Proscribed loyalist group flags and at least one neo-Nazi banner were displayed at a recent protest in Edinburgh. It was organised by far-right group the Scottish Defence League, modelled on the EDL.The Ferret reported that the anti-immigration demonstration took place on 15 August in the centre of Scotland’s capital on Princes Street. This occurred during the city’s busiest month for tourism, when many foreigners visit the capital, on what is typically one of Edinburgh’s busiest streets. Displayed flags included one with the logos of the Ulster Freedom Fighters and Ulster Defence Association. Both paramilitary groups from the Northern Irish territories are banned under UK terror laws.Another flag displayed the names of not one but two neo-Nazi groups. These groups, ‘Combat 18’ and ‘Blood and Honour’, are references to Adolf Hitler’s initials (A=1, H=8) and the Hitler Youth respectively. The latter was sanctioned by the UK government last year due to suspected terrorist activities.
The flying of these flags comes after Reform UK Scotland’s most online MSP, Thomas Kerr, was caught hanging about with neo-Nazis at a July rally. Kerr defended them, saying he didn’t see any Nazis. Photos beg to differ…
https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2026/07/28/reform-quibble-nazi-label/
Suspicion of ‘terror’ offences
Showing public support for proscribed ‘terror’ organisations is a criminal offence in the UK. Anyone found guilty of that crime could face a 10 year prison sentence, or even longer. As the Ferret reports:
Section 13 of the Terrorism Act makes it an offence to wear, carry or display an item in public in a way that arouses “reasonable suspicion” that a person is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation.
The Scottish Greens urged Police Scotland to investigate the incident while an expert on far right extremism who testifies at terrorism trials said the public display of support for terrorism was “alarming”.
The Scottish Defence League has reportedly said:
Those flags were not SDL members flags and we do not support them in anyway, and they are not welcome to come again to any of our protests. We are not interested in terrorist behaviour nor do we support [it].
Police Scotland has said it is investigating the incident, according to the Ferret‘s investigation.
Human rights campaigners are expressing strong concerns this summer, after repeated summer violence episodes. Far-right groups seem increasingly emboldened and willing to publicly promote racist ideologies.
The Scottish Defence League, formed around 2009, re-emerged recently after years of apparent public inactivity. It broke off from far-right English Defence League, which opposes Islam and instigates racist violence across English cities. The SDL also opposes Islam and refugees, but claims not to be racist.
The Ferret previously revealed that the far-right Scottish group was banned from Facebook for hate speech. That group, the SDL, was linked to neo-Nazis, a convicted paedophile and a jailed bomb-maker.
According to the Ferret‘s sources:
Critics argued that it acted as a front for neo-Nazis, religious bigots and football hooligans intent on causing violence and sectarian divisions.
Back in 2018, SDL member Peter Morgan was jailed for 12 years over terror offences. The Ferret report:
His Edinburgh flat was deemed a bomb factory by police who also found a Ku Klux Klan application form and an al-Qaeda terrorism manual.
A Loyalist paramilitary flag. Photo via a Ferret source.
Racism and unionist terrorism
The Edinburgh protest was attended by “anti-immigration activists” from England supporting the so-called ‘North West Infidels’. That group, closely tied to the National Front, has dodged the spotlight for most of a decade. Unsurprisingly, such groups’ racist activities are surging in today’s political climate.
The Ulster Freedom Fighters group was directly responsible for hundreds of murders, mainly in Ireland. It was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in 1973 and closely linked to the UDA, also banned in 1992. The group claimed responsibility for many sectarian murders using its name, the Ulster Freedom Fighters.
Notorious attacks by the paramilitary group included the shooting dead of five Catholics at a Belfast bookmakers shop in 1992. Another was the Greysteel massacre in 1993, when Loyalist gunmen entered a rural pub and opened fire, leaving eight people dead.
Loyalist terrorists have longstanding links to neo-Nazis including Blood and Honour. Initially a skinhead movement, it takes its name from a Nazi slogan and promotes white power ideology, often through secretive music festivals. ‘Blood & Honour’ (Blut und Ehre) was written on personal knives of Hitler Youths.
In 2025, ‘Blood and Honour’ became the first extreme right-wing group to face financial sanctions imposed by the UK government. These came after it was suspected of
being involved in terrorist activities through promoting and encouraging terrorism.
Combat 18 originally served as security for Blood and Honour but now controls one of its factions. Its name is code for Combat-Adolf Hitler (numbers 1 and 8 in the English alphabet, respectively).
In April, the Ferret revealed there have been 66 alleged offences in Scotland regarding support for banned loyalist paramilitary groups since the Terrorism Act 2000 came into force. (The UK overall does not keep records of such Loyalist terrorism statistics due to differing legislation in the Six Counties.)
In contrast, peaceful anti-genocide protestors have faced over 3,500 arrests across the UK in relation to direct action group Palestine Action. That’s clearly some disparity in state ‘terror’ prioritisations.
Loyalist crimes included a man convicted for flying an Ulster Volunteer Force flag (UVF) on an orange march in Glasgow in 2023. Separately, a Livingston woman was fined for singing sectarian songs in support of the outlawed terror group, though a terrorism charge for hanging a UVF flag on her house was dropped.
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Growing fears of Loyalist terror
Professor Matthew Feldman is an expert on far-right extremism who has testified at more than 24 trials, mostly terrorism related. He told the Ferret:
The extremist UDA umbrella has been proscribed in Britain for more than 30 years. It has the blood of hundreds on its hands. These are violent, extremist groups.
The SDL is not like other ‘patriotic’ groups that mushroomed under the English Defence League after its emergence in 2009. The group is far more radical and also, in my view, openly white supremacist. This isn’t a far-right group, but extreme right.
Maggie Chapman MSP, the Scottish Greens’ justice spokesperson, likewise said to the Ferret:
The display of Nazi and far-right symbols at a demonstration in Edinburgh is utterly abhorrent.
Their aim, she claims, was to frighten people. She added that these symbols of ‘Combat 18’ and ‘Blood and Honour’ were not some “harmless provocations” but:
symbols associated with racist, fascist and sectarian violence, hate and intimidation.
Chapman continued:
There is no place for fascist intimidation on our streets. People have a right to protest and to express political views. They do not have a right to terrorise their neighbours or threaten communities with symbols of violence and hatred.
I urge Police Scotland to investigate whether offences have been committed and use every available power to hold those responsible to account. And where existing law is inadequate, governments must have the courage to strengthen it.
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Featured image via the Ferret
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