A protest in Glasgow last Saturday saw significant disorder as around 400 neo-Nazi, ethnonationalist and anti-migrant protesters gathered on the city green. The event, hosted by Unite the Clans, welcomed members of Patriotic Alternative and the Homeland Party, as well as a variety of Scottish vigilante groups, including Scots Active.
Clips on social media showed attendees performing Nazi salutes, assaulting a non-white delivery worker and shouting “send them home” at a black passerby. Attendees displayed banners reading “Stop the rot, deport the lot”.
Groups of men in balaclavas threw projectiles at police and ran through the city; officers had to separate fist fights between protesters and counter-protesters.
The Scottish anti-migrant scene boasts a particularly overt fascist influence, embracing those from the most extreme groups at public events. This racist thuggery is symptomatic of a normalisation of ethnonationalist rhetoric and attacks on racialised people.
Unite the Clans, formerly Aberdeen Against Illegal Migration, is a Scottish anti-migrant organisation. HOPE not hate’s profile on the group exposes how since their formation, they have platformed neo-Nazi extremists. John Carr of the Homeland Party promoted the so-called Great Replacement theory at their marches and, in response to being called a Nazi, argued that “Nazi is just a word for a white person that is correct”.
A year later, the most prominent members of the team are Josh Fernie, another senior Homeland member, and John Hall Jr, a Scottish anti-migrant activist turned Homeland supporter.
Unite the Clans (UtC) have also previously hosted Geoffrey Farquharson, who in 2016 sent a death threat including Islamophobic and homophobic abuse to Ben Bradshaw MP. Gavin Turpie of the British Democrats has also attended multiple events, even sporting merchandise of the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver at one of them.
The group has a distinctly heavy-handed vigilante approach to activism, having faced criticism when it organised protests outside a primary school in Seaton during school hours. A community centre on the school site was hosting English lessons for asylum seekers.
Saturday’s event was MC’d by John Hall Sr, a founding member of UtC. Recently, UtC began a campaign to drive sex offenders from Scottish streets. Under the catchphrase “toot toot beasts oot”, the team have posted full addresses online alongside meeting times, encouraging followers to come and watch “removals” of offenders. These protests have led to police having to relocate several individuals.
Hall Sr and Hall Jr face criminal charges for disorderly conduct in relation to these gatherings. Hall Jr did not attend his court date on 24th July, and thus an arrest warrant remains for him. As a result, Hall Jr did not appear to speak at the protest, despite being on the speakers list; instead his father read a speech on his behalf.
Instead, protesters heard from the aforementioned Josh Fernie, who chanted “How do we save the nation?” to which the crowd responded “Remigration!” Remigration is a euphemism for the forced removal of non-white people from the UK, a form of ethnic cleansing.
Fernie has previously claimed that in order to be Scottish, one must be white. He and Hall Jr have been photographed together at Homeland fitness events, as well as at a joint Patriotic Alternative and Remigration Now (RN) rally in Nuneaton in March. RN is an overtly fascist organisation led by Steve Laws.
Other speakers included James Hodges (AKA Viking), an English anti-migrant activist who was previously part of the Great British National Protest. That was until the leader, Richard Donaldson, reported Hodges and another member to the police and accused them of planning “domestic terrorism”.
The crowd itself was packed with far-right figures. Richard McFarlane, a well-known figure for the neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative (PA), manned a tent and unfurled a PA banner alongside other protesters.
Harry Jackson (AKA JacksonMedia), an auditor who claims “the Nazis were the good ones” and has displayed British Union of Fascist flags at protests, was also present.
Mark Sinclair (AKA Freedom Dad) and Glen Kane journeyed from Belfast for the event Sinclair, a former member of the UVF, received an 18-year prison sentence for bank robbery in 2003.
Glen Kane, on the other hand, is a convicted sectarian murderer who was jailed for nine years for being part of a gang who beat a Catholic man to death in 1992. Both are well established members of the Northern Irish far-right scene and were photographed alongside Danny Thomas (AKA Danny Tommo) in east Belfast during the riots in June 2026.
The events in Glasgow last weekend are evidence of a growing issue whereby overtly racialised rhetoric, including ethnonationalism and neo-nazism, is becoming less taboo.
Where historically anti-migrant protesters might have been extreme in their own right, but reluctant to associate themselves with overtly neo-nazi figures, localised groups like Unite the Clans are now happy to welcome them.
Protesters unashamedly performing nazi salutes in front of police officers, or throwing traffic cones at an innocent man simply going about his day at work, show how racists are acting with far more confidence.
Prefer to listen? Click the play button to hear the audio version. Harry Shukman Reform UK is staffed by oddballs and enigmas, but none odder…
