Tommy Robinson, originally Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is probably one of the most divisive figures of our days. In the United Kingdom, at least.
People either despise him, rejecting him as “far-right, anti-Islamic activist” with several criminal convictions for assault, passport fraud, contempt of court and defamation, to name a few; or would walk through fire for him.
His critics argue that his actions exacerbate social tension and endanger legal processes. His followers regard him as a provocateur exposing institutional failures.
There’s rarely an in-between.
His latest “Unite the Kingdom”, or as he called it, “a show of patriotic unity like nothing seen before”, protest was no exception.
A mirror reflecting deep societal divisions concerning immigration, Islam, and freedom of speech.
According to the Metropolitan Police, the protest “had exceeded the estimates of organizers” themselves, thus there was not enough space for them all in Whitehall and Parliament Square. At one point, the crowd stretched from Big Ben to well beyond the Waterloo train station.
This led to some unruly moments and minor clashes with the police, but most of the crowd was peaceful.
Participation was huge: though maybe less than the 3 million the organizers boasted about on social media, but well around 150,000 were marching through central London. Joe Mulhall, director of research for the antiracism charity Hope Not Hate said that it was “probably … the largest far-right demonstration ever in Britain”.
English, Scottish flags, and union jacks were flapping proudly in the wind, with the occasional American flag added for the sake of variety as the crowd filled the streets. Guest speakers included Elon Musk, German AfD-politician Petr Bystron, Danish Morten Messerschmidt, and French politician Eric Zemmour. Among others.
There was also a counter-protest that saw attendees of “March Against Fascism” travelling from across the country: a mere 5,000 people.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle told to BBC that “figures such as far-right activist Tommy Robinson are touching into a sense of disquiet and grievance in the community in our society”, comparing Saturday’s protests to “klaxon calls” – urging signs for those in power to “redouble their efforts to address the big concerns people have, including migration”.
A groundbreaking discovery, beyond any doubt.
Mr. Kyle then went on the admit that the subsequent governments have been mostly unable to bring back the country’s communities since the 2009 financial crisis. (And the UK had quite a few of those as it had eight governments led by six different prime ministers since then.)
Not so surprisingly, this is one of the claims of Robinson and his supporters.
That the ruling elite of the country was unable, or unwilling, to address the real problems of voters, the issues that affect their everyday lives.
Elon Musk’s remarks on the dissolution of parliament and the “rapidly increasing erosion of Britain” were greeted with applause that rattled the windows.
Once dismissed as fringe or “far-right thugs”, by now, it grown too big to ignore.
“Unite the Kingdom” was not a minor gathering of flat-earth believers or no-name far-right activist groups, easily dismissed as misguided or simply crazy people.
It was a large-scale event reflecting a sizeable constituency: a grassroots movement of people of various backgrounds demanding to finally have a say in how things are going in their country, willing to rally behind someone who hears their grievances.
“The reason I’m here is to support Tommy Robinson, and to let him know that really, there are plenty of other people up and down the country who support what he’s doing”, as a protester put it. Others denied having “far-right views”, pointing at “far right is anybody who doesn’t support the Labour Party. It doesn’t tell you what people actually believe”.
Recent polls say that the Reform UK party could be the country’s largest political party, were a general election held now. Its main policy promise? Doubling down on anti-immigration efforts.
Robinson announced that he was seeking to convene other large rallies under the same motto.
Unless Downing Street 10 manages to offer ointment to those grievances in the meantime, expect those to be even larger.
