Bartholomew's Notes

From CBS:

Police estimated that around 60,000 people attended the “Unite the Kingdom” march, making it one of the largest right-wing mobilizations seen in Britain in recent years, though smaller than a similar Robinson-led rally last September… Crowds carrying St. George’s Cross and Union flags marched through central London chanting “we want Starmer out” and “Christ is King.” Some wore red “Make England Great Again” hats, echoing President Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

At the Guardian, Ben Quinn described the rally as a “far-right Glastonbury” that was nonetheless “low energy”; the festival vibe was also noted by Fred Sculthorp at the Critic, who reported one marcher complaining about it being more “middle class and established” than the previous march in September,”as if this were some undiscovered festival that had been ruined now that word had got around”. At UnHerd, Cosmo Adair similarly judged that

It hadn’t erupted into the orgiastic hate of which both Starmer and the Metropolitan Police warned, but it also hadn’t had quite the take-off Robinson expected. If it heralded anything, it was the arrival of a Right-wing Omnicause. There were Pahlavists and anti-vaxxers in attendance, rubbing shoulders with hooligans and country gents. Neo-Nazis mixed with ordinary concerned citizens.

In contrast, Nadeine Asbali, writing in Metro, found the rally “noticeably more sinister” than previous events:

Someone who calls himself the Scottish Korean appeared on stage for a cello performance wearing bacon on his shoulders to ward off the Muslims (because, clearly, like vampires and garlic, we self-implode at the mere sight of a dead pig).

…So-called feminist group Collectif Nemesis wore niqabs on stage before stripping them off as the crowd laughed, jeered and chanted ‘take it off’ (I don’t know about you, but nothing screams feminism like the idea of thousands of drunk men shouting at women to undress!).

Kellie-Jay Keen, best known for her anti-trans activism, stood on the stage demanding that Islam be taken out of every ‘area of authority’ in the UK, whatever that means.

Emily Lawford, at the New Stateman, reported hearing one audience member express the belief (hope?) that Collectif Némésis trio were “strippers”. As for the religious element, Lawford found that “not everyone at the march was a Christian, but most were happy to mumble along to the Lord’s Prayer and join in chants of ‘Christ is King’ when instructed”.

Meanwhile, Hope Not Hate has the most comprehensive round-up of the various speakers, although even they failed to identify the man who “performed the cello while draped in bacon” – this was actually an influencer named Ryan Williams, whose rasher-wearing antics brought him fame in Australia last September.

Hope Not Hate also notes the religious angle:

Kevin Carroll, a cousin of Lennon [i.e., Tommy Robinson] and a founding member of the English Defence League, opened by declaring that Christianity in Britain was “under attack”, while praising Donald Trump and leading the crowd in the Lord’s Prayer… Actor-turned-activist Laurence Fox delivered a rambling religiously themed speech, reading from the Bible and describing Britain as “God’s Kingdom”.

Also on stage, once again, were Bishop Ceiron Dewar and Rikki Doolan – and Doolan now says he intends to sue Piers Morgan for using a clip that shows him singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” out of tune, which Doolan claims was faked. The Religion Media Centre further notes that Bishop Jwan Zhumbes, an Anglican bishop from Bukuru in Nigeria “spoke about the persecution of Christians by the Islamist group Boko Haram, and urged the crowd not to depart from the UK’s Christian principles”.

One distinguising feature of the rally was the presence of wooden crosses held by members of the crowd; according to Dewar these were made by his associate Deacon Pete Prosser and his son and daughter. A report by Elliot Harvey for EWTN noted among the attendees one “Luke Barker from The Lord’s Work Trust”, who was handing out a leaflet titled Common Sense: What the Bible Has to Say on the Issue of Immigration.

The event might have been more of a “red meat” affair had a number of international speakers not been refused entry into the UK (although the risible conspiracy theorist and libeller Glenn Beck was apparently seen as harmless enough to get through). In particular, the cartoonish Valentina Gomez would probably have generated some easy copy for joutnalists with her conspiracist and abusive rants, such as her claim that the recent drowning accident in Brighton was the work of “rapists Muslims” (1). When Gomez was denied her visa in April, she denounced the home secretary as a “dirty Pakistani Muslim” – Robinson did not object, although Carl Benjamin, who opened the rally, complained  on social media that it made “everyone look bad”. This provoked a row that Robinson tried to laugh off.

Also banned from attending was a Polish politician named Dominik Tarczynski. This might have put Nigel Farage in a difficult position, as he knows Tarczynski – but speaking up might undermine the distance the Reform UK leader wants to keep from Robinson. His solution, apparently, was to express a view privately to his associate Lois Perry, who then relayed it to a Polish television channel. According to her account, Farage said Tarczynski was “a good friend” and that he “knew him from his time in the European Parliament”. (2)

Farage also referred to “patriotic Brits” attending the rally, presumably in contrast to a Government statement that described Unite the Kingdom as “unpatriotic” – a misjudged scolding adjective unlikely to convince anyone attracted by Robinson’s rhetoric.

Notes

1. Three women recently drowned in the sea at Brighton after a night out: it appears they had been paddling and perhaps misjudged the edge of a coastal shelf, but the initial information void was the usual gift to opportunists. In contrast to Gomez, Robinson adopted a “just asking questions” pose (“Wtf is going on?”). Ant Middleton, who sent a message to the rally, concurred with Gomez’s allegation of murder by replying to her social media post with a “bullseye” symbol, which he later deleted.

