Hope Not Hate sees ‘extremism’ everywhere

This week, Michael Gove, the UK government’s communities secretary, published a new definition of ‘extremism’. He defined it as ‘the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance’, which has the aim of undermining ‘the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights’. The definition is not statutory and won’t criminalise groups deemed ‘extremist’. But it will prevent the government from engaging with or funding them. And ultimately, it will stigmatise anyone who is classified as an extremist.

The problem with this definition is that it is inescapably subjective and grants the government far too much power. After all, who decides what is and is not an ideology based on ‘violence, hatred or intolerance’? So far, Gove has explicitly aimed his new definition at two far-right groups and three Islamic organisations. But it’s all too conceivable that a future government, in hock to identity politics, could define, say, gender-critical feminists or Christian conservatives as hateful ideologues intent on depriving people of their rights.

Indeed, an insight into how this new ‘extremism’ definition could be abused by the left has just been provided by campaign group Hope Not Hate. Its new report, State of Hate 2024: Pessimism, Decline and a Rising Radical Right, was published on the same day as Gove’s extremism definition. And it effectively classifies traditional values and conservative beliefs as part of, or as fuelling, ideologies of ‘hate’.

Hope Not Hate seeks to push all sorts of right-wing people and groups beyond the pale. It names senior Tories Jacob Rees-Mogg, John Redwood and Iain Duncan Smith in its litany of perceived hate-mongers. It also takes aim at MPs Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates, who chair the New Conservatives faction in the Tory Party. In fact, Hope Not Hate appears to condemn as hateful any politician concerned about the influence of gender ideology in schools and the contents of contemporary sex education.

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