Watching The Walk In on ITV. It is not well done but it is surprising that it is done at all. Of course, I can only salute Hope Not Hate. They did things I would never dare to do. They made a real difference.
That said the drama makes it clear that so far as the state response to National Action (a banned fascist organisation which according to the documentary was plotting to kill a woman MP) it was the Counter Terrorism unit and Special Branch (the political police) who held the coats of Hope Not Hate (the group that actually did the heavy lifting).
MI5 never gets a mention for the simple reason that it was too busy chasing inoffensive elderly communists.
Yet if there is a point to MI5 (which is dabatable) it is combating banned terrorist organisations like National Action, not chasing Chinese academics who it is singularly ill equipped to deal with.
One further point. Technology. If Hope Not Hate used technology in the way it is portrayed in this drama today, it would not be in action very long.
See https://hopenothate.org.uk/2022/09/20/press-release-hope-not-hate-walk-in-itv-drama/
Jonathan Brind