The conviction of Ben Hannam for membership of National Action is welcome. NA was a dangerous, a far right terror group that was proscribed by the Home Secretary in December 2016. This conviction highlights the continued danger posed by far right extremists.
https://twitter.com/DdesimoneDaniel/status/1377588660338577409
Hannam is the 60th far right activist or sympathiser to have been convicted of terror-related (or similarly violent) offences since early 2017. That is more than the total convicted for the previous 20 years. A threat we cover in this year's State of Hate: hopenothate.org.uk/research/state…
What is so concerning is how Hannam joined the police in the first place and managed to operate freely inside it without his involvement in far right politics being known. Questions must be asked about police vetting, and how well the authorities were monitoring groups like NA.
Given Hannam's young age when applying for a job, it would have seemed sensible for the police to have asked his school for a reference. If they had, they would have learnt of concerns over his racist and vile anti-Muslim views.
Given the changing nature of Britain’s far right, and it’s move to a post-organisational state, it seems incredible that the police only ask recruits about membership of the BNP. This is a failure which allowed a nazi activist to join the force.
The fact that it took a public dump of information for the police to realise that one of their own was a member of a nazi terror group is alarming. Violent far right activists pose the fastest growing terror threat. The authorities must do much more to face that threat down.
As @thetimes says, questions *must be asked* about police vetting and how well the authorities were monitoring groups such as National Action ⬇️
thetimes.co.uk/article/secret…
thetimes.co.uk/article/secret…
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