They came promising a show of strength. What unfolded instead was a pitiful spectacle. In Central London this afternoon, Nick ‘Taco’ Tenconi’s so-called “remigration” march proved not just a failure, but a farce – underwhelming even its own participants and costing the taxpayer dearly in policing.
Having been banned by the Met Police from marching in Whitechapel, a much-relieved Tenconi had opted instead for the considerably more comfortable option of parading through Knightsbridge – which he then desperately characterised as “a playground for wealthy Islamists” which UKIP would consequently “reclaim”.
Confused, ragged procession
At Marble Arch, having “confronted the communists”, he would deliver a “historic address”.
But the reality was far from this. On the elegant pavements of Brompton Road and Knightsbridge, fewer than a hundred individuals shuffled along in a confused, ragged procession.
A grim assembly, including a few Chelsea Headhunters, Millwall firm hangers-on and the usual online agitators, grimaced and shouted incoherent slogans at bemused autumn shoppers.
Their most coherent chant -“Keir Starmer’s a wanker” – summed up the intellectual vacuum at the march’s core.
The event was a study in incompetence. Chants collapsed into a mess of conflicting messages, forcing Tenconi to plead through a megaphone for coherence.
Blink and miss it
The tactic of hiding behind a large banner to feign numbers failed miserably. One could blink and miss the entire procession, which was ignored by tourists and met with pity, not fear, by local workers.
At one point, the group managed only to interrupt a wedding at the London Oratory, ruining the aesthetics of an otherwise joyful occasion.
The security operation, by contrast, was anything but insignificant. The Metropolitan Police outnumbered the marchers, their presence a costly insurance policy against the disorder these events often provoke.
A Section 14 order had corralled potential counter-protesters at the Albert Memorial, but this proved unnecessary.
A flop and a bore
The absence of opposition became a source of complaint among the marchers themselves, who described the afternoon as “a flop and a bore.”
So lax was their security that observers from Searchlight stood unnoticed in their midst.
This charade stood in stark contrast to the day’s true story. While Tenconi’s troop faltered in West London, a community celebration of anti-fascism triumphed in East London.
What awaited them
More than 3000 people – from the local community and anti-fascists – turned out to demonstrate to Tenconi’s band what would have been awaiting them had they turned up in Whitechapel.
Over 1000 of those present sealed off the main high street at Whitechapel station to make sure that no fascists chanced their luck and tried something provocative.
The brutal truth is that had the UKIP shower paraded through Whitechapel as originally planned, they wouldn’t have lasted five minutes.
The thousands who gathered – and the thousands more who would have been there had Tenconi been allowed to show up – would have have made short work of them.
The composition of the UKIP crowd was telling. A ragtag mix of football firms, drunken louts violating their own “dry march” rules, and a who’s-who of online far-right grifters.
Spouting drivel
Figures like Wesley Winter, Sydney Jones and the especially unpleasant online doxxer Lee Scheres spouted their drivel into microphones, their message lost on passers-by who viewed them with bemused pity.
This was not a political movement—it was a national annoyance, a clickbait generator exposed as a hollow sham.
At the centre of it all stood Nick Tenconi, a man whose political career has been defined by failure. From Manchester to Bristol, Glasgow to Liverpool, his appearances have ended in retreat, often under police protection.
Today’s embarrassment in Knightsbridge was merely the latest in a long line of flops.
And indeed, he arrived in London today off the back of one of the biggest flops of his inauspicious leadership: amassing the princely total of 70 votes (0.2%) midweek in the Caerphilly by-election.
The UKIP candidate, Roger Quilliam, was nowhere to be seen today, probably curled up in some darkened room licking his wounds and pondering his future.
Central paradox
The central paradox remains Tenconi himself. How does the grandson of anti-fascists – chased from Italy by Mussolini’s regime – become a champion for those peddling the same vile “remigration” rhetoric as Powell and the National Front?
It’s the oldest trick in the book: old wine in a new, “post-fascist” bottle, repackaged for the digital age.
Whimpering retreat
Tenconi’s claim to anti-fascist heritage is not just ironic – it is grotesque. His alignment with modern-day fascists, cloaked in the language of “patriotism” and “sovereignty,” is a desperate attempt to rebrand hatred. But the public is not fooled.
The spectacle in Knightsbridge was not a show of force but a whimpering retreat, a paper tiger exposed in broad daylight.
After such a comprehensive failure, one must ask: where next for Nick Tenconi? The evidence points not to the halls of power, but to the local employment office.
