Meet Ryan Ferguson. He’s the piece of work who turned up at the Britain First march in Birmingham on Saturday wearing a Heil Hitler tee-shirt. Now we can see how he was looking for trouble from the minute he arrived in Birmingham from Liverpool, and how he was welcome to walk at the head of the march, with Paul Golding and Ashlea Simon, even though his Hitler tee-shirt was in full view.
When Ferguson arrived at New St station he was accompanied by two friends, one of whom was filming “to document your day, Ryan”. In the station concourse they came across a lone anti-fascist protester carrying a placard and Ferguson immediately started an argument.
Police intervened
When another woman told him repeatedly to “go away” he started becoming agitated and jabbing his finger in their faces in a manner that made police officers standing nearby intervene.
They forcefully remove him to a quiet spot for a talking to. At that time his tee-shirt was covered up. But he told the police that while from a distance it would look “normy” it was politically controversial.
He didn’t tell them what it said and they weren’t particularly interested. He was then released.
As his group left the station one of them said “We got some amazing content, guys”.
From New St he walked towards the anti-fascist assembly point and in the video it’s clear that this is intended to provoke a reaction that they could film.
Not notoriously recognisable
On the way he met James Harvey, of Students Against Tyranny, filming as much as he could of the anti-fascist march.
Ferguson’s companion yelled excitedly that it was “a great sequence” but sadly for Ferguson he is not quite as notoriously recognisable as he perhaps thinks he is, and no-one took any notice of him.
At the Britain First assembly point he took off his top and revealed his tee-shirt. On the back was emblazoned, in Polish, “Your hatred strengthens our faith” with the numbers “88” which nazis use as shorthand for “Heil Hitler”.
If you thought that this might dismay Britain First’s leaders who were promoting the march as something distinctly British and ‘family friendly’, you would be sadly wrong.
Plainly visible
Ferguson took his place at the head of the march, with Golding and Simon, his tee-shirt plainly visible, and no-one batted an eyelid.
At the rally point in Victoria Square, Ferguson was in trouble with the police again when he tried to assault a photographer.
Talking to
He claimed the photographer had thrust a camera in his face but the police, who had been standing between him and the photographer at the time, told him in no uncertain terms that this was not what had happened.
Again, he was taken away for a talking to, but again he was released.
Last year Ferguson was arrested at League One football match between Forest Green Rovers and Fleetwood Town. He was charged with hurling racist abuse at a Forest Green player, Jordan Garrick, and was sentenced to 9 months jail after pleading guilty to racially motivated harassment.
Six-year ban
The court was told he had repeatedly breached banning orders from football matches after unacceptable behaviour. He received a new six year ban.
Ferguson finished of his day in Birmingham by linking up with the three-strong neo-nazi White Vanguard contingent who turned up in fancy dress.
Crude attack
Linked with the National Socialist Network of Australia they are uncompromisingly Hitlerite and one delivered a speech on Saturday which was a crude, open attack on “Zionist Jews” and “globalists” claiming bizarrely that “The Muslim jihadis are the foot soldiers of the Zionist Jews”.
Extraordinarily, although there was a row of police officers behind the speaker at the time, no arrests were made.
White Vanguard was later denounced by Paul Golding as a “Fake homosexual ‘Nazi’ group trying to grab 2 seconds of fame”.
Last month Ferguson was part of UKIP leader Nick Tenconi’s ineffective gaggle of bodyguards at their rally in Manchester. With the others, Ferguson was quick to leg it away across the city centre when the going got a bit rough.