anti-capitalist statist".Шаблон:Sfn He had "old-fashioned" solutions to economic issues, wanting to "re-establish a form of pre-industrial aristocratic rule in which industrial interests were to be controlled by political appointees and financial interests made the servant of the state by tightening control over investments".Шаблон:Sfn

Foreign policies

The fascism of the BUF had "selective pacifism": it was non-interventionist and argued against war when it was not in defence of the United Kingdom or the British Empire.Шаблон:Sfn It believed the only threat to the British Empire was from the Soviet Union.Шаблон:Sfn In defence of this policy Mosley pointed to Benjamin Disraeli who opposed going to war with Turkey over its mistreatment of Armenians.Шаблон:Sfn

BUFШаблон:Sfn and IFLШаблон:Sfn economic policies were isolationist, desiring Britain and its empire to be an autarky.

Militarism

BUF militarism was strong: for William Joyce, "war and imperialism were the ultimate expressions of national identity against which there could be no valid objections". Leese of the IFL was of a similar opinion.Шаблон:Sfn

Traditionalism and modernism

Шаблон:Seealso

The BUF declared support for the British monarchy, regarding the monarchy as a beneficial institution for its role in bringing Britain to preeminence in the world, and seeing it as a symbol of Britain's imperial splendour.Шаблон:Sfn Its support went as far as "Absolute loyalty to the Crown" with Mosley saying that British fascists aimed to "in every way maintain its dignity".Шаблон:Sfn

The BUF declared its support for complete religious toleration, but also declared that it sought to merge both religious and secular spheres of the nation into a "higher harmony" between church and state, by supporting political representation for leading clerics in the House of Lords and state maintenance for religious schools for those who demanded them.Шаблон:Sfn The BUF declared its support for Christianity and its opposition to atheism, saying "atheism will perish under British Union; Christianity will find encouragement and security, in which it may prosper to the glory of its Creator".Шаблон:Sfn

The BUF stressed the need for Britain to be linked to modernity, especially in economics. Mosley had declared such in 1931 in addressing the action needed in response to the onset of the Great Depression: "we have to face modern problems with modern minds, we should then be able to lift this great economic problem and national emergency far above the turmoil of party clamour and with national unity could achieve a solution adequate to the problem and worthy of the modern mind".Шаблон:Sfn They found "the money spent on both scientific and technical research [was] absurdly inadequate".Шаблон:Sfn

History

Origins

In the period after the First World War, there was unrest and change in the United Kingdom and the British Empire: unrest in Egypt, for instance, civil war in Ireland, the rise of Indian nationalism in the British Raj, strikes in Scotland; the Russian Revolution had begun in 1917 and was inspiring people;Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn the labour movement was gaining more importance; more people had been given the right to vote.Шаблон:Sfn According to historian Liam Liburd, organised fascism began in Britain because "the forces of diehard conservatism, a sort of semi-aristocratic movement of ex-military men and of Tory peers", were fearful about these challenges to the British status quo and connected them together with belief in a Jewish world plot.Шаблон:Sfn Historian Camilla Schofield summarizes these "early threads" of British fascism as "imperial anxiety, revulsion towards the undiscipled masses, fear of communism, and antisemitism" and to them adds "stories of a glorious, unblemished past".Шаблон:Sfn Within months of Mussolini taking power in Italy (his government forming on 31 October 1922), organised British fascism had begun (the first British group with "fascists" in its name was the British Fascists, which formed on 6 May 1923Шаблон:Sfn), inspired by what they saw as Mussolini taking charge of a weak parliamentary system and instilling discipline and national pride, and getting rid of corruption in government.Шаблон:Sfn According to historian Martin Pugh, British fascists argued there were the same kind of problems they saw in Italy within Britain and its empire so a political movement similar to the one now ruling Italy would be beneficial to Britain.Шаблон:Sfn

British fascism before the BUF

The interwar fascist group that left the most indelible mark on Britain was Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF), founded in 1932; but Britain's first avowedly fascist group, the British Fascists (BF),Шаблон:Sfn formed a decade earlier, in 1923, a matter of months after Mussolini took power in Italy.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Refn The BF was inspired more by Mussolini's example than his ideology,Шаблон:Sfn perhaps, at least initially,Шаблон:Sfn being "fascist in name only".Шаблон:Sfn The uniting threads for members of the group were anti-communism and the British status quo:Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn they were concerned about the labour movement,Шаблон:Sfn the Labour party's leftist politics, and communism, which they saw as the threat to Britain and its empire.Шаблон:Sfn Of 1920s British fascism, G. C. Webber says members of the movements wanted a "stronger dose of conservatism than the Conservative Party could or would provide",Шаблон:Sfn and the BF was no exception: it was "basically a Conservative movement",Шаблон:Sfn attracting the "Die Hards" in the Conservative party,Шаблон:Sfn members of the military and the aristocracy, advocating for the interests of the aristocracyШаблон:Sfn and the Conservative vote.Шаблон:Sfn The BF was active in strikebreaking and stewarding for far-rightШаблон:Sfn and Conservative speakers.Шаблон:Sfn Its lack of truly fascist ideology and tepid action led to members defecting to other fascist groups and the accusation by Arnold Leese, who left the BF and lead the Imperial Fascist League, of being "conservatism with knobs on".Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

