Far-right group selling battle axes and swords should concern us all

You can get The National's Real Scottish Politics newsletter free and direct to your inbox every weekday. IMAGINE Palestine Action, a local Muslim group or climate protesters started selling swords, daggers and battle axes. Imagine the reaction if the SNP were suddenly punting replica Claymores on their online shop. There would be questions in Parliament, the papers would have a field day. But when it is a group of far-right extremists, with links to active vigilante groups stalking the streets of Scotland, there is relative silence. We revealed this week how the Knight Templar International (KTI) has been flogging an extraordinary offer called the 'Exclusive Knights Templar Order Warrior Package'. It contains a 'Battle LIONHEART Sword and Matching Dagger', according to promotional material sent to supporters and obtained by this paper. If you believe the email sent out to KTI fans, these are high-carbon steel blades forged and hand-finished in Spain. (Image: PA) Another advertisement promoted a 'Templar battle axe', complete with a hardwood shaft and steel reinforcement, which prospective customers were advised was 'a real fighting weapon and not an ornament'. KTI is led by Jim Dowson, a veteran far-right activist who is supporting the vigilante group Scots Active by providing them with stab vests, bodycams and high-visibility security jackets for their street patrols . When The National approached him for comment, Dowson claimed that the weapons were blunt and intended to be ornamental. READ MORE: Far-right agitator vomits and claims 'police can't touch you in sea' in bizarre video Now that might get him in trouble with Trading Standards, given the promises in the promotional material, but it is probably good news for the people of Scotland, if it's true. So why the relatively sanguine reaction from Scottish society? Where are the questions in Parliament, the reams of newspaper stories that accompanied, for example, Palestine Action's fateful raid on RAF Brize Norton? We might say that it's because these things are slowly becoming normalised. You might say that it's generally expected that the extreme fringes of the right-wing are expected to play around with replica weapons – ornamental or not – and dress up in black while marauding around the streets. But it's important to take a step back and realise that these things are absolutely not normal. (Image: Hannah Emma Shedden) It isn't normal to see far-right social media influencers cheer the burning of a tenement flat in Glasgow because they believe it was going to house immigrants. It isn't normal to see gangs of thugs parading around English ports blocking traffic because they want to stop asylum seekers from landing in Britain. And it certainly is not normal to see far-right groups hawking weapons to their followers while telling them a battle axe made from 1065 high carbon steel – especially well adapted for use as a blade – is 'a real fighting weapon and not an ornament'. They do this as they urge their supporters that the 'men of this Nation must step up to defend our own girls'. The rise of far-right street movements should concern us all, especially if they plan to take up arms. Scots shouldn't simply gloss over this and think it's to be expected – we're in dangerous new territory.