The deaths came two weeks after it was reported that two Sudanese women had died in a small boat that had run aground on a beach in northern France. The two women were reportedly suffocated in the stampede this caused, but an unsubstantiated story has done the rounds, based on a supposed “Border Force” source, claiming that they were murdered by male migrants. Among those spreading the claim was Don Keith, another American scheduled to speak at the rally who was denied a visa.

2. Tarczynski and other speakers denied visas have instructed an Italian lawyer named Francesco Gargallo di Castel Lentini to issue a “letter of claim” against Keir Starmer:

I hereby submit this letter in the name and on behalf of Don Keith, Ada Lluch, Joey Mannarino, MEP Dominik Tarczyński, Eva Lotte Louise Vlaardingerbroek, who have granted me express mandate to formally contest, for all legal purposes and effects under international law, the law of Great Britain, the law of the United States of America, the law of Spain, the law of the Netherlands, the law of Poland, the public declaration issued on 12 May 2026 by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in which he referred to my Clients as “far-right agitators”, and in the public declaration issued on 15 May 2026 in which he referred to my Clients as “those who seek to stir it [hatred that manifests as violence] up”.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

From France 3:

Un feu de végétation a provoqué l’incendie de l’église de Montenach en Moselle à la frontière Luxembourgeoise ce jeudi 30 avril 2026. Une partie du clocher s’est effondrée, la charpente a été entièrement brûlée, 60 pompiers et 40 véhicules étaient engagés pour circonscrire le sinistre maîtrisé en fin d’après-midi.

News that a brushfire in eastern France had spread to a church ought to be a subject of merely local interest – however, images of the blaze, but not links to the news reports, are currently doing the rounds on social media, based on the assumption that when churches catch fire the reason must be arson, and that the arsonists must be Muslims, who always get away unobserved and without leaving any incriminating evidence. Followers of the likes of Tommy Robinson congratulate themselves for penetrating the mystery through their superior deductive abilities.

This is a regular occurence – back in 2019, Full Fact noted the existence of a map that purported to show acts of arson at churches all around France:

A post on Facebook claims that a heavily annotated map of France shows how many churches have been “destroyed” there in the last four years. It has had over 1,700 shares.

However:

The pins on the map don’t just show churches that were “destroyed”; they also include vandalism incidents, like graffiti, as well as theft, violent incidents at churches and religious buildings, plus incidents where priests were attacked or threatened.

The map was promoted five years later by Darren Grimes, one of Reform UK’s less guarded councillors, in a social media post in which he accused “France’s newcomers” and claimed that it explained the fire at Rouen Cathedral’s spire – a blaze that was most likely caused by a welding spark touching plastic sheeting in the context of works that were going on at the time.

Of course, that does not mean there is no church arson: in 2022 in the UK a teenager named John Brady was given a hospital order for “a string of devastating arson attacks on schools and churches” in Derbyshire, while a man named Ryan Haggerty was jailed for starting a church fire in Glasgow. Fires at churches in Europe, when started deliberately, are almost invariably the work of vandals or pyromaniacs (the 1990s Black Metal-related church attacks in Norway and the occasional self-styled Satanist excepted).

The trend of blaming Muslims for starting church fires without evidence, or even in the teeth of counter-evidence, perhaps began with Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019. Recent cases include the Institution des Chartreux (Chartreux boarding school) in Lyon, France (likely an electrical fault) and the Monastero della Bernaga (Bernaga Monastery) in Lombardy, Italy (also electrical). In the UK, a fire at a Victorian Gothic building in Weymouth last year was taken to be another church fire – in that instance, the structure was actually a former eye hospital that had been converted into a restaurant, giving conspiracists the bonus complaint about the media not calling it a church. Also last year, a church fire in Doirí Beaga, Donegal was falsely attributed to Afghans by Radio Europe; footage of the blaze is still being posted, in one case at least incorrectly relocated across the border to Northern Ireland. One might diagnose apophenia, the tendency to see connections where none exist, were there not so much grift and bad faith involved.

Fires at churches are also useful for building a resentment narrative that arson at mosques is being given too much consideration. Thus when the home secretary wrote last October that “reports today of an attack on a mosque in Peacehaven in East Sussex are deeply concerning”, conspiracist pop duo Right Said Fred rejoined with images of a church fire at St Mary’s Church in Beachamwell, Norfolk (caused by a welding spark) and All Saints Church in Fleet, Hampshire (arson committed by a teenager named Daniel Finnerty in 2015). Populist commentators such as Mike Graham showed more interest in Peacehaven when there was speculation that a Muslim might have done it (1), but less so once white Britons were charged – one of whom, Ricky Ryder, has now admitted arson.

Note

1. Graham was confused due to a case of attempted arson at a mosque in Kettering, Northamptonshire, around the same time. The arsonist in that case was a man named Arif Ali Rafiq, who had absconded during day release from a mental healt unit and reported hearing a voice in his head telling him to commit the offence. The damage was minimal, and he called police himself to report his actions. The incident was conflated with Peacehaven by numerous people on Twitter/X. Internet detectives also misinterpreted a fragment of a taxi-driver speaking Urdu that became attached to footage from Peacehaven.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »