“Don’t you dare call us fascists. We’re just ordinary folk worried about our women and kids.”
It’s the familiar refrain from the groups of self-styled “patriots,” “anti-groomers,” and flag-wavers who have sprung up in towns across the country. Yet this weekend revealed just how hollow that claim has become, as open fascists and neo-Nazis moved from the margins to centre stage at two of the yesterday’s largest demonstrations.
No accident
In Kent, now a hub of flagger activity, Britain First leader Paul Golding appeared as the guest speaker at a rally in Faversham. His involvement was no accident.
Golding announced on his X feed that he had actually been invited to speak, and recent photographs show him drinking in a Dartford pub with two key Kent Flagger organisers, Harry Hilden and Jodi Scott (also known as Goodban or Missuskent). The connections are neither incidental nor new.
Meanwhile, in Wolverhampton, flaggers assembled before a huge Patriotic Alternative banner, prominently displayed directly in front of the main “Raise the Colours” flag.
The symbolism was unmistakable.
And in Bristol, where a tiny group of of just over 40 ‘Bristol Patriots’ were seen off by a sizeable demonstration of anti-fascists, the ‘patriots’ assembled under the banner of UKIP, whose leader Nick Tenconi was very unhappy with the way events panned out.
The far-right fingerprints have been visible since the first wave of flags began appearing in towns and neighbourhoods.
Known fascists
Known fascist activists were among the earliest organisers, and Britain First has openly boasted of donating hundreds of flags to the campaign.
And Homeland Party activists were at the heart of the Epping protests and at disturbances in Nuneaton.
Despite the loud insistence that these demonstrations reflect the concerns of “ordinary people,” the events of the weekend underline a stark truth: the far right is not merely lurking at the edges of this movement – it is increasingly shaping and guiding it.
