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.

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

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.