SUNDAY’S FREEDOM MARCH & RALLY – SPEAKERS’ CORNER TO WHITEHALL: A DIARY
“Without freedom of speech, we have nothing.” Somebody else must have got there first – if not, I claim it. The lefties were so astoundingly stupid as to oppose, and try to silence, an event calling for FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
In attendance were several dozen from UKIP London and a few from further afield. Leading the march from Speakers’ Corner was Ben Buckland, London Havering branch, complete with kilt and pipes.
I’d asked a few who I’d scattered within the Whitehall crowd to keep an eye out for fascistic HateNotHope/Momentum/ANTIFA infiltrators on “our” side of the police line, and to photograph them. The lefties would reveal themselves by making Nazi salutes or similar, to be picked up by hostile cameras waiting for just that. I wouldn’t put it past Aunty Beeb & Co. to even prearrange such sabotage, in order to portray the march/rally as fascist. Any such attempt must have failed, and as a result we got no MSM coverage at all apart from Breitbart and a misleading Grauniad article (is there any other sort?) replete with contrived photos – a low, rear viewpoint arguably chosen so as to downplay the number of attendees.
I’d estimate 2000 participants most of the time, or allowing for short-stayers, 3000, but from what the lefties showed, you’d think it was 20. The police said 1000+. If they’d let us have their noisy ‘copter footage, we could be more accurate.
To the several who’ve asked “WhereTF I was”, I was lurking, on the march just behind Gerard Batten, and then in the Cenotaph crowd. David Kurten AM and other UKIP London friends were there too – somewhere! I was looking out for DK, but such were the crowds I was unsuccessful. Having enjoyed enough sunlight in my youth to last a lifetime, and as ever shy and retiring, I kept in the shade.
Later, I went into street-speaking/recruitment mode opposite Downing St, taking on all-comers, the more sceptical the better, and then when too dehydrated to continue, retiring with several converts to a quiet McDonald’s in Whitehall, while most of the other kippers enjoyed themselves across the road at the noisier ‘spoons. Gerard built bridges, dining with the organisers and other speakers (who were a diverse bunch).
While at the rally, I’d given my busy pal Raheem a few waves, Ann Marie Waters a hug (she is brave; also, I reminded her that the leader who mischaracterised her supporters as fascists is himself no longer a member) and T.R. and D&VP people some friendly nudges… splitting the FPTP vote on the centre-right (Cons now are centre, if not centre-left, IMO) is folly.
We were outside Theresa May’s home from 3pm till 7pm. She didn’t ask us in for tea and crumpets, but instead… hid. What a leader. A real Prime Minister (e.g., Thatcher, Churchill) would have come out and reassuringly engaged with us, showing support for Freedom of Speech. But we don’t have a PM. That’s she’s much less worse than the unstable lunatic from Labour is faint praise.
And a real Mayor, not the mountebank if not traitor we have installed, would have attended to explain how he has the audacity to blame the knife and gun crime, gang culture and “khanage” that is Sadiq’s London upon a lack of funding – while it is he himself who’s directly responsible for squandering millions and endangering millions, by diverting over a hundred thousand police-hours per year to trawling through the internet for words that just might upset some snowflake, lefty or other full-time professional offence-taker.
Guidance issued to cops and prosecutors is that even if the words themselves aren’t criminal, if anyone – ANYONE – feels these were motivated by religious or racial hatred, a “hate speech” incident will be recorded and that alleged motive may well constitute a crime by itself (repeat – even if the words were not criminal). This is classic thoughtcrime. Ingsoc is alive and well; thanks May-Khan.
LONDON REGIONAL AGM (ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING)
Vibast Community Centre, Ground Floor, Bartholomew Court, 163 Old St, EC1V 9NH 7:15 pm, Thursday May 10th. Free parking right outside from 7:01 pm. Three minutes walk from Old St station (Overground + Northern line); if you get to the church with the spire, you’ve overshot.
If you are interested in standing for any of the three statutory positions, please NOW email the Sec’y on [email protected] – last call (this is the 3rd reminder for the AGM) for any CV you want to be distributed. And attend. My CV, FWIW, is attached to this email.
Branch officers, please distribute this email within your branch. In the wildly improbable event that I survive the AGM, I will put forward a plan to reorganise London branches into viable units, and to implement our own GDPR (Ghastly Data Protection Regulation, as most also see it) Coping Mechanism so, irrespective of national success in this, we can keep communicating efficiently after May 24 without being fined.
Gerard Batten’s speech in Whitehall on the “Day for Freedom” was superb (6th May 2018), It was delivered in a confident yet pleasant and friendly manner. It was carefully constructed with logical and factual argument and even offered advice to the audience. It was always clear and intelligible. It seemed to me to be pitched perfectly for the occasion.
In simple terms it explained what UKIP stand for and why UKIP is needed to redress the balance in British politics. And yet it aspired to engage the audience in some intellectual ideas and thoughts. I look forward to seeing and hearing Gerard on TV and in public debates in the near future.
