Liverpool and Everton fans must change one chant this Premier League season in fight for city's future

The last time the far right came to Liverpool, a small group of the English Defence League faced strong opposition at Lime Street and were immediately laughed out of the city against a chorus of Benny Hill music. The moment quickly became part of Merseyside lore and emboldened the region's reputation as a place where intolerance would simply not be tolerated.

While Liverpool was maybe never as true of a socialist utopia as we liked to think it was, the disturbing riots we have witnessed over recent weeks have served as an alarming wake-up call of the division that now exists in some quarters. It has been uplifting to see how the Southport and Walton riots have been met with a response truer to the Merseyside we know and love when huge groups of people joined anti-fascist protests to protect important cultural spaces that had received threats of violence from the far right.

While I'm hopeful this is an indication a corner has been turned and the violent scenes are a thing of the past, it's difficult to get away from the fact, for the first time I can remember, Liverpool feels like it's in the grip of an identity crisis.

The football season returned last week, which brought about further warnings across the UK as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urged the police to remain on high alert amid fears of more disorder. Thankfully none of this came to pass, but the warning was perhaps expected as there are fears some clubs around the country do have links with the far right.

However, this is not true of the city's two Premier League sides, who provide a way to restore a purer sense of the socialist identity that has characterised the region since the 1980s. I grew up in Walton and football is the beating heart of the area as you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who does not identify themselves as a Red or a Blue.

Supporter culture leads the way for the views held by people in the area as the terraces of Merseyside are educational spaces where the region's socialist identities were formed and then passed down to the next generation. None of this could be clearer than with the Fans Supporting Foodbanks initiative between the Blue Union and the Spirit of Shankly which has been an incredible force for good in the community.

Certain clubs around the country regularly engage in poverty chanting, but this is always met with outrage from an Everton or Liverpool fan, who wouldn't dare stoop so low. Supporters engaging in such chants would be branded by anyone from the city as "Tories", a term that will be considered an insult to many from Merseyside.

The anti-Tory sentiment has been fostered by football fan culture as a regular chant from the terraces over recent years, telling the then-government in no uncertain terms just what they think of their policies. The "f*** the Tories" chant provided fans with a much-needed voice during a time when 14 years of austerity measures had a devastating impact on the region.

However, the chant is somewhat redundant ahead of the upcoming Premier League campaign after the general election saw the Conservatives wiped out of power in a landslide defeat.

The worrying rise of fascism that has reared its ugly head on our streets over the summer has meant the voice of football fans could be put to more effective use to address this more present threat in our society. The Everton and Liverpool sides are the best examples possible of multi-culturalism in action with players from all different countries and faiths united by the colour of the shirt they are wearing.

Liverpool is a city that has always rejected hatred and racism and the stands of Anfield and Goodison Park provide an ideal battleground to help regain a sense of our region's true welcoming identity. F*** the Tories has served its purpose for now, this season its time for the chant to be altered to defiantly show that fascists are not welcome in Liverpool.