HOPE not hate

In part one of this series, I told the first-hand story of how a gang of hardened racist streetfighters helped trigger the violence in Oldham. Now we turn to what happened next: how the BNP saw the riots not as a tragedy, but as an opportunity.

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It is 25 years since the Oldham riots. In the first of a three-part series, Nick Lowles, CEO and founder of HOPE not hate, gives the exclusive first-hand story of how a nazi gang triggered the trouble.
On the morning of Saturday, May 26, 2001, a six-feet tall, shaven-headed man walked into The Lark public house in Oldham. David Tickle cut a menacing figure. A pub doorman based twenty miles away in Wigan, he was a hardened veteran of pub brawls. Accompanying him was a local hooligan who knew the area well. The two men checked out the bar: it was almost deserted. Good. They bought drinks and waited for their friends to arrive....
Read about Nick's recollections of Oldham 2001 and more about HOPE not hate's work in challenging and exposing the far right by visiting his substack

Visit the HOPE not hate website to find out more about our work.

HOPE not hate explores the assorted extremists representing the far right at the upcoming elections, including Holocaust deniers, crank conspiracists and Crusader cosplayers
7 May will see elections in the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, as well as more than 5,000 council contests across 136 local authorities in England.
Reform UK continues to dominate the radical right, anti-immigrant sphere and stands to win hundreds of seats.
Nonetheless, as is tradition, a variety of reactionaries, oddballs, fascist microparties and independents are competing for the sliver of support to the right of Reform. 
While you can find our investigations into Reform’s candidates in key target seats here, this podcast is an overview of the rest of the far right at the local elections. 
Visit the HOPE not hate website to find out more about our work.

Restore Britain declared party status at the perfect moment. Between a growing appetite for ethnonationalism on the right and the mainstreaming of remigration narratives, Reform UK is simply too vanilla for many extremists’ political tastes. Restore has instantly filled the gap to the right of Reform that UKIP, Britain First and a dozen microparties have been clawing to occupy for years.
HOPE not hate explores the ethnonationalists who have lined up behind Restore Britain. When will leader Rupert Lowe disavow his party’s fascist fanbase?
https://hopenothate.org.uk/2026/04/08/the-company-you-keep-the-extremists-flocking-to-restore-britain/
Visit the HOPE not hate website to find out more about our work.

Join hope not HATE CEO Nick Lowles and Director of Research Joe Mulhall in a special edition of Radio 43 as they discuss the 2026 edition of State of HATE, our annual deep dive into the British far right.
The groups. The networks. The money. The rhetoric. The public mood.
This is the most significant far-right threat Britain has faced in decades, perhaps ever.  But their success is not inevitable.
Understanding the threat is how we stop it.
Read the report today: https://hopenothate.org.uk/state-of-hate-2026/

Visit the HOPE not hate website to find out more about our work.