The rest of the decade before the formation of the BUF was marked by the formation and splintering of a number of smaller fascist groups.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Refn The BF, the largest of this period, peaked at a membership of several thousandШаблон:Sfn but dwindled by the early 1930s to between 300 and 400 members.Шаблон:Sfn Other groups, like a BF splinter group the National Fascisti, were more ideologically fascistШаблон:Sfn but smaller, drew little attentionШаблон:Sfn and had little impactШаблон:Sfn — "their actions were limited to petty demonstrations and acts of vandalism"Шаблон:Sfn — although it was through these groups that leading fascists of the 1930s developed. For instance, along with Arnold Leese, Nesta Helen Webster, Neil Francis Hawkins, E.G. Mandeville Roe, H.J. Donavan, and William Joyce all started in the BF.Шаблон:Sfn Fascism in Britain became mainstream, however, with the establishment of the Mosley's British Union of Fascists.Шаблон:Sfn

British Union of Fascists

Шаблон:Main

Файл:Oswald Mosley and Benito Mussolini 1936.jpg
Italy's Duce Benito Mussolini (left) with Oswald Mosley (right) of the BUF during Mosley's visit to Italy in 1936

The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was formed by Sir Oswald Mosley in October 1932 following his failed attempt to start a more traditional political party, the New Party.Шаблон:Sfn The BUF was "Britain's most intellectually coherent fascist movement".Шаблон:Sfn Mosley's main policy was economic:Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn an imperialist, isolationist economy that would pull Britain out of the Great Depression.Шаблон:Sfn For the BUF, this new economic policy, in which the state would use capitalism for its own purposes, could only be achieved under the leadership of a dictator,Шаблон:Sfn supported by elected experts.Шаблон:Sfn The current political system, according to the BUF, was old, slow and unfit for the modern age.Шаблон:Sfn The BUF marked itself as a modern movement with an interest in technology,Шаблон:Sfn and also saw itself connected and loyal to British traditions and history, like the monarchyШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn and the Tudors.Шаблон:Sfn It received funding from both Italy's National Fascist Party and Germany's Nazi Party.Шаблон:Sfn

A number of smaller fascist groups formed and splintered during the years the BUF operated,Шаблон:Refn but it was Mosley's group that had most public success.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn The BUF had its peak membership — between 40,000 and 50,000 members — in its first few years of existence, partly because of the support the fascists received from the Daily Mail and the Sunday Dispatch.Шаблон:Sfn Mosley, too, was a charismatic leaderШаблон:Sfn and people were attracted to what Bret Rubin calls the "flash and zeal" of the movement.Шаблон:Sfn The group attracted people from across the political spectrum, although most of its members were from families that supported the Conservative party, people for whom British fascism was "a more staunch expression of their toryism, a surer way to preserve the empire, support the monarchy, and continue to agitate for an ethnically homogeneous nation".Шаблон:Sfn It aimed a lot of its attention at recruiting young members and was more than an outlet for political interests, running branch activities, dances, camps.Шаблон:Sfn Women comprised a quarter of its membership.Шаблон:Sfn

Active membership of the group declined to about 5,000 in 1935 following a rally they held at the Olympia exhibition centre in London on 7 June 1934. During the rally, anti-fascist hecklers were beaten up by BUF stewards. Although this was not the first time this happened,Шаблон:Sfn this time it resulting in disastrous publicity for the BUF.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Lord Rothermere, the owner of the Daily Mail and the Sunday Dispatch, removed his public support for the group.Шаблон:Sfn However, support still came from both urban and rural areasШаблон:Sfn and membership possibly increased to about 16,000 by late 1936, a level at which it stayed until the end of the decade (see below), at which point it increased to about 22,500.Шаблон:Sfn

Following Olympia,Шаблон:Sfn the BUF's antisemitism became more prominent.Шаблон:Sfn Bret Rubin contends that, as the BUF's concepts were not taking hold, the group was "pressured to conform to existing fascist stereotypes" in a bid for popularity.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Refn Mosley considered this new tack the reason for the increase in membership his group experienced in the mid-1930s.Шаблон:Sfn However, Rubin continues, rather than being accepted by mainstream Britain, the BUF became "a safe haven for anti-Semites, lonely military officers, and radical pseudo-intellectuals", and "the average Briton regarded him as a dangerous and violent would-be despot".Шаблон:Sfn The BUF was regarded as not fascist enough by the Imperial Fascist League, however.Шаблон:Sfn

