A few takeaways from today’s ‘Uniting the Kingdom’ rally in London.

Without the presence of ‘Tommy Robinson’ himself, the whole thing founders. Numbers attending seem to be not much different from those who attended in July, and were largely, and predictably, middle aged and male.

They had to wait for hours, increasingly bored and restless, until the appointed march time – so restless that rival football firms from Millwall and Chelsea started to square up to each other. A tedious evangelical Christian rock band of limited musical ability did nothing to improve the mood.

By the end thousands just couldn’t be bothered staying to watch TR’s latest so-called ‘documentary’ and drifted away.

In the absence of TR, the most effective speaker was UKIP’s Nick Tenconi (pictured) who fired the crowd up and urged them to join UKIP. Searchlight has been reporting on and forecasting a link-up between UKIP and Robinson for some time, and it now seems to be happening. Today’s event organiser, Richard Inman, an old buddy of TR, was recently appointed to the UKIP National Executive Committee.

UKIP will be salivating at the prospect of profiting from TR’s fund-raising abilities (depending on how long he ends up in jail) but he will have other, very different, ideas about how the money should be spent.

Another speaker today was Stan Robinson, UKIP’s Wales spokesman, a candidate in the recent general election, and one half of the racist Voice of Wales online blog. The other half, Dan Morgan, is a convicted fraudster.

There is little love lost between the TR camp and organised fascist groups. Mark Collett from Patriotic Alternative turned up with a few followers and a ‘Free Sam Melia’ banner but was ejected from the gathering. Alek Yerbury, the leader of National Rebirth Party, openly accused TR today of being an ‘indirect government agent’. And Steve Laws, Homeland Party’s most ‘prominent’ recent recruit advised people not go as it was “a waste of time”.

One of the most imprssive aspects of the huge counter demonstration called by Stand Up To Racism, was the presence of thousands of trade unionists with their banners. The trade union movement really pulled out the stops for this, and it was a heartwarming sight.

More about the ‘Tommy Robinson’ – UKIP link-up here: https://www.searchlightmagazine.com/2024/10/tommy-robinsons-key-organiser-appointed-to-ukip-executive/

And here: https://www.searchlightmagazine.com/2024/10/yaxley-lennon-floats-tie-up-with-ukip/