The far-right Great British National Protest is planning to defy a ban by the local council and hold a protest against immigration and the Labour government on Dover beach on 19 July.
Launched by Richard Donaldson, who describes himself as a non-political ex-soldier who just cares about his country, GBNP was previously called the Great British National Strike and called a national ‘strike’ two weeks ago.
This was generally poorly-attended and badly-organised, attracting only a few thousand supporters around the country to rallies in town centres.
Donaldson planned to follow that up with a national rally on the beach at Dover to “Stop the invasion and get Labour out” but announced on Saturday that the council had withdrawn permission out of fear of damage to a biodiversity action habitat on the beach.
Today, Donaldson declared that they would be going ahead anyway. And, for good measure, he published the email address of the council official who had communicated the news, who will presumably now be bombarded by right-wing hate mail.
When he was challenged about this online Donaldson told his questioner to “Bore off.”
Far right agenda
For someone who claims “this is not about right wing, or left wing” Donaldson is displaying a remarkable familiarity with all the essential components of the British far right’s current agenda. He says:
“We oppose ILLEGAL immigration, net zero, the attack on our farmers, Pakistani rape gangs not being properly held to account, the attack on our free speech, two-tier justice and our involvement in the Ukraine war”.
On net zero he claims that “they are literally looking at blocking out the sun – this is not a conspiracy theory” whilst on immigration he makes the hysterical and grossly-inflated claim that over 1000 migrants are landing in the UK each day.
Far-right grifting
And the ex-squaddie has very quickly grasped the essentials of far-right grifting; he is running a crowd funder which has raised over £20k for the Dover event, and a ‘buymeacoffee’ account. With a cheek that matches anything shown by Yaxley-Lennon he is already appealing for funds to fight a legal action from Dover Council which has not even happened.
Reactions on the far right have been mixed: there is no support forthcoming from the established groups like Britain First, Patriotic Alternative or Homeland who will see this as the impudent attempt of a johnny-come -lately to usurp their patch.
Dover-based fascist activist Steve Laws, who recently quit Homeland in favour of a more hard-line approach to remigration, has told Donaldson he is going about it the wrong way, while the UKIP-supporting Voice of Wales have urged him to defy the council and go ahead anyway.
UKIP will almost certainly back the event, with leader Nick Tenconi unable to resist any opportunity to turn up with a megaphone and shoot his mouth off.
One unequivocal far-right opponent of the action is National Rebirth Party leader Alek Yerbury, also ex-British Army, who has berated Donaldson for not thinking through the logistics of trying to hold a rally on a beach.
But he is also publicly cautioning against giving money to yet another grifter.
Donaldson responded with a bad-tempered post accusing Yerbury of drugs offences in the army, and sexual misconduct, amongst other things.
Yerbury denounced all the allegations as “lies”. The drugs claim – that Yerbury had another soldier provide a urine sample for him – would appear to be unlikely given the way army drug tests are conducted.
Claiming to “always do my research” Donaldson shot himself in the foot by claiming that one of the NRP’s few members is Yerbury’s mum, only for Yerbury to point out that his mother died in 2021.
