A SCOTTISH far-right group is set to be banned by the Government.
As revealed by The Herald earlier this year, ‘Scottish Dawn’ was established shortly after another group, ‘National Action’, was classified as a terrorist organisation by the Home Secretary.
Now the Scottish group could meet the same fate, following a clampdown on far right groups after the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by the Scots-born extremist Thomas Mair.
The move which is believed to be under consideration by civil servants would see anyone proved to have joined Scottish Dawn face prosecution.
The neo-Nazi group's first public appearance was at a demonstration about housing for refugees in Alloa in March.
Members waved bright yellow flags displaying a black symbol known as the “tree of life”, which was also used in Nazi propaganda.
But since then, investigators have been closely studying the group’s activities. One police source has claimed that some members have already stopped waving the Scottish Dawn from flag at public events for fear it might attract the attention of the security services.
Scottish Dawn’s website invokes a Nazi philosophy by using the slogan “blood and soil”, which implies that ethnicity is based solely on blood descent.
The rallying cry was chanted by white nationalists during the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month.
The move against them by the Government was uncovered by a team from ITV News. Investigators believe National Action has followed what could be called ‘the al-Muhajiroun model’.
Once Anjem Choudary’s network was classified as a terror group in 2004, some of its members simply dropped the group’s name to dodge the restrictions placed on it.
Choudary frustrated authorities for years, flouting the ban by rebranding his group. He was jailed last year.
The Home Office refused to comment on whether they are considering proscribing Scottish Dawn.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel