Two rallies in London couldn't more starkly contrast the class divide in Britain. I was at the #FreeTommy demonstration on 9th June, a massive gathering in support of the jailed campaigner against child rape gangs. Legions of mostly white working-class blokes with a cause celebre. Inevitably a boorish element provided the material for damning media reports. Two weeks on, in the same streets, will be a very middle-class gathering. It's planned as the largest-ever rally in favour of staying in the EU.Instead of nativist chants and Union flags, there will be whistles, faces painted with EU stars and the virtuous mantras of tolerance and diversity (plus some rather twisted logic about democracy). Oh how superior they will be to the oiks who descended from the nether regions!
Sensing an opportunity as Theresa May's government is cornered by the autocrats of Brussels and internal opposition from the political and cultural establishment, the rally is anticipated with triumphal hubris. Remainers believe they are winning, and that a tidal wave will submerge the lingering resolve to honour the referendum verdict. 'Time to march: because now it's the Brexiteers who are afraid', writes Polly Toynbee in the Guardian. Polly will be attending, alongside all the champagne socialists of Ham and High.
Polly correctly observes restlessness in the Brexit majority, but has misunderstood their sentiment. Fear is too passive: I sense an anger that could easily boil over into major civil unrest. A perfect storm is brewing, and this summer could become a turning point in British social history. Think I'm exaggerating? Consider this heady mix: -
- Obstruction of Brexit by parliamentary defiance of the referendum result
- State persecution of a working-class activist, now elevated to martyrdom
- The World Cup: always a risk of booze-fuelled aggression, but this time with an anti-establishment fervour
- Amidst a surge in knife crime in London, increasing concern about the fitness for office of Mayor Sadiq Khan
- Draconian clampdowns on freedom of speech , with social media companies colluding with the government
And this explosive cocktail is best served on warm summer nights. I sincerely hope that violence is averted, but sadly the establishment seems to be doing everything to make that happen. Privately, some erstwhile conservative pillars of society are aware of the tumult, and are not only predicting revolt, but believe it needs to happen.
Let's not mince words here: this is class warfare. No longer Left versus Right; it's progressives against patriots. The latest term of abuse is 'gammon', meaning the white man whose face reddens as he sees his country slipping way.Such inverse racism is readily apparent on middle-class websites from the Guardian to Mumsnet. In the past, the labour movement was actively supported by influential figures in academe and the arts, and today a similar situation has arisen with the schism in society exposed by the EU referendum. A small but burgeoning libertarian minority in the educated strata is siding with the masses against what commentator Paul Weston labels as the 'traitor class'.
Everywhere, our institutions are EU-compliant. The Civil Service, the BBC and Sky News, schools and universities, most trade unions, the CBI. Legal duties aside, these organisations always go the extra 1.6 kilometres to promote Brussels propaganda. Globalisation is en marche, with a brainwashed younger generation carrying the torch. The EU of course is not really global, but it shatters the autonomy and identity of the nation-state and is in tune with the middle-class guilt complex that blames proud countries such as Great Britain for the world's ills.
We still have a Eurosceptic press, but its influence has waned with the drop in print sales. Those newspapers that resist the EU have become more timid, with changes in editors and ownership, and the 'values' consciousness of advertisers. To criticise the EU and its immigration mess is perceived as intolerant. The BBC and Guardian have constantly pushed the story that Russian agents caused the Brexit vote. Yet they see no problem in the substantial funding of the Remain campaign by subversive financier George Soros, whose largesse will back the flashy display at the forthcoming Remain rally.
The supposedly independent British media have behaved abysmally with the Tommy Robinson fiasco. Since the rescinding of a 'D notice' against reporting of the summary imprisonment, they have all toed the Ministry of Truth line. A serious threat to press freedom is swept under the carpet, while a petition of 610,214 (at time of writing) is completely ignored. The major story has been left to alternative media sites (which have boomed). Just as Remainers denigrate Leavers as xenophobic bigots, so the MSM has judged against millions of people with legitimate concerns about an abuse of judicial power. When protestors shout about a 'totalitarian state', they are not far from reality. Surveillance of the internet reaps a daily average of nine arrests for offensive messages.The NUJ has embraced the policing of 'hate speech' and is discouraging journalists from reporting inconvenient facts. Our media have discredited themselves, and they may never fully recover.
The 23rd of June is a test of your EU compliance. It's a special day for us, the anniversary of the people taking back control. Or so we thought. Two years on and Remainers, with the full weight of the establishment, are taunting us. But they should not underestimate the will of the people. We did not vote to leave the EU only to let our mandate be stolen away. Democracy is a will to power - the power of the people. Deny our hard-won civil rights and freedoms, and there will be trouble.
They don't like it up 'em, the privileged intelligentsia who don't mask their contempt for the lower orders. Let's stand up to their anti-liberal, anti-democratic, anti-patriotic EU mania. In peaceful but vigorous freedom of expression, make some noise. See what people power can achieve: we have nothing to lose but our chains.
'A rush and a push and the land that we stand on is ours'
(The Smiths, Strangeways Here we Come)