The response from the Establishment to the Unite the Kingdom protest that took place in central London last Saturday reveals politicians are shaken. And they should be. What was largely a peaceful outpouring of patriotism and free speech is being framed as a ‘far-right’ gathering dominated by trouble-makers attacking the police.
The PM doubled down on this interpretation earlier this week when he described the demonstration as “plastic patriotism”. In an interview with Channel 4 News, he said: “It sent a shiver through so many of our communities who now feel more scared than they did before.”But the only community who should be scared is our political elite. The vast gathering of ordinary people showed just how out of touch the majority of those in the Westminster bubble are with what Britons think.
The undermining began almost immediately; with media estimates of around 110,000 people taking part. In fact, some analysts have since put the number of marchers at closer to a million, something certainly borne out at the sight of the capital’s wide streets packed with people. These later estimates make the number of trouble-makers – and make no mistake, every single one of them must be condemned – even less representative of the majority.
Equally, attacks on the police were seized upon in much of the mainstream media coverage. Yet while every incident is appalling, there were just 25 arrests compared to 528 at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival which was deemed a ‘success’ by left-leaning commentators.
Needless to say, our two-tier PM picked up the disorder, saying: “We will not stand for assaults on police officers doing their job or for people feeling intimidated on our streets because of their background or the colour of their skin.”
Quite clearly, a significant number of people of colour took part in the Unite the Kingdom march and did not feel intimated. It is the Left that likes to deepen divisions along racial lines so they can supposedly ride to the rescue of minorities and get their votes.
Securing our borders should be the first duty of government and yet both Labour and the Tories have failed abysmally. Nigel Farage is quite rightly filling this political vacuum with his Reform UK party but there are four long years to wait until the next elections and voters want to demonstrate their concerns now, waving our national flags as symbols of their resistance to do-nothing parties who consider mass and uncontrolled immigration a good thing when economic evidence largely points to the opposite.
Any large event inevitably attracts an anti-social minority who see it as a chance to cause trouble. And I’m not even going to mention the weekly anti-Israel, pro-Gaza demonstrations that have made many British Jews scared to enter city centres.
Equally, the mainstream media led by the BBC has repeatedly branded the march a far-right event, but the vast majority of flag-wavers were ordinary, non-radical citizens concerned about uncontrolled levels of mass migration into this country. These were, on the whole, family people. What about the opposing demonstration?
Stand up to Racism is a front for the radical, far-left Socialist Workers’ Party and there were menacing ‘Anti-Fascist’ activists among them wearing black face masks. Were they described as such? Nope. “Let in every refugee, throw the Nazis in the sea,” they chanted, yet again misusing Nazi and Fascist imagery to demonise free-minded citizens concerned about the future of their country.
No wonder it was an Antifa-supporting gunman who allegedly killed Charlie Kirk last week and many ordinary Britons carried photographs in memory of the US free-speech advocate.
My cousin attended the event and spoke about the wide range of people in the crowd. He chatted with two Sikhs from Norwich who understood the need to celebrate British culture. “All I hear from the Left is hate, hate, hate,” said one Pakistani-heritage marcher, carrying a Union Flag. “What we can all agree on both sides is we want the best for our families, our sons and daughters.”
And yet still the Establishment tries to smear these people as fascist. Let’s be clear, anyone with a modicum of historical knowledge knows fascism, in practice, has related to authoritarian governments which used violence to silence free-speech and political opposition. Which sounds to me like the far-left, not flag-waving Britons who took part in the Unite the Kingdom march.
The real message politicians should take away from this enormously impressive turn-out is that ordinary voters are getting increasingly fed-up with mainstream parties ignoring the issues that matter the most to them. The last thing anyone wants is the real far-right filling that space. Politicians need to step up now and take notice.