A simmering feud among Britain’s most extreme racists has again exploded into a war of fierce insults. So far this is only online, since none of the groups involved seem capable of contesting elections. (One of the largest, Patriotic Alternative, is unwilling even to register itself as a political party because its leaders fear scrutiny of financial accounts.)

This week the protagonists wearing their supposedly pro-Hamas and pro-Israel hearts on their sleeves were from Patriotic Alternative and its spin-off Homeland Party.

Vain posturing

And the immediate trigger was not an election campaign, not an article, not a leaflet, not even a speech – but (as this is 2025) a mere tweet. An exercise in vain posturing.

In the swastika corner is Mark Collett, once famous for a TV profile titled Young, Nazi, and Proud, and reportedly keen to make a sequel perhaps to be titled Middle-Aged, Nazi, and Shameless.

And in the Red White & Blue corner is Pete North, known on Elon Musk’s X as ‘Northern Variant’. Perhaps the Twitter handle ‘Racist Pseud’ was already taken.

As so often, the latest dispute comes down to whom you hate most. For Pete North, the answer seems obvious, both in principle and as political tactics. Bash Muslims at every opportunity.

Collett used to be Nick Griffin’s blue-eyed boy until they had a tiff that has now lasted for more than fifteen years. North was never anyone’s blue-eyed boy, but can bore for England and has jumped from the curmudgeonly UKIP right into the fascist fellow-traveller scene.

As so often, the latest dispute comes down to whom you hate most. For Pete North, the answer seems obvious, both in principle and as political tactics. Bash Muslims at every opportunity.

And since X is his main platform, he couldn’t resist a barbed riposte on Wednesday to an obscure contributor with only a few dozen subscribers, who asked him: “Does the US have the right to ethnically cleanse Gaza?”

Endless policy tracts

North specialises in either endless policy tracts that hardly any of his fellow fascists can read, or glib one-liners. This time he chose the latter, replying: “Israel does”.

This is consistent with North’s usual pro-Zionist line, commonplace on the Reform/UKIP/EDL scene. And after shifting onto the wilder fringe of the fascist right, North hasn’t changed this side of his politics.

Until now, North had seemed a prize catch for Homeland’s leader Kenny Smith, whose own roots are in John Tyndall’s old-school nazi BNP. More recently he was with Collett’s new-style stormtroopers in PA. Recruiting someone who can write several pages without once feeling the need to quote Hitler or Goebbels seemed like a smart move. During the past year, Homeland has picked up recruits from several corners of the dissident right, and is starting to look like it might be the embryo of a genuine far right party.

Smith’s problem is how to broaden his political tent without pissing off his original, old-school nazi supporters.

The great Smith-Collett split in 2023 that led to Smith’s formation of Homeland was more about ego and ambition than policy. Smith wants to lead a political party. And weirdly enough, since it’s his enemies who have taken the Homeland name, Collett wants instead to build some sort of separate nazi enclave, a state-within-a-state … or, in fact, a “homeland”, though Collett probably thinks the original German Heimat goes better with his lederhosen.

Smith’s problem is how to broaden his political tent without pissing off his original, old-school nazi supporters

At their rival conferences last year, Smith’s guests were from mainstream Polish and German far right parties, while Collett invited open nazis to share his platform.

At every opportunity since, Collett has doubled down by inviting these and other Hitler-worshippers on to his frequent internet streams, and by continuing his regular series of shows with the decrepit Klansman and Jew-baiter David Duke.

And on several of these shows he has taken a swipe at Smith. This isn’t just personal bitterness. Collett has a serious and obvious strategic interest in trying to make sure that if Smith succeeds in recruiting from the Reform/UKIP scene and broader ‘Tory Boy’ online forums, then it should be at the expense of ‘traditional’ nazis who must recognise that they (and more importantly their donations) belong with Collett and PA.

Getting personal

So, within hours of North’s tweet, Collett was on the attack, writing on Telegram, “How far have these ‘British nationalists’ fallen? Imagine joining a nationalist group where the ‘political officer’ supports Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza.”

Three days later he was at it again, but this time, although he didn’t name his target, it was directed at Smith himself, and got very personal:

Another contributor to Collett’s chat denounced North as a ‘Zionist spy’.

Proxy conflict

In truth, neither side in the latest dispute has any real interest and knowledge of the Middle East. For both North and Collett, Gaza is a proxy conflict in which the two sides don’t matter in themselves, but as symbols of ‘pragmatism’ and ‘purity’.

Now the pressure is on Kenny Smith. How long can he tolerate the views of his outspoken new recruit Pete North on this subject, which may cost Smith significant support among the old guard? At the moment, he is engaged in a particularly uncomfortable exercise in fence-sitting:

“We don’t restrict free speech in our Party. His views do not align with mine or the Party on this matter. To my knowledge he hasn’t claimed that his view on this matter is anything but his own opinion.

“Mass movements will have people who have differing opinions on some matters. On this issue, you all know there is no danger it will ever become the party norm.

“The Party and I have always opposed any foreign influence in our homeland and we do not get involved in other nations affairs. Nationalists have always been anti-war and we are no different”.

Obscene fascist echo

This may prove an sustainable position with the old guard. And for North, the question is whether he can accept anything less than Homeland adopting his own stance, an obscene British fascist echo of the Israeli far right’s furthest fringes?

It promises to be an entertaining show. We won’t learn anything about Israel and Palestine from this squabble, but we should learn a lot more about the factionalism that for now (fortunately) is crippling British fascism.