Whitehall Day for Freedom

To Whitehall for the Day for Freedom. 

Although the original plan when the rally was first announced was to march from Speakers Corner I decided to go straight to Whitehall. I came out of Westminster tube station, round the corner and straight into the Stand up to Racism counter demo. About 90-100 ovine geography teachers and local government officers listening to a rather dull speaker who was urging them to stop the fascists marching through central London today, and what’s more how dare they come to Manchester after what Manchester has suffered. ‘We must make sure that thousands of anti-fascists come to Manchester in June to stop them there’.

I thought that was the communist flag until I got home and downloaded my pictures; but its merely Unite the Union.The route north up Whitehall was blocked by the police, and while they were not stopping anybody agile enough to clamber over the barracades, I am no longer up to such gymnastics. An old man with unkempt hair laughed at us as we stopped ‘ You’ve all got to go the long way round because the police are protecting the fascists; that’s why you have a longer walk, protecting the fascists’.

But he was pretty typical of the counter demo. As you can see from the banners it was the public service unions in small numbers; Antifa and Black bloc were nowhere to be seen.

I walked round the back of Victoria Embankment and back into Whitehall to our area. There was a big screen ready for the rally, and music played in welcome.

Already our numbers were in the several hundred, well outnumbering Stand up to Racism. I wondered where Antifa might be but I couldn’t see anything untoward happening in Trafalgar Square. The police were being very friendly to us and tourists alike but a group of more seriously kitted officers were formed up as a rearguard, and I think they, too, were watching for the “warriors” of the left.  

We started with some live music from a young woman vocalist.

Shortly after 3pm Raheem Kassam of Breitbart made an announcement that we would start shortly, but we were waiting for some people coming in from Speakers Corner. 

And then they appeared coming down from Trafalgar Square, led by a piper, over 1000 men and women with different flags and banners, including Gerard Batten of UKIP, who had assembled at Hyde Park and marched all the way here.

First Raheem spoke in welcome. He pointed to the Cenotaph. “The Cenotaph always frightens me. The thought of what would have happened if the men who fought two World Wars for Freedom had given up; our responsibility that as they never gave up, neither must we.”

Speeches began.

First was Richard Inman of Veterans against Terrorism. 
We are not going to bite our tongues any more – we are the silent majority. And he quoted Martin Luther “Here stand I, I can do no other.

Second was a comedian, Liam Tuffs

He asked “How do you identify a moron if you deny his right to free speech? Free speech keeps the dickheads at bay.” And
“You don’t need to be to speak out about Islam; you just need a moral compass to identify bullshit”  

Third was Shazia, a brave ex-Muslim. In her Scottish accent she spoke of Sadiq Khan’s London.

In Sadiq Khan’s London returning jihadists find a welcome.

In Sadiq Khan’s London FGM will be dealt with by a day of awareness, a hashtag; but never by the prosecution of those responsible for the young girls taken out to be cut.

In Sadiq Khan’s London grooming and rape gangs operate but it is Donald Trump who is unwelcome.

Sadiq Khan you can’t take care of business; stand down! You are not fit for office.

Fourth was Gerard Batten the new leader of UKIP. A UKIP flag was near the head of the march as it entered Whitehall.

He referred to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. We had free speech in the UK until relatively recently. There was no law that permitted it, but there was no law that forbade it.

At this point I noticed the police being passed riot standard helmets through the back gate of New Scotland Yard; they formed up and moved south towards the SUTR area. I wondered if there might be a problem.

Batten spoke of the modern phenomenon the hate crime. He said all crimes are hate crimes. When did you last hear of a love crime? Now I am going to commit a hate crime. You are my witnesses. Recently it was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. I hate Marxism. If John Mc Donnell is offended by this I could be charged.

He urged us to always exercise free speech but to concentrate on criticising ideas and not to insult people. To organise politically because politicians will always want your vote.

He wants UKIP to be a party, and the UK to be a country, free to make our own laws, under our own democratically elected government. A country where our children are not taught to be ashamed of our history. A country on friendly terms with our neighbours and the rest of the world.

Fifth was Anne Marie Walters of the For Britain party.

She spoke of the origins of the Hate speech phenomenon in the post-war Communist bloc, which was brought to the west by the long march through the institutions, and now is a weapon of the terrible alliance between Islam and the left. The end game will be the destruction of all our freedoms. We must keep coming out. We must resist.

Next Tommy Robinson spoke briefly to tell us about the Amelia Mae foundation. She was a little girl who died from neuroblastoma. He intended to be doing a sponsored walk today to raise money for the foundation set up in her name, but as today was the only suitable date for this event he had to pull out of the walk. He invited donations to the fund in lieu of walk sponsorship.

Then a Drag Queen whose name I didn’t catch. Tommy said that he is likely to receive censure from the rest of the Drag Artist collective as they are very left-wing in their views. He sang several numbers and in-between songs spoke of how the exercise of free speech in the context of cabaret played an important part in obtaining freedom for gay men to express themselves without fear of prosecution.

