Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FOR RACISTS
Members of ‘patriot’ group posted abuse after Euros final
Adolf Hitler and described AIDS as a “friendly disease because blacks, drug users and gays have it”. A proud fan of National Socialism, he published a book in 2017 describing the “alleged” extermination of six million Jews.
Investigative group Red Flare says the summer camps give Collett a chance to “groom his young followers and give people who are racist online somewhere in the real world where they can spout their bile”. The Sunday Mirror previously exposed PA’s “hateful and poisonous” lesson plan for parents homeschooling during Covid.
Its “Alternative Curriculum” includes racist songs and tells parents to teach kids that “African chiefs” were responsible for slavery. MI5 boss Ken McCallum this week revealed children as young as 13 are being investigated for right-wing terrorism. He described the threat as an almost cult-like phenomenon that is fuelled by online “extremist echo chambers”. There is no suggestion PA members are terrorists. England’s Tyrone Mings this week accused Home Secretary Priti Patel of stoking the fires of racism.
He pointed to her refusal to condemn fans who booed the England team for taking the knee and her labelling the teams’ actions “gesture politics”.
PA definitely objects to taking the knee. In one blog post it describes the action as “demeaning” to white players.
Hope Not Hate’s Matthew McGregor urged the Government to act. He said: “Opposing racism in society is a means to stemming the fascist threat. The Government must step up on this.
“The lack of a coherent strategy for opposing the far right has consequences.”
PA claimed 150 supporters had gathered at last weekend’s summer camp.
Joe Mulhill believes the number was closer to 80 – and that the group is more fractured than it is letting on.
He said: “It’s going through a bit of a crisis at the moment. There’s a big internal split and key figures are leaving.
“There are questions being asked about the leadership of Collett. Quite a lot of the movement is made up of old BNP people – and they all hate Collett.”
But he warned: “PA has grown... since launching in 2019 into a national organisation. For a white supremacist organisation, which includes neo-Nazis, any number is too worrying.”