Last Saturday in Central London, a botched effort to arrest Sadiq Khan, London Mayor was made by a group calling themselves the ‘White Pendragons’., Unite Against Fascism reported on 15 January. Leading them was one Davey Russell. Russell, in a previous light called himself DJ Bossman of the EDL.
Russell interviewed former British National Party leader Griffin and Tommy Robinson, ex EDL leader, on his pirate radio station, before it was closed down in 2014. He also fell foul of the charity Help for Heroes, as did the EDL, after claiming to raise funds for them. Russell is also a convicted racist, see below.
Russell and his tiny collection of far right followers form the bizarre, White Pendragons sect. They tried to perform a “Common Law” arrest on Sadiq Khan. Presumably the plan was to drag him to the gallows they had constructed outside.
Given the fact that Jo Cox MP was murdered by a fascist, this has to be taken seriously and many rightly saw the whole episode as threatening and with Islamophobia central to it. Audience members, together with security and police ushered the goons away.
The ‘Pendragons’ (!?) believe in a common Law conspiracy theory. This revolves around the idea that there is a right in Magna Carta to overthrow a government if it is engaged in treason. The accusation of treachery is levelled at those who they believe are involved in a shadowy, Freemason-style, group within the establishment, called “Common Purpose”, in this case, Sadiq Khan.
These would-be hangmen claimed to be protesting against Khan’s stand against the much unwanted, now cancelled visit of Donald Trump. We can see again that Trump’s racism opens the space for fascists to organise and make attempts to break through – just as Britain First tried after his retweeting of them.
Anti fascists have whittled down the far right in the UK to their hardcore, but we need to remain on guard against the fascists’ remains and provocations such as in London, last weekend.