The Battle of Cable Street in 1936 dealt another blow to the BUF, where Mosley was seen as an inspirer of hateШаблон:Sfn and the level of popular opposition towards the BUF was illustrated.Шаблон:Sfn At least 6,000 policemen charged with protecting the up-to 5,000 strong fascists' march through a Jewish area of London clashed with an anti-fascist counterdemonstration of at least 100,000 people.Шаблон:Sfn Then the BUF suffered from the Public Order Act 1936, passed in 1937 in part in response to Cable Street,Шаблон:Sfn which banned political uniforms and paramilitarism.Шаблон:Sfn According to Bret Rubin, by 1937 Mosley had become a political pariah, "the hated leader of a radical oppositional movement".Шаблон:Sfn

The BUF still had moderate public support, however, and membership rose when it started its anti-war campaign in 1938.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn By September 1939, membership was about 22,500.Шаблон:Sfn Following the start of World War II and fearing a fifth column supporting the Axis powers, the BUF was banned in May 1940 under Defence Regulation 18B; just under 800 of its members were imprisoned, including most of its leadership.Шаблон:Sfn Other fascist groups, including The Link, the Imperial Fascist League, and the Nordic League, also closed,Шаблон:Sfn or ceased public activity, as war approached.Шаблон:Sfn However, British fascist organisations and individuals still operated during WWII.

British National Party

Шаблон:Main

The British National Party (BNP) is a British fascist political party. Founded in 1982,Шаблон:Sfnm it reached its greatest level of success in the 2000s, when it had over fifty seats in local government, one seat on the London Assembly, and two Members of the European Parliament.Шаблон:Sfnm

Taking its name from that of a defunct 1960s far-right party, the BNP was created by John Tyndall and other former members of the fascist National Front (NF).Шаблон:Sfnm During the 1980s and 1990s, the BNP placed little emphasis on contesting elections, in which it did poorly.Шаблон:Sfnm Instead, it focused on street marches and rallies,Шаблон:Sfn creating the Combat 18 paramilitary — its name a coded reference to Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler — to protect its events from anti-fascist protesters.Шаблон:Sfnm A growing 'moderniser' faction was frustrated by Tyndall's leadership, and ousted him in 1999.Шаблон:Sfnm The new leader Nick Griffin sought to broaden the BNP's electoral base by presenting a more moderate image, targeting concerns about rising immigration rates,Шаблон:Sfnm and emphasising localised community campaigns.Шаблон:Sfnm This resulted in increased electoral growth throughout the 2000s,Шаблон:Sfnm to the extent that it became the most electorally successful far-right party in British history. By the 2015 general election, the BNP's membership and vote share had declined dramatically,[1][2] groups like Britain First and National Action had splintered off, and the English Defence League had supplanted it as the UK's foremost far-right group.

Ideologically positioned on the extreme-right or far-right of British politics, the BNP has been characterised as fascist or neo-fascist by political scientists. Under Tyndall's leadership, it was more specifically regarded as neo-Nazi. The party is ethnic nationalist, and it once espoused the view that only white people should be citizens of the United Kingdom. It calls for an end to non-white migration into the UK. It called initially for the compulsory expulsion of non-whites but, since 1999, it has advocated voluntary removals with financial incentives. It promotes biological racism and the white genocide conspiracy theory, calling for global racial separatism and condemning interracial relationships. Under Tyndall, the BNP emphasised anti-semitism and Holocaust denial, promoting the conspiracy theory that Jews seek to dominate the world through both communism and international capitalism. Under Griffin, the party's focus switched from anti-semitism towards Islamophobia. It promotes economic protectionism, Euroscepticism, and a transformation away from liberal democracy, while its social policies oppose feminism, LGBT rights, and societal permissiveness.

Operating around a highly centralised structure that gave its chair near total control, the BNP built links with far-right parties across Europe and created various sub-groups, including a record label and trade union. The BNP attracted most support from within White British working-class communities in northern and eastern England, particularly among middle-aged and elderly men. A poll in the 2000s suggested that most Britons favoured a ban on the party.Шаблон:Sfnm It faced much opposition from anti-fascists,Шаблон:Sfnm religious organisations, the mainstream media, and most politicians, and BNP members were banned from various professions.

Notes

Шаблон:Notelist

See also

References

Шаблон:Reflist

Works cited

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Books

Book chapters

Journal articles

Articles

News articles

Booklets and pamphlets

Interviews

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Шаблон:UK far right Шаблон:Nationalism in the United Kingdom Шаблон:Fascism