Democratic Football Lads Alliance March through London

I was on my way home from holiday yesterday so these photographs and report of the Democratic Football Lads Alliance March through London on Saturday comes to you courtesy of friends who were there, including Cliff Dixon of the English Patriot blog supplemented by other public media.

The DFLA mustered at Park Lane expecting to march to Whitehall for speeches and the laying of wreaths. Their purpose was to protest and raise awareness of many of the wrongs in this country at the moment, in particular the grooming and rape gangs who are still in operation even while others are being brought to justice and the treatment of our armed forces, both serving and veterans. They were joined by the group from the North East of England, Justice for the Women and Children who are concerned at the huge increase in the number of rapes and sexual assaults in Sunderland and the surrounding area. I took this picture (above left) from two frames of their video on their Facebook page of them lining up to join the march. That’s a join down the middle, making the man with the flag look odd. Do they look like “Far-right thugs” to you? They don’t to me.

Also present were the families of Justice for Our Boys, Josh, Harry and George, the three boys killed by a hit and run driver. The driver was eventually traced and received a paltry sentence for three deaths. His passenger who also ran leaving three boys to die on the pavement has been charged with nothing. His is known locally for his jihadi sympathies and it is feared that this is protecting both him and the driver from the full censure of the law.

As you can see the march was led by wreath bearers showing their favoured football teams. There were men and women, young middle-aged and elderly.

I am told that there were a good 5000 people present; even more would have been even better, but we will always say that. Here they march down Pall Mall towards Trafalgar Square. 

As Cliff Dixon described, “The police had created sterile areas at the end of Whitehall and at Trafalgar Square. AntiFA were in the sterile area outside the Moon on the Mall and fought running battles with police ahead of the march arriving”. Antifa were allowed to hold Trafalgar Square and massed on the steps of Nelson’s Column.  The press reported yesterday afternoon in headlines “Violence erupts at Far-right (alternatively Anti-Muslim) March” omitting to mention that the violence came from Antifa, and the police. A man who I am told is aged 74, who was not holding any weapon, stick, flare, not even an umbrella, received sufficient blows from a baton wielding policeman such that he fell to the ground.

This is Antifa trying to break the police cordon at the junction of Trafalgar Square and Charing Cross.

By the side of the National Gallery they set off red smoke flares.

A respected elderly veteran tried to discuss the DFLA route and their policing with a liaison officer. A veteran of the troubles in Northern Ireland he has more than a little experience of troublesome crowds.

The left-leaning, paid for by the Daily Mirror, self-proclaimed ‘anti-racist’ outfit Hope not Hate captioned their photograph on twitter  Police draw their batons in London as antifascists line up to block the path of the Demented Football Lads Alliance. They are so droll and witty. 

The Daily Mail captioned this photograph (below) of further along the para-military pseudo IRA line up Counter protests organised by Stand Up To Racism and Unite Against Fascism were also seen at the march clashing with members of the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA). That newspaper does at least seem to have realised that the counter groups bore their share of responsibility for the violence.

One of my friends who was observing was advised for his own safety to make his way into the Clarence pub at the top of Whitehall. There he met some bemused and nervous American tourists who had been given the same advice. Other tourists were escorted into the safety of McDonalds next door.

The Mail also reported and photographed a Nazi salute. I’m told that these, unwise and wrong, were the result of extreme exasperation, indeed provocation, at the Antifa taunts of “Nazis off our streets”. The old saying is Give a dog a bad name…

Eventually the wreaths were laid at the foot of the Women’s Memorial in Whitehall. This was fitting as protection of women and children was one of the main concerns of the march.

I have no eye witness reports of the speeches as yet.

Afterwards the police tried to hold Antifa back as they were intent on seeking out and, in their terminology “smashing” any marchers still in the area who were getting refreshments.  
This has saddened and angered my friends.

Antifa proceed down Whitehall and “smashed” the flowers and wreaths laid. What kind of person destroys flowers left at the foot of a memorial to the 7 million women who served in whatever capacity in a war against fascism? I can only conclude those very fascists who we thought were defeated in 1945. Returned in the guise of antifascists. Churchill didn’t say it; but somebody did, and whoever he or she was, they were right.

Photographs, unless otherwise stated, taken by, and used with the permission of friends who were there. London October 2018