Well UKIP and Farage’s equally noxious Brexit party, both stuffed with racists and bigots, have announced their candidates for the European elections. And they’ve now been joined by that other long-term fixture of the populist extreme right, Stephen Yaxley Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson. Robinson’s past in the EDL and the BNP mean that he’s actually forbidden by their constitution to become a member of UKIP, which is why Gerard Batten has taken him on as the party’s special adviser on Islam and prisons. Because Robinson despises Islam and has spent quite a bit of time at her majesty’s pleasure on various charges, like assault, contempt of court likely to prejudice trials, that kind of thing. As he can’t be a member of UKIP, Robinson is trying to get himself elected to the European parliament as an independent.
Last week he announced that he was planning to buy his own political battle bus, equipped with screens outside and inside, so he could bring his message of hate to the British public directly without being banned by the authorities or having his videos taken down by YouTube and the other social media companies. And he’s appealed to his followers to send him their hard-earned cash so he can buy it. On Thursday he began his campaign to become the MEP for England’s north-west region in Wythenshawe, a suburb of Manchester. He chose the place because it’s where many of the support workers for Manchester airport live. He claimed that the local people had been forgotten and betrayed at every level, and the Labour party no longer represented ‘who we are’, and called for people to stop supporting them and turn to him instead. He was introduced by Ann-Marie Waters, the struggling Fuhrerin of For Britain, another far right, Islamophobic party. For Britain’s members, according to Hope Not Hate, are former BNP and EDL storm troopers, who are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Water’s leadership.
Robinson began his campaign with a barbecue on Brownley Green, opposite the local Methodist church. And the locals really didn’t want him to turn up. He was asked not to come by the local Christian, Jewish and Muslim community leaders. Wythenshawe Community Housing Group told Robinson that the green is their land, and they were refusing him permission to use it. Madeleine Monaghan stated that the area was unsuitable for large gatherings as it was in an area of family homes, with narrow streets, children and old people. Nevertheless, Robinson ignored them and went ahead anyway.
https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2019/04/tommy-robinson-barbecue-banned.html
In the event only 300 local people turned up. And the cops, who informed Robinson he may have broken electoral law. This forbids politicians from offering money or other gifts to induce people to vote for them. It’s a law which was passed in the 19th century to stamp out the corruption of 18th century politics, including the rotten and pocket boroughs controlled by a single landlord. Politicalite also issued a tweet stating that the event was hosted by the Australian News Network, aka Avi Yemini. Yemini is an unindicted Australian-Israeli war criminal. He boasts of having shot unarmed Arabs when he was a soldier in the IDF. He is also not a British national. It is also against electoral law for political parties and candidates to be sponsored by foreign individuals and organisations. As there was a complaint against UKIP for handing out free sausage rolls at one of their electoral rallies a few years ago, Robinson may well find himself up before the Electoral Commission trying to explain himself.
https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2019/04/tommy-robinson-campaign-may-have-broken.html
See also this piece by Hope Not Hate, who have also started a campaign to stop him.
A vote for Robinson is a vote for Fascist thuggery, no exaggeration. He’s campaigned with the Football Lads’ Alliance, an organisation of football hooligans. And his method of dealing with his opponents on social media is to turn up mob-handed with his storm troopers at all hours of the day and night at the homes of his detractors and their families. He’s done it to the good blogger at Zelo Street, to historian and anti-racist YouTuber Mike Stuchbery, and to an unnamed blogger in Luton. In the latter case, Robinson drove all the way from his own home in Luton to the man’s parents’ home in Cumbria, arriving in the early hours of the morning.
This isn’t how proper, democratic politicians behave. It’s how the squadristi of Mussolini’s Fascists behaved in Italy, and Hitler’s Nazi thugs. It’s the tactics of the secret police of totalitarian states, like Stalin’s KGB, the Nazis’ Gestapo and Mussolini’s OVRA. Quite apart from Robinson’s own message of hatred against innocent, law-abiding Muslims, simply for being Muslims.
He is, along with Batten’s UKIP and Farage’s Brexit Party, a threat to democracy and the peace and safety of ordinary British citizens. In the event, only 300 local people actually turned up. Let’s hope the next time he invades an area looking for votes, local people also recognise him for what he is. And support British democracy by staying away or protesting against him.
Tags: 'For Britain Party', 'Rotten Boroughs', Ann-Marie Waters, Assault, Avi Yemeni, BNP, Brexit Party, Christianity, Churches, Civilians, Contempt of Court, Corruption, Cumbria, EDL, Electoral Commission, Electoral Law, European Parliament, Football Hooliganism, Football Lads' Alliance, Gestapo, Hope Not Hate, IDF, Intimidation, KGB, Labour Party, Luton, Manchester, Manchester Airport, Methodism, Murder, Muslims, Mussolini, Nigel Farage, OVRA, Pocket Boroughs, Police, Prisons, Secret Police, stalin, Tommy Robinson, UKIP, War Crimes, Wythenshawe, Wythenshawe Community Housing Group, Zelo Street
April 26, 2019 at 9:15 pm |
Christmas Eve 2003 I had my first encounter with fascism. I was working away from home at the time and found myself sat in a hotel room away from my family and feeling really isolated, it got to near midnight and I decided to venture out and see if I could connect with people in the local area and bring some joy to a lonely night. I chose the first pub I found on my travels towards the town centre as a starting point for a possibly a great night. Have one here and then move closer into town.
I sat down at the bar and ordered a beer.
That was my crime. I was the enemy intruding into their space and they hated me for it, I should not be there, why was I there?
I drank that beer in fear of the mood in the room and was about to get up and leave when the bartender told me to stay. Two old soldiers who had been sat quietly in a stall decided that Christmas Eve was not the night to see a man beaten and had offered me their protection. One more beer with the old men and you can leave he said.
So I sat there with these two old men of the Wehrmacht and sipped my beer while they spoke in German to each other and completely ignored me and when I had finished the drink and watched the young fascists eyeing me, I left. I went back to my hotel room and wondered what I had walked into by moving to Germany. I’d only been there for three days.
The bar is called the Kugelfang and is in Kitzingen. I got lucky that night and I am convinced I didn’t get hospitalised because it was Christmas Eve.
That is what modern fascism looks like. It’s complicated and it is violent and it will never go away. You might get a pass if you stumble into it but maybe not. Luckily it is difficult to find.
What the modern establishment so glibly call a fascist is no such thing. To those people, it seems that everybody who opposes their view is to some degree a fascist.
The problem I see with this is not only that they are completely unaware of real fascism and the danger that it poses, but more importantly, they create more fascists by attacking everybody who disagrees with their politics by calling them fascist.
I am going to make a bet.
You have never encountered a real fascist. Very few people have.
April 27, 2019 at 7:57 pm |
Hi Beastie, hope you are fine and recovering, haven’t had time much time to keep up with blog reading, but I am listening to Democracy’s nightmares (Archive on 4) talking about the politics , plays and far right in the 1970s and 1980s: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_fourfm
Really interesting