Everyone is against cruelty to animals. Everyone. All it takes is a picture of a malnourished puppy, an injured kitten or a dead seal to get our blood boiling.
Everyone is in favour of looking after old people. We'll all be old one day, and even in our increasingly selfish era, the idea that society must provide a basic level of care to its elderly is deeply ingrained. There is even more support for the idea that those who served this country in the armed forces are deserving of our care. Even if we disagree profoundly with the conflicts soldiers are dispatched to in the name of the United Kingdom, no one could disagree that when they come back, we have a duty of care to these people.
But I suspect, or at least hope, that not everyone is a fascist. That not everyone believes and distributes the latest versions of the stock fairytales of the far right. That not everyone supports the idea of street marches into areas with a high ethnic minority population. That not everyone believes in repatriating immigrants, or treating ethnic minorities like second class citizens. That not everyone believes in a white supremacist, Christian-centric state, with dramatic curtailments in the right to divorce and abortion.
So my challenge is simple. The next time you see a picture of an abused animal on Facebook, or a story about the low level of pensioner benefits, before you click like or share, stop and think. Could this story, emotive though it is, actually be a piece of political propaganda? A message from a group which rose out of the ashes of the BNP, and draws on the street protests of the EDL.
Britain First is not a truth speaking website. It is not an honest Facebook group. It is not an arena for politically incorrect jokes. It is a far right political party, pure and simple. Let's not give them the oxygen of publicity.
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