I don’t know whether people were taught properly at school or not but there are so many events such as the Calais refugee situation (I refuse to call it a crisis) at the moment that are causing so much nationalist fervour, I can only imagine it is a situation worsened by irresponsible and incendiary stories in right-wing newspapers such as The Mail and The Express.

One of the 20th Century events that, as far as I can recall, was brushed under the history curriculum carpet, was the rise of British Nationalism in the late 1920’s and early 30’s, possibly because that certain, but by no means all, members of the ruling classes were impressed by it (Prince Edward) and funded it (Lord Rothermere) at least on a short-term basis until they saw the ugliness unfold within the British Union of Fascists (The Blackshirts).

If, like me you are a regular Facebook and Twitter user, along with pictures of friends holidays, what they are having for tea, or their child’s school prom, there are often links to ‘Britain First’ (which is an incendiary, nationalist Facebook page) or constant rants about how immigrants are planning to abuse our welfare system or blow up London tube stations. This information, I can only imagine, comes from the right-wing media with an authoritarian agenda that plays on the fears of the masses to distract them from establishment corruption.

Amongst the niceties of the family portraits on social media, there is, sadly, seething and largely unexplainable hatred driven by the inexplicable fear of fear itself.

It is the same fear and hatred that almost had Britain signing up to an axis of National Socialism which may, if history had taken another twist, seen Oswald Moseley, Franco, Mussolini and Hitler, sharing a United Europe where ethnic minorities, the disabled, sick and mentally ill, were all exterminated in a bid to create a European superpower. A Europe where if you showed resistance, had any ancestral links to minority groups, fell ill, or had disabled children, the gas chamber would not be far away.

God only knows where a campaign of eugenics would have left this country but most of the people reading this post wouldn’t have come into existence, yet somehow, there are people, plenty of people, in this country, who seem to reason that Britain should shut its borders and manufacture, build and trade with British people only, because after all, we are Great Britain and we didn’t fight the war to allow foreigners over here etc.

Well, as a matter of fact, we did actually. Britain turned its back on a Fascist agenda and with the valuable assistance of the United States, liberated Europe from National Socialism, eventually achieving peace and allowing freedom of economic movement and human rights. Obviously Europe has not been perfect since 1945, but it has, without doubt, been a better place than it could have easily have become if Nationalism and eugenics had taken hold.

In its purist form, National Socialism often appeals to people when times are hard, as was the case in the depths of depression in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Its leader, an authoritarian, will set out with the intention of protecting domestic industry and banking from international interference, creating an economy where everyone works to create goods and services for people to buy, generating internal wealth to arm the nation against attack.

You can see its appeal until the leader, as a friend of mine put it, thinks he owns people, and that for the whole master-plan to work, disobedience or opposition cannot be tolerated, the weak must be sacrificed, either by extermination or by a sterilisation campaign, and those with foreign blood or religion will have their homes taken and assets frozen before being repatriated, or sent to prison camps for a final solution.

This is achieved by creating a brutal no nonsense state police system that would deny the right of workers to speak or create opposition, as well as controlling the media and imprisoning or indeed killing anyone who showed resistance to nationalist order. Why people still see the appeal of this ideology is beyond me, it really is, but even now, in 2015, we have to to be wary of the dangers of a one party state, especially if the Labour party fail to create a viable opposition that is vital in any democracy.

When I was only holiday in Santorini (Greece) recently, I met a guy and his wife who were Swedish but had originally come from a minority group in Turkey where their families, 40 odd years ago, had faced persecution to the point of not being allowed an education and having assets stripped from them by their oppressors. The guy had moved with his family to Germany where his father and mother found work and he eventually moved to Sweden to become a teacher and by coincidence, meet his future wife (a care worker) who was of the same ethnic origin.

They were really nice people, spending their summers taking advantage of the school holidays by trekking through Europe, seeing new countries and continuing to broaden their minds. Yet 40 years ago, they had to flee their homeland or face, at best, a life a second class citizens, or at worst, death. Thankfully, because of the tolerance shown to them as refugees, both in Germany and Sweden, they have not only gone on to have a happy life, they are also contributing education and care to the countries who took them in.

They didn’t want congratulating, they just liked to tell their story and how they had to be who they were; they were certainly more interesting than talking to a 50 year-old bloke in a Chelsea shirt about the demise of John Terry.

It is a myth that refugees only want to come to Britain, they will go anywhere in Europe where they can find a new life where they will not be persecuted and killed; Germany have taken by far and away the most refugees, not Britain. Of course, immigration comes with its logistical headaches and it somehow has to be brought under control as hideous wars continue across the Middle East and Africa.

However, I really don’t want to be part of a country where we just push the boat back out and turn a blind eye to the slaughter of fellow members of the human race who are doing nothing except trying to survive. Does anyone really believe that any man would put his kids on a raft, risk drowning or being scorched to death, before traipsing across Europe, getting pushed from pillar to post, just so he can get £57:00 a week dole money?

Immigration is an issue that needs solving, but put yourself in the shoes of crying man who has seen his family die and try to give him a bit of respect. Look at the picture above and imagine, just for one moment, if that was you.

It would be awful.