BRING ME THE HEAD OF TOMMY ROBINSON!

When I was a young man in the early '70s I worked for a company who decided to change the bonus system we operated under without any prior consultation. My fellow workers were outraged and indignant along with me. Meetings were held. Although I was the youngest  I was the most articulate and the men readily made me spokesman to air their grievances with the bosses. Standing on the shopfloor arguing their case I was astonished to find my co-workers melt away into the background as the bosses played hardball. The result was the new system was imposed , they kept their jobs and I was sacked. I mention this as some sort of metaphor for the imprisoned Tommy Robinson. A political prisoner in 21st Century Britain in all but name. Well in name as well actually as the establishment, all too keen to demand freedom for the countries of the rest of the world, tire with constant reminders of their fascism in their own. Today I attended an EDL march for the first time. Indignant at the actions of our government in imprisoning a man on some dubious charge and keeping him there, along with Norwich City Council's banning of a vicar for speaking out against Islam I decided to demonstrate even though I know demonstrations are a complete waste of everybody's time and effort and change NOTHING! But my fire was stoked. I was charged. Throwing common sense out of the window along I went to Castle Gardens. And waited. At the allotted time rumblings were heard in the distance. Into view came a horde of police officers followed by, and I'm being kind here, a hundred patriots from all over England. Now if I was Tommy Robinson I'd be worried. If the whole of East Anglia, that's Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, can only muster a hundred people to demonstrate at such egregious treatment of individuals within England then it does not bode well! Memories of my stand against wicked bosses springs to mind. We stood around. The UAF showed up. An individual stood atop a brick wall inciting. The Norfolk Constabulary did nothing. The inevitable happened and one fired-up EDL supporter climbed the wall with the obvious outcome. Arrests were made and noses bled. Now the UAF/HNH are indeed a strange group of people. The sight of one of their members, a transvestite, pencil thin, dressed in an ill-fitting blonde wig lifting his/her skirt to the EDL below will haunt me and added to the surrealism of the day. Off we marched as the Police did their marshalling. Down Norwich's quaint lanes until we emerged into the square. The shrill, vein-bulging shrieks of the occasional UAF/HNH supporter helping us along our way. Never quite understood why it's felt necessary to respond to these antagonists as it is obviously the reaction they want but who am I to tell anybody? Jeers met with jeers. Insults with insults. Shaking fist with shaking fist. The starey-eyed antics of the opposition wringing from me a wry smile. Outside the Town hall we came to a stop. The speaker asked for silence for one minute, to remember our dead and fallen. Three people in front of me ignored it. Too pissed up or drug addled to comprehend I would imagine. But, to be fair, their lack of etiquette paled into insignificance in comparison to the opposition, whose screams and insults at the memory of our soldiers makes you wonder exactly what we have done wrong within our society. This march has been planned for a long time. Long enough for the organisers and speakers to put together a decent speech outlining the unarguable cases that bought us to Norwich in the first place. Alas no. To say it was rambling would be kind. Loud football type chants were played over the PA System. I spotted a gap in the police cordon and made away. I make these observations as someone who is not a committed member of the EDL but someone who felt motivated to act because of the state's misuse of its considerable power. The people I met were good honest men and women whose love of country shone through and whose distaste for establishment's failure to address Islamic extremism is real and palpable. It's those aims I support. It is just obvious that this is not the way. Like the Tea Party its time has passed and unless a radical re-think takes place its heyday was long ago.