We, in UKIP, should treasure every minute of it, and play it over regularly for inspiration and a model for emulation. I would not be surprised if many of the listeners decided to become UKIP members after hearing that speech.
I found a recording on YouTube which has good sound even though the camera operator didn’t seem able to find the platform until near the end. That doesn’t matter, it is the words that are important and it will be thirteen minutes well spent:—
Its a bit worrying that there appears to be (from what you say Mike Kennedy) no Media Comms presence from UKIP HQ responsible for simply recording and filming a speech by the UKIP leader in a quality format that can be both heard and seen. Its almost as if UKIP party officials have no interest in UKIP ever gaining traction. Is it ineptitude, is it sabotage ?
However am not blaming Gerard Batten himself who is working successfully to improve UKIP , he has tackled, money, membership and made positive media appearances .
What is worrying is the other people who hold the levers of power for UKIP. Gerard batten should not be left to have to do everything.
When he made arrangements to make a public speech it should have been automatic that the media comms section arranged for it to be recorded.
What if there had been an incident ?
Perhaps UKIP thinks its best to leave media comms to the ever helpful MSM ? The president ofthe USA gets his message out in spite of being attacked by the worlds MSM and probably being attacked by the the GOP as well.
Tacitus makes a sensible suggestion which has been mentioned before over and over again,
” The management of the party should be in the hands of a professional management team ”
https://independencedaily.co.uk/letters-to-the-editor-bank-holiday-monday-7th-may-2018/
“No media comms presence from UKIP HQ..” I quite agree Chris. The party’s press activity is pitiful. The last piece on the party’s website is about last week’s local elections.
The point about news is that it is ‘new’ and I believe a press release should be sent from Gerard to all media, including UKIP Daily and the party’s own website, EVERY SINGLE DAY. It doesn’t matter what the release is about – PR means getting the name of the party and its leader into the main stream media.
Truth is Debbie, you should have a role with UKIP similar to Sarah Huckabee Sanders and be paid for it. I also believe that Luke N-J should have some sort of profile with the UKIP org. Perhaps I will wite to Gerard Batten.
I would do it for free, Chris, for the love of our party and what it stands for. But there are better journalists than I if the party is prepared to pay.
I know I have written this elsewhere,but why is the UKIP media not linking all its news directly to all the branch Facebook sites ?
I’m not sure many branches have a FB site, but this is a good question for those that have.
Go onto Facebook,ok there is a main UKIP site ( over 500,000 likes) but if you put in UKIP followed by a…you get all the branches starting with an a…and so forth….it would be such an easy way to get news to local supporters and all the followers…who then could share etc…..but you would have thought that if the main site had over 500,000 likes you would spread the message and get those likes into members
“Ann Marie Waters……..I reminded her that the leader who mischaracterised her supporters as fascists is himself no longer a member) …… splitting the FPTP vote on the centre-right …….. is folly”
Freddy, you cheeky sod. UKIP was apparently a completely different party back last September, most of us who left then did so not because our chosen candidate didn’t win, but because the last ex-leader called us things we know we ain’t, backed up by a previous ex-leader (btw, is HE still a member?).
I’m glad to see UKIP is now talking about things real people are worried about, such as Free Speech and Islam. But please don’t expect a wave of us returning to the fold any time soon, and don’t get me started on UKIP NOT banging on and on about PR, otherwise Viv will ban me from UKIPD like a Twitter reject. The party has to really get its house in order even to survive, bully for Batten doing what he has to date.
Beware the disadvantages of PR Rob.
While PR does have its merits, I think what you are referring to is ending up with a ‘Grand Coalition’ where neither Tory or Labour can command enough seats on their own to form a majority Government, thus being ‘forced’ to work together (despite the fact both parties have the ultimate same aims and goals), as we see in Germany.
Stuart, look at Germany. Eventually in the not distant future the German people will get want they want, despite the efforts of the old parties to avoid working with AFD. If we had UKIP MPs from 2015, all 83 of them, tell me they would be able to force Lab or Con to something.
Howard,
Depends what you want. Do you want to continue being ruled by Tweedles Dum and Dee for ever and ever amen? Cos that’s what we got. They have political survival instincts to the point of treason in many people’s eyes.
As far as I’m concerned, I’ll keep banging on about PR until they (whoever THEY are), give it to us. At least that way it’ll force some of my more thoughtful friends and colleagues to explain to me why we have to be slaves to the Conservative Party Survival System, FPTP for short. They are in fact the only people who benefit from it. It’s also why so many voters don’t bother to vote, their candidate will never get in.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could vote for a party knowing that YOUR vote actually is counted towards the party’s total? Watch the numbers of actual voters go up. It’s called democracy and why on earth would we be against the ultimate in fair systems of government?
Great bit of street debate here with Freddy:
He’s good on camera . Impossible to argue against arithmetically and statistically and has just the right amount of eccentricity. I’d like to see him promoted.
Dear Freddy,
I am a little old guy sitting on the Costa Brava and cheering on/supporting UKIP from the sidelines.
I do love your contributions.
Please don’t falter.
With best wishes.
RobC.
I second that, Rob.