The scene: Exeter’s Hampton by Hilton hotel, which accommodates asylum seekers: a Saturday afternoon during the second half of 2025. There’s a small gathering of people nearby, some draped in Union Jacks, one waving the flag of the neo-fascist, anti-Muslim Britain First movement. A woman is bawling ‘Stop the Boats’, and a tubby man in a Union Jack suit is performing a kind of taunting dance, waving his arms and chanting a modified football song.