Tommy Robinson’s Court Hearing

“Why don’t you just f**k off you c**t?” were the words that first greeted me when I arrived at the edges of Tommy Robinson demo. To be fair, being of middle eastern descent doesn’t exactly make me welcome among Robinson supporters but I kept my head down and people mostly just ignored me. The first thing I noticed upon arriving is that there were about 200 Robinson supporters and about 30 anti-fascist counter-protestors. Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Christopher Yaxley Lennon, was attending a court hearing at the Old Bailey for a retrial after being charged with contempt of court earlier this year.

The police were out in force attempting to contain the protestors and keep the entrance to the Old Bailey clear. I decided the front of the Old Bailey would have some good photo opportunities. Soon I was trapped between a police line on one side of me and protestors shouting ‘free Tommy’ slogans as Stephen was escorted by his entourage/bodyguards to the front of the Old Bailey. I couldn’t hear the short speech that he made to a camera but I was surprised that he was actually kind of short in person. It was quite a surreal experience standing a metre or two away from a man who represents an existential threat to my existence. The atmosphere was tense, to say the least.

For a crowd so opposed to diversity there was quite a variety of different demographics and factions, albeit most people were white British given the nature of far-right politics. The crowd was mostly men but not by much and while the age range was quite broad I would say most people were somewhere between 30-50 with a surprising amount of young people. There were some interesting organisations in attendance UKIP, Generation Identity and For Britain to name a few. Generation Identity is a “pan-European Identitarian Movement” seeking to preserve European culture and western civilisation with links to Alt-right. ex-UKIP leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters started For Britain, a party that is unsurprisingly pro-Brexit, anti-immigration and definitively far right. Additionally, there were a number of Stephens old football hooligan friends and members of the EDL.

Freedom of speech is of course always a hot topic at right wing demonstrations and this was no exception, but I felt Robinson’s supporters brought a new level of contradiction to the table. On the one hand, I overheard the phrase ‘the left are so intolerant to our beliefs’ or something of similar sentiment, followed by someone yelling an overtly racist slogan that I have absolutely no wish to repeat. The far-right has been quite effective at weaponising liberal values and rhetoric for arguably incredibly illiberal beliefs and policies and will be a recurring theme throughout this project.

While the numbers weren’t staggering it’s certainly bigger than most far-right demos that used to happen 2-3 years ago before Brexit. While I don’t want to engage in fear-mongering, the far right is definitely on the rise illustrating that the right’s online presence is starting to translate into real-world action. The counter-protest being so small and ineffective is definitely concerning, the Left needs to take these fringe groups seriously before they move into the mainstream.