For the last two years, there’s been a rising tide of anti-immigrant protests north and south of the Border after the murder of three children in Southport by Axel Rudakubana. Even though he was born in Britain, the colour of his skin fuelled the prejudice that he was an illegal immigrant or asylum seeker.

But suddenly, these protests have taken on an even darker and more threatening manner which to me have echoes of Oswald Mosely’s Blackshirts of the 1930s.

No longer are these protests just against migrants after they have arrived on our shores via perilous journeys. Now they are about trying to stop migrants reaching our shores in the first place.

No longer are the protests a chance for a drunken afternoon of overwhelmingly men waving Union Jacks and shouting obscenities in a city centre. These new protests in the ports of Dover, Poole and Portsmouth (along with a city centre demo in Glasgow last Saturday and one outside the Scottish Parliament in June) could foreshadow an attempt to create a street fighting force which seeks to stop others from demonstrating and intimidates opposition off our streets. This would be to seek to complement gaining representation through any public office.

Read more by Gregor Gall

Marra and Fagan cannot restore Scottish Labour's lost soul

Second votes and SNP: what Scotland’s 2026 election exposed

Why won't the left of centre parties talk about class?

While many of the protests so far have been organised under the spurious slogan of "Protect our Women and Girls" – especially so when a fair proportion of the male protestors........

© Herald Scotland