Word from the Island of the Mighty: Voices of Some Who Attended the March Against Hate in Manchester on Trinity Sunday 11 June 2017

Esmerelda has already linked an excellent full-length report from a blogger who was present and whose account reveals just how much is wrong with the BBC – and also the Daily Mail – “reports” upon that event.

I read the reports that appeared at Daily Mail and also the account presented by “Breitbart”. But it was the Comments that really interested me.  And it is some of the most remarkable of those that were posted in response to the Breitbart discussion of the misreporting of that march, which I am going to reproduce here, because I think they deserve to be given greater prominence. They need to heard, these voices from the Island of the Mighty.

Here is the first, by a lady identifying herself as “Rebecca Rose”.  Bolding is my own.

“I was there today.

“The bbc of course are lying.

“We were a multitude and the police corralled us into a tiny space right opposite the far left.

“We were listening to speeches, the far left were throwing smoke bombs etc.

“To be quite honest when we all turned up the far left looked terrified and all they had was the same old tired meaningless slogans.

“I’m 56 and 5ft 1”, many women there like me, many nurses, teachers, shop workers, families

(I would hazard the guess that nurses and teachers are seeing the ugly face of Islam up close and personal – CM)

“Some teething problems but we have to go on.

“Do another and another, bigger and bigger.
“I was there today, I went for my daughter, my grandaughter, for Tommy, for Anne and also for those who have been murdered & injured, those who have had all their rights taken from them.”

To which another Commenter, named “Mark”, responded:

“I was there too, one bit of trouble from our side on way to square after a hell of a lot of aggression from about 10 or so lefties which looked like the police wanted to ignore, esp stripey jumper guy who I later spotted stirring more trouble near the speeches, two smokebombs thrown from their side, a few bottles from both sides till police finally pushed them further back.

“One side wanted to gather peacefully and one wanted to cause trouble, took the police a while to work which was which.”

Then there was ‘Fahrenheit 211″, who wrote – “I was there today and I can honestly say that although there was chanting from the Unite Against Hate Marchers, the bottle throwing and the flash-bangs that were thrown definietly appeared to come from the Leftists. I thought the organisers of this event did a brilliant job but the police really screwed things up.

“Of course you should facilitate counterdemonstrators in a democracy but they let Leftist thugs into the same square as the Unite Against Hate rally. If anyone was ‘scum’ today,. it was the Left, nobody else.”

A bloke named “Ian Flintoff” chipped in: “I was there, there was about 50 oddballs, a few smack-heads and a few decent but very ignorant, LGBT activists on the left!

“They threw about three bottles into the Unite Against Hate crowds who were to the right of the stage!

“Then a few of the Unite against hate crowd retaliated!

“The police had all the cameras pointing to the Unite Against Hate crowd and their backs to the so called anti-fascists, who were nothing more than a few smack heads, tramps, oddballs, misguided LGBT [with signs like gays support islam rofl] activists and a few others along for the ride!

“There was a few chants of “you’re not English anymore”, but these were basically directed at the predominately white oddballs, who really had no reason to be there TBH, considering the march was to honor the dead, and had nothing to do with racism, considering many in our crowd were from all walks!!!

“DON’T LET THE MARXIST SCUMBAGS TELL YOU OTHERWISE – there was a few thousand of us maybe more!!!

“There’s one in Luton Town on the 25th and the girls best start getting off their bums and defending the women’s rights for the later generations, that they were born into, enjoy but are currently not defending!!!

GCHQ knows the truth!!!”

Another commenter, “riseandshine”, wrote – “I marched for the first time today.  I’m a young female who travelled 5 hours to be there.  Like so many others I’ve had enough.

“There will be another march in a few weeks in London I’ll be going to.

“It was amazing to be a part of the thousands there. But we need even more next time so please please try and make it. Every extra person will make a difference.

(Indeed it will – CM).

“I spoke to some of the antifa group.  One was holding an ‘oppose prevent’ sign. I asked if that meant that she was for terrorism. She confessed someone had handed her the sign and she didn’t know what prevent was.

