The massed ranks of National Front Scotland
Edinburgh is once again preparing itself for a visit from Scotland’s far right, much of which these days embarassingly seems to come from England.
Yes, its time for a small bunch of podgy and pasty middle-aged men to assert their “racial identity” as White Pride World Wide Day comes to the Scottish capital.
This is, as you can imagine, a big deal. Massive. Huge. Sometimes WPWWD has attracted as many as 40 heavily tattooed specimens. I think you’ll agree that’s a pretty impressive percentage of the global population of white people.
Among the small gang expected, rows have already erupted. The Scottish National Front – a group probably into single figures now – has been attacked for failing to seek permission to march. This has led to calls from locals and politicians for the whole thing to be called off.
Ah but, say the SNF, going all Baldrick, we don’t need permission because this is not a march. It is certainly true that official permission is not needed for a static protest.
The troops are restless.
However, the publicity for the shindig states that the Nazi hordes should meet first at Waverly (sic) station and then 30 minutes later be in the Grassmarket. Now unless they’re going to get Scotty to beam them up, that’s going to involve a walk. Together. Like, as in a march.
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This may not please Police Scotland who will already be wary of those attending, many of whom will be, as they say, known to them. We’re not sure if the more prominent of England’s fascist fraternity will be crossing the border, but members of both the North East Infidels and Bishop Auckland Against Islam could be found at the Scottish Defence League’s tiny Alloa gathering last week. My colleague mentioned earlier that convicted coke dealer Warren Faulkner’s was there, for example.
Arguably the most interesting – and probably only interesting – thing to note will be if we’ll see any of Ben Raymond’s post-National Action flags appearing, as they did in Alloa. Things have moved on a bit since then, so we’ll just have to see how brave/stupid this lot are.
Previous WPWWDs have also earned notoriety. In 2013 when this momentous event was hosted in Swansea, it ended up with Darren Clifft being jailed for – and we’re not making this up – hanging a golliwog doll whilst dressed in a KKK outfit.
That bit of racist theatricality took place at the Blood & Honour gig that traditional rounds off the day for the curiously proud white bloke (strangely, or perhaps not, it’s almost exclusively blokes).
Plans are afoot for more truly atrocious music to be laid on by B&H after the troops have been escorted from Grassmarket in an equally traditional police kettle.
Whether this happens is open to speculation. Last time the HOPE Not Hate research team successfully got the plug pulled on the gig. Eyes and ears are again on the ground.
Repeat performance?