Scottish First Minister John Swinney has expressed his disgust after around 25 anti-immigration extremists descended on the Perthshire market town of Blairgowrie, harassing local residents and desecrating the town’s war memorial with a flag of the neo-nazi Patriotic Alternative.
The demonstration, held on Saturday in the Wellmeadow, was a joint operation between Aberdeen Against Illegal Migration, Dundee Patriots, and Perth’s Peaceful Protest.
Why Blairgowrie
The groups chose Blairgowrie in the mistaken belief that it was where Swinney, the MSP for Perthshire North, lives. He does not.
Among those present was Dundee Patriot David Tarbett, who is currently subject to bail conditions prohibiting him from attending immigration-related protests in Dundee. Tarbett live-streamed the event.
In one incident caught on camera, a local man laid out a prayer mat in the Wellmeadow. Protesters immediately surrounded him, chanting “Christ is king” through a megaphone. Police formed a barrier to protect the man, who continued to pray calmly as the abuse rained down.
Those who stepped forward to challenge the protesters were called “fat c****” and “ugly.” Demonstrators screamed “get John Swinney out” and “there’s an invasion happening right on your front door.”
Local residents watching the scenes called them a “disgrace.”
The desecration of the war memorial, a bronze statue of a soldier, caused particular anger. A flag associated with Patriotic Alternative, a holocaust-denying, nazi outfit, was draped across it.
Swinney was unsparing in his response. Most of those present, he noted, had travelled in from elsewhere and were “more intent on stoking tensions than raising any sort of legitimate political grievance.”
Sickened by nazi flag
He was, he said, “sickened” to see a neo-Nazi flag laid on a memorial honouring soldiers who had died fighting fascism.
“That these so-called British patriots would choose to disrespect these soldiers’ memory by promoting the very ideology they died fighting against,” he said, “is shameful and regrettable. It also tells you exactly who these people are.”
