HOPE not hate can reveal the identity of “The PatriArt”, a prominent activist in Patriotic Alternative, the UK’s most active fascist group.
Paul Gilbert, a web designer and digital artist from Gamston, near Nottingham, is the central figure behind PA’s “Arts Community”, a contributor to the neo-Nazi website Radio Albion and a regular on fascist streams. However, he has been keen to hide his identity.
PA has undergone damaging splits this year, with large numbers of activists, many of them in Scotland and the Midlands, defecting to form the rival Homeland Party in April. PA “relaunched” its diminished East Midlands branch in May under the new Regional Organiser Matthew Darrington, a former English Defence League (EDL) activist based in Nottingham.
Gilbert, himself from the East Mids region, is a longstanding personal friend of PA leader Mark Collett and has been involved in the fascist group since its earliest days. Gilbert attended camps organised by Collett prior to PA’s launch, and was also present at the group’s inaugural conference in September 2019.
He went on to found PA’s “Patriotic Art Community” (PAC), marketed as a “Community Arts group for Nationalist Creatives” looking to ”further the cause.” The PAC has encouraged members to submit entries under the theme “Blood & Soil”, the Nazi slogan that emphasises a mystical link between race and land, and the “14 Words” slogan coined by the white supremacist terrorist David Lane.
Gilbert’s own artwork often incorporates fascist symbolism, including the Sonnenrad symbol that adorned the SS headquarters in the Nazi era and has since become ubiquitous in neo-Nazi circles. He has also used the PAC group on the messaging app Telegram to post highly antisemitic tracts.
Gilbert is a regular on Collett’s gaming streams, alongside Sam Melia, a former activist with the now-banned Nazi terror group National Action. Previously the teenage activist Kai Stephens (AKA Barkley Walsh) was also a regular participant, before his defection to Homeland. These streams have proved controversial, with recent splitters criticising Collett for spending too much time playing computer games with a teenager and not enough on offline activism.
Gilbert was also a regular contributor to Radio Albion, producing artwork for the site and co-hosting scores of episodes of the “Patriotic History” show alongside site founder James Allchurch (AKA Sven Longshanks). The pair used the show to espouse pseudo-historical narratives at length to support their highly antisemitic, racist worldview.
Allchurch, a PA member from Pembrokeshire, was recently sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment after being found guilty for 10 counts of stirring up racial hatred through the site, which was formerly known as Radio Aryan. Under Allchurch, the site was an important online cheerleader for National Action prior to the group’s ban, including hosting discussions with NA founders Alex Davies and Ben Raymond. Davies would himself go on to be active with PA’s Welsh branch.
HOPE not hate has repeatedly exposed the extremism at the heart of PA. For more information, read our report below.
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