Cymru and the Far Right: Philosophical roots  and branches.

The brutal monetary policies of the 1980s Thatcherite régime created a wasteland across the Welsh Valleys and laid a foundation and seed bed for the rise of the far right and its present intersectionality with Farage and Reform UK. There has always been a space for a non-Tory right and far right in Wales. The folk memories and realities of the miners’ strike have meant that the Conservatives were always beyond the pale and yet, as we are seeing in Scotland, a social Conservative and faux-interventionist authoritarian right has an appeal, however hidden or denied. 

In the 1930s the Blackshirts had large branches in places like Neath and Swansea. The Welsh chapels in many cases had condemned jazz as the ‘devil’s music’ and condemned African Americans as its purveyor. Even within the nascent Welsh national movement the claim for a rural Welsh and Christian independence fed at best unconsciously into the soil that sustains the far right and Reform UK today. 

The Welsh national movement and its more progressive and eco-socialist wing did not challenge Welsh Labour until the 1960s. It took until the Caerffili by-election of last October for a clear progressive path for Plaid to emerge. Plaid still has a problem with its socially conservative farming wing which, in many respects, speaks Reform through the medium of Welsh. There are problems, too, with Plaid’s fudging in Ynys Môn over nuclear power.

Another strand of the authoritarian right and its Cymru form can be traced back to George Thomas (Viscount Tonypandy) the former speaker of the House of Commons who in policy terms was, in many respects, a proto-Farageist. Martin Shipton’s excellent critical biography of Thomas investigates this theme in detail.

Within the Welsh national movement, the rapidly fading blogger Jac o’ the North distinguished his variety of the far right by posting Viktor Orban videos, endorsing the defence of Confederate American Civil War statues and raving about ‘wimmin, greenies and lefties’. He advocated voting Conservative in Wales and loathed excellent Plaid socialist women within the Senedd.

Smaller right-wing parties within the Welsh independence movement such as Ein Gwlad are an attempt to effectively support the agenda of white males of a certain attitude and outlook.

The rise of Reform within Wales grows from certain consequences, including unintended consequences, of historical and cultural ironies.

Welsh self-determinism is more about survival than the superiority of a crude English nationalism expressed by Farage. In one way Reform and the far right are the Trojan horse that seeks a subtle trap to destroy devolution and the benefits it brings, from the use of the Welsh flag, the invention of a hybrid Union Flag, on which a Welsh Dragon, is imposed, to numerous attempts to culturally appropriate the great song of Dafydd Iwan, Yma o hyd . Particularly these approaches have been used by the so-called Voice of Wales duo Dan Morgan and Stan Robinson who describe their mission as ‘the only opposition to the Communist, Marxist hate groups  of Wales’. They form a link between the far right and Reform UK. They organise regular bridge protests with banners about the 20mph policy, 

were heavily involved in the Caerffili by-election campaign and participate in South Wales-based social media groups supporting Reform.

This article seeks to sketch the broad outlines of those who lurk within and without the fringes of Farage’s party. Some excellent work on the shadowy world of the far right and its links can be found in the journalism of Will Hayward of the podcast For Wales, See Wales and the first class research of the Facebook page Far Right Watch Wales. Strong evidence suggests that the top sixteen Reform UK candidates in the number one position for the twinned constituencies in May’s election for the Senedd will be personally selected by Farage, giving the far right a direct role and route to as many as thirty Senedd members. It’s getting dark and the risk is clear.

Martyn Shrewsbury