I went for a brief break at this point and when I returned video messages were being shown on the screen.

The Sixth speaker was Count Dankula. He spoke of his recent trial for hate crime (he taught his girlfriend’s pug dog to make a Nazi salute and filmed it doing so). The trial took two years to conclude, about the same length of time the Nazi Nuremberg trials lasted. All he ever intended to do was wind up his girlfriend, but the memory of the distress caused to his mother means that he won’t now let the matter rest.
More well-known comedians who have expressed their support for him have been criticised and told, effectively, to get back in line (lest they be next?) He had a message for Antifa. I was one of you once. We took pride in challenging the establishment. How things have changed.

I noticed that at this point SUTR had gone from the lower part of Whitehall and we could now move behind the stage, and there was free access up and down the entire street.

The seventh speaker was Sargon of Akkad, a liberal who spoke of the erosion of liberty.

The eighth was Gavin McInnes a comedian. His speech was in the style of a comedy sketch where in a variety of accents he illustrated the dire effect of political correctness on humour and natural behaviour throughout the English speaking world.

On TV people talk like aliens, not how they talk to each other down the pub. We are mostly decent people at heart, enough of the censorship.

Ninth was Lauren Southern the Canadian journalist who was refused entry to the UK in March; she spoke via video. She quoted Enoch Powell and paraphrased Sir Winston Churchill.
“To see and not to speak would be the great betrayal.”  And

“We shall speak;  we will not be silent; we will never surrender.”

Tenth was Milo Yiannopoulos who gave a humorous speech in a mannered waspish style, but with a very serious undertone.

“You have shown courage to be here, be proud of yourselves”

On the myth of ‘white privilege’ he said, tell that to the white boys failing at school who struggle to get a job. Talk to the white girls of Rotherham and Telford about their white privilege.

This is our Woodstock . . .the dam is breaking.

Eleventh was Raheem Kassam. Mindful that time was over-running he was brief. He (and he was not the first) thanked the police for their handling of the afternoon. He asked for a round of applause to show appreciation and pointed out that it is their senior officers who make the daft decisions not the officer on the beat.

And as we were outside Downing Street and he is sure that Teresa May is watching (I believe she would have been at Chequers, but I expect there is CCTV if she is concerned, and she ought to be)

“Say it loud so Teresa can hear it! Do they own you? NO!”

Finally, twelth, Tommy Robinson.

He also inquired as to the meaning and effect of Hate speech. He mentioned a 16 year old boy who argued with Ali Dawa at Speakers Corner, and then found himself visited at home by the police, and questioned as to his attitude about Muslims. His mother is very concerned. The Prevent strategy is now directed 30% of the time against non-Muslims. These are scare tactics and they work. If one 16 year old boy sees another being interrogated by Prevent he won’t ask similar questions himself. He will know to keep quiet.

I was suspended from Twitter for stating the fact that 90% of the grooming gang rapists are Muslims (20% of whom are called Mohammed). 10,000 Twitter accounts have been closed at the request of our governments for ‘hate’. Only 240 have been closed for terror.  Hamas and suchlike retain their accounts. Twitter is a private company, but government is interfering with them. I will be taking Twitter to court. I want to prove what hate is, and demonstrate that facts are now seen as hate.

He brought up a lady, the mother of one of the three boys, Josh, Harry and George, who were killed when a car mounted the pavement and crashed into them. The parents believe that their sons were murdered but that this is being covered up by the Police and CPS. When they tried to speak about this belief at Speakers Corner she said they were told to remove their flag (left) as it could cause offence

Justin of the FLA joined him to thank all who attended. History will look kindly on you. He spoke of the grooming gangs and asked what price do the corrupt councils put on our children’s lives. He urged everybody that can to come to Manchester on 2nd June with the Lads for all our children.

Tommy spoke again. I have been on a learning curve since 2009 – we don’t have free speech. Too many of us will have to lie about being here this afternoon.

In the past all our leaders told the truth about the flaws of Islam, but now we have been fed a lie. The phrase ‘Religion of Peace’ isn’t in any history book. It didn’t exist until spoken by President Bush after 9/11. But things will turn, and when they do it will be very quick.

We must start small, but always speak truth. He sounded very emotional. We couldn’t have done this 3 years ago. Thank you. This is amazing.

We concluded by singing the National Anthem, led by the singer who opened the rally. Red, white and blue petals were scattered into the air. 

Then we left to the sound of David Bowie, Rebel, Rebel, and the suggestion “Party at Teresa’s place”

I met a friend who had marched from Speakers Corner who had not seen any Antifa there. He said the police had done a good job in keeping them elsewhere. I found out later that they were contained early in the day in the Mayfair area. Jolly good!

Gerard Batten took this photograph from a vantage point I did not have access to which shows the massed numbers present better than I was able to.

I have tried in the past to estimate the number in a crowd and been inaccurate so I don’t try any more. But I am told by someone more reliable that 4000+ people were present.

Photographs (except that from Gerard Batten)  E Weatherwax London 2018