“I asked others why they were wearing masks. They replied that it was so the demonstraters couldn’t hunt them down in revenge!  (Talk about projection! – CM)

“We need to be having more and more logical discussions with these people at these events. Open their eyes little by little.

“Keep following tommy for details of the next one.”

Then there was “Antler”, all the way from South Wales.  South Wales… So, Arthur is rising….  He writes – 

“I drove up to Manchester from South Wales to join the protest and see for myself what such a march was all about.

“I saw a crowd of decent ordinary predominantly working class people (shame on the middle class) peacefully protesting with a couple of rowdy, but – totally – harmless individuals.

“Given the size of Manchester and after London thought there would be a much, much bigger crowd (roughly a thousand or so -v- a few hundred anti).

“Really shocked by the extreme hysterical abusive screams of “racist” and “Nazis” from the so called progressives who were given free license

and the very intimidating heavy handed show of force and treatment dished out to protesters by the police.

“I was in the middle of the crowd standing by a chap waving a Union Jack after the speeches and a smoke bomb was let off (could not tell whether it was the police or the progressives).

“Sudden massive police presence, we were corralled again (unspoken your time is up) and actively encouraged to disperse whilst the progressives continued on unabated.

Reading the press coverage describing a crowd of decent working class people who had the courage to face those hysterical progressives as “far right” is so ironic and completely inaccurate; no actually it is wrong, vicious and deceitful.”

In response to Antler’s reference to the ‘middle class’, up popped “Let England Shake”, with – “I drove up from Suffolk.  Was there with my middle class dog :-)”.

Note well, Suffolk and South Wales were there together to register their resistance to the all-devouring Nothing that is the Jihad.  Let the White Dragon of the Saxons and – as the poem puts it – “the blood-red dragon of Gwent” – fly side by side. – CM

‘Joe Slater’ inquired anxiously – “Is there a followup march planned? Couldn’t make this one for work reasons, but certainly will the next.”  ‘Riseandshine’ informed him – “Yes, in London, in two or three weeks. I’ll be there again. I’d hope we could get 10,000 next time. It’s growing”.

Oh, let it grow. Let it grow!

Quite a few years ago, now, in a comment at this very blog, Iconoclast, I quoted a couple of passages from an old Welsh – British – myth.

The story ‘Where Arthur Sleeps’, from Gwyn Jones’ “Welsh Legends and Folktales” (1955; 1956), in the third section ‘Tales Old and New’.

In this story a Wise Man and a Welshman enter a cave in Craig-y-Dinas.  There they see a mysterious bell.

“Hanging from the passage roof was a bronze bell the size of a beehive, with a clanger as long as your arm, and the Wise Man begged the Welshman on no account to touch it, for if he did, disaster would surely follow.

“Soon they reached the main cave… it was filled with warriors in bright armour and asleep on the floor. There was an outer ring of a thousand men, and an inner ring of a hundred, their heads to the wall and their feet to the centre, each with sword, shield, battle-axe and spear; and outermost of all lay their horses… And in the middle of them all lay a king and emperor at rest, as they knew by the splendour of his array and the jewelled crown beneath his hand and the awe and majesty of his person.”

‘A little later on in the tale, “Who are these warriors?’ asked the Welshman. ‘And who is their sleeping king?

‘”The King is Arthur, and those that surround him are the men of the Island of the Mighty.

“They sleep with their steeds and their arms

“because a day will come when land and sky shall cower at the clamour of a host, and the bell will tremble and ring, and then those warriors will ride out with Arthur at their head, and drive their foes headlong into the sea, and there shall be justice and peace among men for as long as the world endures.'”

Perhaps that bell in the Cave of the Sleepers in Craig-y-Dinas is ringing now, loud and long… and not mythical sleepers in bright armour but ordinary men and women, from Suffolk and from South Wales and from many another shire and county, the people of the Island of the Mighty – whether born from its ancient stock or after-comers who have learned to love that Island also and are committing themselves to the defence of its life and its freedom and its wellbeing, as also to the life and wellbeing of allied Lands of the Free – are hearing and heedng the call.