T0mmy R0binson – Two Tier Policing rally round up.
I have heard from friends who were there.
The march mustered at Victoria station. Some of my friends were at Victoria, others went straight to Westminster.
At Westminster tube station the police had put a one way system for pedestrians in place. Buses were on diversion. There were, as usual on a Saturday afernoon, as lot of tourists (many from the US) and football supporters of Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund hoping to see the sights of London ahead of tonights big match. They were all most bemused at being forbidden to turn right out of the station, or to go back in to continue their journeys. The public toilets in the underpass out of Westminster Station (once the most expensive public facilities in London) were closed by order of Transport for London and al the pubs were closed by order of the police. No one was allowed up Whitehall toward Trafalgar Square (my prefered toilets, were I able to attend, would have been either in the former Wetherspoons pub,or the crypt of St Martins in the Fields) as that was where the Stand up to Racism protest was being allowed.
The Telegraph has a photograph; a couple of hundred were in attendance.
A tourist asked a policeman what was going on. “It is a Far-right protest, by Tommy Robinson, if you have even heard of him” My friend heard this and put the family right, explaining about the two-tier policing of softness towards approved groups like Just Stop Oil, BLM and Pro Gaza, but restrictions for patriots like today. The policeman looked embarassed and slipped away.
One of the features to today’s rally was the call for Sir Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to resign over his failure to properly control the weekly pro-Palestine marches.
There is also a report that
a number of pro-Palestinian activists were arrested after breaching police conditions not to leave the pavement where they had gathered around Jubilee Gardens on London’s South Bank.
Police had earlier banned the group of around 50 protesters from entering the borough of Westminster, “to prevent the serious disruption they have said they want to achieve”.
The protesters from the group Youth Demand were also told they could not go onto any bridge over the Thames or leave the pavement after they told police they intended to block roads and bridges.
The report by the Telegraph is an appalling piece of reporting that taints the patriots as ‘far-right’, describes speaker Laurence Fox as ‘the former actor’ and is generally biased and patronising. Readers have made complaints.
The Oldham Times is much more balanced
A third protest, smaller in size and unrelated to the above events, saw nine members of Youth Demand arrested for breaching a Public Order Act.
This is video of a rowdy Pro-Palestinian protest on Tower Bridge earlier this evening which is a contrast to the generally good-humoured patriots.
The most direct route from Victoria Station is straight up Victoria Street. The police took the march the scenic route down Vauxhall Bridge Road and along Millbank past the Tate Gallery and into St Margaret Street. The route and numbers took so long one friend phoned another
“Where are you?”
“I don’t really know, but it looks like Vauxhall Bridge Road”
The official ‘estimate of attendance is 6000 people which is ridiculous. So many were marching that speeches had started at 2pm and marchers were still pouring in until well after the start. Andy Ngo reckons 15-20 thousand which I am told, and would agree from what I could see on the live stream, is nearer the mark.
Some of those allowed into the space looked suspicious, photographing attendees rather than speakers.
General opinion is that the quality of the speakers was good. From the live stream I wasn’t the only one impressed with Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad
“Your dignity as an English man and woman is on the line. Act worthy of the respect of your ancestors.”
and also Gerard Batten who was always worth listening to when he was an MEP and leader of UKIP.
I have not heard anything worrying about the aftermath of the march; the SUTR group in Whitehall seem to be too young and too few in number to be difficult.
The next event will be in Manchester on 27th July. By the end of the rally nearly 900,000 people were watching on-line.