So that’s it, he’s gone. Britain’s batshit preacher, the Reverend Calvin Robinson, boarded a plane today and swanned off to his new parish in West Michigan, USA. And we all heartily wave him goodbye.
His departure was announced this morning on the right wing online National Culture Forum in what was billed as his last UK interview before departing. It seems that the God-fearing folk of a parish on the Great Lakes somewhere were told by the Almighty that Robinson was the man to minister to them. They’re welcome to him.
His reason for scuttling off has been a little modified since he announced a few days ago that he was quitting the UK. He now admits that Islamic extremists have not actually “issued a fatwa to get us all killed”, although he still claims that being named as one of the UK’s top 10 Islamophobes has “put a target on my back” and he fears being stabbed by “some anonymous Mohammedan” as he walks down the street.
No, now it’s mainly down to Keir Starmer and the ‘satanic’ Labour government which has terrified the good reverend that he might at any moment be picked up and banged up.
Oddly, he tells us that although he’ll be based almost 4000 miles away from party HQ, he will nevertheless remain in post as UKIP’s Lead Spokesperson on Everything, and will return at the next general election to stand as a parliamentary candidate. Assuming he won’t just walk out on his new parish, potential constituents might have questions for him about how he could properly represent them at quite such a distance.
And, sadly, he will still be broadcasting online – his new parish has apparently committed to building a recording studio for him in their parish hall.
What he didn’t address in his interview today was whether his project to crowdfund the purchase the Scottish island of Torsa to turn it into a Christian retreat and keep it out of the hands of ‘Islamic hate preachers’ will now be going ahead. And, if not, what will happen to the funds raised so far.
To date, he has raised over £150,000 of the £1.5 million needed. He states, in his appeal on the crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo, that in the event of insufficient funds being raised, donations will be returned to sender. But this might prove quite an onerous task, given that GiveSendGo offers no mechanism for such refunds, and says specifically that “GiveSendGo will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.”
Its terms of service also state that:
“Donations on GiveSendGo are nonrefundable. Donations given to a campaign go directly to the campaign recipient’s account and are not held by GiveSendGo… GiveSendGo is not responsible for refunding any funds collected by the Campaign Owner through the use of GiveSendGo.com or by any other means. Contributions, along with our fees and charges, are not refundable.
“As a Giver, you are solely responsible for asking questions and investigating Campaigns to the extent you feel is necessary before you make a Contribution. All Contributions are made voluntarily and at your sole discretion and risk.”
GiveSendGo is an interesting choice of platform, and not merely because of its light touch regulation of what happens to funds raised. Based in Boston, in the US, it was initially set up as a fundraising platform for Christian causes but became the platform of choice for the extreme right, offering facilities to fund raisers whom other platforms would turn away.
Millions of dollars, for instance, have been raised by and for January 6 insurrectionists in the US. Proud Boy and Oath Keeper fundraising campaigns were only de-listed after pressure from third-party payment processing providers.
This is, in fact, not Calvin Robinson’s first GiveSendGo fundraiser. In October last year he was fired by GB News for publicly backing presenter Dan Wootton, himself sacked in the wake of highly offensive remarks by Laurence Fox on Wootton’s GB News show. Robinson immediately launched a fundraiser for the ‘Crusade Against Cancel Culture’. Its stated purposes were replacing his GB News income and “…raising funds for a potential legal battle. (Deacon) Calvin will not take this one lying down!”
That now appears a little odd. In his interview yesterday on Wootton’s new online show, Robinson claimed that the offer of a parish in America arrived only a few days after he was sacked by GB News. But, even more curiously, he says that he realised his sacking:
“…wasn’t anything to do with those bad managers. It wasn’t anything to do with that station. It was God clearing a path and saying this is the door that I’m opening to you now. This is where you’re going to go from now on.”
So, if the sacking was nothing to with GB News, and was entirely the responsibility of the Almighty, what possible purpose was being served by raising funds for a potential legal action? Issuing proceedings against God would seem, on the face of it, to have rather limited prospects of success.
In the circumstances, perhaps Father Robinson might consider whether it would be appropriate to refund any of the £34,000 raised in that appeal to donors who gave specifically to support litigation.