To Brighton for March for England's St George's Day parade. This parade is an annual event which was conceived as a family day out. Early in its history it was led by a contingent of Ghurkhas. Even two years ago when I first attended children with balloons and face paint took part. But sadly Brighton's boast of being 'vibrant', cultured, multicultural, diverse etc. applied to everybody and everything except an English event to celebrate our patron saint. Every year the opposition stoked up by the Unite Against Fascism, Unite the union, Antifa and their foul minions gets more virulent. In 2010 people were urged to muster to protest and to 'bring weapons'. That privileged scion of the bourgeoisie was arrested for his pains. This year the people of Brighton were urged to mock and drown out the patriots. One woman went on the MfE page to announce her intention of throwing eggs in the hope we never returned.

We (my husband, daughter and I) had not even left the car park when we saw what to expect. The fools do not realise that March for England are not EDL, that they predate EDL by many years, that they are certainly NOT the BNP and they have nothing whatsoever to do with any Norwegian murderer. But why let truth get in the way of a good prejudice?

Followed by these. There were so many posters and flyers over town that somebody has a good fund available for their printing and distribution. I could bear to know who.

Our intention was to enjoy the parade passing by (while observing any opposition) and to meet friends for tea afterwards.

Knots of UAF were gathering on various street corners. There were police from four counties much in evidence.

I knew that MfE and supporters from other patriot groups were meeting at Brighton Station intending to move off at 12 noon, to parade through town to the prom and to disperse on the seafront for an afternoon of family fun.

At the station I spotted a white dragon of England flag, and the White Dragon himself.

We found a spot near the bottom of Queens Road by the Clock tower which was one of the UAF’s muster points. The parade didn’t move off at the expected time; my husband heard a policeman say that they were waiting for a delayed train to arrive. Due to engineering works trains had been replaced by buses for half the journey between the coast and London, doubling journey time.

As you can see these below were Surrey Police - the other forces were Sussex obviously, Kent, and Hampshire.

UAF were all along Queen Street. I heard a group of impeccably tailored women congratulating each other in plummy tones on ‘this splendid turnout’. Anarchists in dreadlocks banged bongos. What is it with lefties and bongos? Do they lose drumsticks too easily? Others blew whistles. Mad professor types waved hand drawn placards.

I could see the flags and the dragon ringed by riot police and police horses, and completely surrounded by UAF. Black masked antifa milled about obstructing the progress of the parade down the hill. The more ‘respectable’ protestors stayed on the pavement screaming ‘Nazi scum’. The video isn’t good – I wasn’t best placed to get better. But you can see the pressure behind police horses as UAF surged violently.

I didn’t see this myself but I heard later that bottles of urine were hurled at the St George’s parade.

I made my way back to the Clock Tower and we waited for the parade to reach us. My husband said he had seen police remove several individuals from the crowd round the tower.

Black clad Antifa and other alternatively dressed young people surged down the hill followed by mounted police into North Street.

"The Romans are coming", shouted one policeman to the running antifascists in front of him, to the amusement of the watching crowd.

One young man stopped to invite us to join him in stopping the fascists ‘who have been diverted by the police down Church Street toward Victoria Gardens; they must be stopped before they reach the sea front”.

We decided to slip round the antifa and made our way to the bottom of Church Street via the famous Brighton Pavilion.

Progress was slow for reasons you can see in these photographs.

My husband over heard a police officer state that while the police knew exactly what and where MfE intended they had no idea how many UAF were in town or where they would be.

Eventually the parade was ushered into the gardens and corralled. Police in riot gear and mounted police kept the two groups apart for over an hour. I heard one young man harangued by UAF. "I'm not EDL - what the f**k make you think I'm EDL? Do I look like EDL?" It seemed like a good moment to move away.

Then to the delight of the UAF the police brought up vans. I thought that MfE were going to be loaded on them, under arrest, and taken off as happened in Whitehall in November. However the vans drove alongside the marchers as added protection as they were walked off to, I later discovered, the Railway station from where they made their way home.

Eventually the police managed to disperse the UAF/antifa, and council workers could begin to clear the mess they had left behind them. I thought Brighton was supposed to be 'green'?

The BBC attended and reported that two police officers were injured when bottles were thrown at them.

It was the worst UAF behaviour I have witnessed so far.  Brighton has a beautiful sea front and some lovely architecture but it attracts some most unpleasant people whose decadence spoils what could be a very appealing little town.

Photographs by Susan Sto Helit; video and photographs by E Weatherwax April 2012