Free Tommy Robinson – Portland Place to Waterloo Station

August 3, 2019

I came late to todays Central London demo Free Tommy Robinson.

That morning the Metropolitan police had issued a Notice under Section 14(3): limiting Any assembly by members/supporters of the ‘Free Tommy Robinson’ event must take place in Langham Place, London W1B south of All Souls Road . . . Any assembly may only take place between 12:00hrs and 15:00hrs.

and

on a planned counter rally by ‘Stop Tommy Robinson’, ‘Stand up to Racism’ and associated groups as follows: Any assembly by members/supporters of ‘Stop Tommy Robinson’, ‘Stand up to Racism’ and associated groups must take place in Portland Place, W1B north of 5 Portland Place, may only take place between 12:30hrs and 14:30hrs.

This is a photograph of Stop Tommy Robinson’, ‘Stand up to Racism’ and associated groups supplied by a friend as they formed up at the start in Portland Place looking down Regent Street. Note the face coverings and smoke bombs.

By the time I arrived they had gone and the police were blocking the side streets off.

The demo had not long ended and supporters were leaving the area.

So I can’t tell you who spoke and what they said; I expect TR News will have details and I’ll add a link later if there is one. From the amount of people I could see filing down Regent Street towards Oxford Circus I judge the turnout to be good, 1000 or more strong.

At Oxford Circus, the crossroads of Oxford Street and Regent Street the best known of London’s west end shopping. Police vans with their blues light flashing were moving (with difficulty in the traffic) down Regent Street so I decided to follow them

Others had passed the same way.

“Stop Tommy Robinson” woz ‘ere, here being Piccadilly Circus. I didn’t see the activists, just the mess they left. These activists probably also attend climate change and vegan demonstrations against plastic polluting the oceans. Expensive placards littering the streets don’t seem to matter. Every banner supporting Tommy was either hand made, or had to be bought out of the supporters own pocket. These Socialist Worker placards are ubiquitous, and they are being bankrolled by somebody.

Down Haymarket to Trafalgar Square. One of the other events in London today was the annual Free Cycle. Certain streets of central London are closed to motor traffic and cyclists are encouraged to explore the city by bicycle. Some are serious lycra clad speed enthusiasts, others are families with children on fairy cycles. To let the police vans through as they kept stopping, waiting and starting, the cyclists were stopped by the marshals, the fences pulled away and the vans drove through, on whatever side of the road (and pavement) was most convenient.

Into Whitehall

A group of Tommy’s supporters were being surrounded by the police outside Downing Street. Some of them decided to sit down in the middle of Whitehall. The police wanted to push them on. So they dragged out the nearest by the ankles and shoulders and 2-3 policemen to each man pinned them to the pavement. I wasn’t in a position to see the police stick hit the head of this chap on the ground, as my friend did, but I did see his legs quiver or spasm.

By this time I had met a friend who for this purpose goes by the name Loki Ulveflokken. He is much taller and faster than I so he took my camera and these next photographs below were taken by him.

The pale blue umbrella/parasol said ‘Free Tommy’. Note the weals already beginning to show on his back. Police horses don’t have rear view mirrors so making sure I didn’t go under the hooves if they suddenly reversed required attention.

This Police Support Unit group (aka the Riot Squad) were heading towards Parliament Square but we didn’t follow them. Instead, having heard that a group were by the London Eye we made our way over Westminster Bridge where a small group were singing on the pavement and the police decided to make some more arrests.

I decided that I would make my way home and leave the younger generation to carry on. I understand that the police continued to make themselves busy into the evening. Such a contrast to their treatment of the bourgeois Extinction Rebellion protestors, who are allowed to play dead outside banks, chain themselves to railings and block the Queen’s highway with impunity.