I thought they were slightly incomprehensible comments that were totally inappropriate. It doesn’t disturb me, because it’s actually proof that we live in a country where free speech, free association, is alive and well. But what we saw yesterday was over 100,000 people who were expressing freedom of association, freedom of speech and proving that both of those things are alive and well in this country. … So I think these are moments that are klaxon calls to us in public life to redouble our efforts to address the big concerns that people right across our country have, and immigration is a big concern. —Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Business & Trade
By Alan Morrison
‘Unite the Kingdom’ | Carnival of Division |
Venerating thuggish | Stephen Yaxley-Lennon |
‘Tommy Robinson’ | on a pedestal of spite |
Shaven-sided Agincourt | haircut, undercut |
High-&-tight | hollers on his microphone: |
“Patriotism is the future. | BORDERS are the future” |
What kind of future | partitioned as past? |
Quarantined ethnicities | racial distancing |
150,000 marchers | almost entirely white |
(& red) pack into Whitehall | St George flag brands: |
STOP THE BOATS | WE WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK |
O Tommy Tommy O | Whither are you bound? |
It Happened Here | In dystopian parallel |
A drip-drip of blood-red | Lard-white / bruise-blue |
Blooms of Butcher’s Aprons, | billows of zombie-|
Empire, yobbish bully boys | Bulldog Breed |
Unleashed, beer-bellied | Übermenschen |
Mobilising interminably | “Keir Starmer Is |
A Wanker” to White Stripes’ | ‘Seven Nations |
Army’—“O Jeremy Corbyn” | travestied by neo-|
Nazis emboldened by | Starmer’s Patriotic |
Labour Party’s Union Jack | displays unfurled |
Straight into the fists | of a Far Right it’s courted |
Who will never vote Labour | no matter how |
John Bull Bullish they be | not while they can vote |
For the real Faragist thing, | sink their teeth into |
Red meat, bloody medium rare | The Gammon |
Undoubtedly Yvette | Cooper will be pleased |
At the sight of so many | England flags as those |
On her back garden bunting | England flags flying |
Flightless kites divisive | across the multi-cultural |
Capital, melting pot of post-| colonial Diaspora |
Now comes with a warning | to native white Brits |
That our old colonies are | coming back to colonise us |
Will she & Starmerites | whitesplain this racist |
Activity as simply patriotic | expression to all those |
Of colour whom it intimidates? | Excludes implicitly |
Starmer the absentee prime | minister ensconced |
In a football match | supporting his team |
Arsenal, the Gunners | while massed Gammon |
Are gunning for our | democracy… In spite |
Of clashes with police, | stampedes of Patriots, |
Thrown cans, bottles, projectiles, | punches, kicks, |
Only twenty or so arrests, | while the previous week |
NINE HUNDRED peaceful | placard-holders |
Silently protesting Israel’s | genocide in Gaza |
Were arrested under Terrorism | charges, The World |
Turn’d Upside Down | morality on its head, |
The moral compass of the nation | spins on its axis, |
John of Gaunt magnet | the Lion & the Unicorn |
Turn against each other | Divide the Kingdom |
Rule Brutannia! | Will Nigel Farage call out this |
Two tier policing? Will he | still claim the BBC |
Are “too left wing” while | platforming him |
For 50% of political coverage? | The “Establishment” |
Is establishing him | as prime minister-in-waiting |
He makes the political | weather courtesy of our |
License fee, he makes | much hay & heavy weather |
For our national mood | & rusted democracy… |
Farage wants “free speech” | only for those who |
Agree with him, whose | obnoxious opinions |
& toxic rhetoric | are spoon fed to them |
By right-wing papers | red top echo chambers |
& are platformed by | a morbidly besotted |
‘Liberal’ media, | Farage wants to Make Britain |
Great Again (MBGA?) but | what is meant by Great? |
Having the Might to | colonise & subjugate, |
O Rule Brutannia… | Alfred burnt the cakes, |
Alf Garnett was meant | as satire not template, |
A glove-puppet bigot | (like Zippy) of Speight |
If There Weren’t Any | Immigrants, You’d Have To |
Invent Them… | Scapegoats to hate, | Watch |
Faragists un-democratically | backslide, don’t they |
Know it was a myth that | Canute tried to turn back |
The tide…? He was actually | demonstrating his |
Temporal powerlessness | that only CHRIST IS |
KING, not any mortal | who, like him, happened to |
Wear a crown & sit on | a throne, slowly sinking |
Minister Peter Kyle | speaks of the “scale” of |
The march as a “klaxon | call” for the country |
& government to ramp | up on deportations |
& boats-stopping, a klaxon| call & response |
In government dogwhistle | (rampant incitement |
Of hate, Islamophobia | & replacement theory |
Rhetoric from Éric | Zemmour at Robinson’s |
Monstrous rally, as well | as incitement by |
A foreign billionaire | that our Parliament |
Should be dissolved & | the government replaced |
Was all simply “inappropriate”, | Kyle was “not |
Disturbed” by the Far Right | banners & speeches |
But says all this is proof | of “free speech being |
Alive & well” in Britain |—hate speech, at least—|
More whitesplaining | & gaslighting by white |
Privileged government | ministers sanguine |
Regarding only lower | rung minorities on |
Their hierarchy of racism | being targeted |
Black & brown & Muslim | only ‘anti-Semitism’ |
(Anti-Zionism) is met by | their condemnation |
Or is deployed by them | for weaponisation |
Purposes to stop debate | on Israel’s genocide |
Of Palestinians—but to | talk of scale of protests: |
11 November 2024 | saw 300,000 march |
For Palestine yet that far | bigger display |
Of protest passed without | comment from |
Government, in fact, | has resulted indirectly |
In proscription of pro-| Palestine paint-sprayers |
Of planes, & a chilling | effect sent through |
The Palestine movement, | suppression of free |
Speech including free | speechlessness |
Of silent protests & | placards packed up |
To police cells en masse | & likely prosecutions |
& sentences meant for | actual terrorists |
But not for those who | terrorise refugees |
At asylum hotels | threatening pogroms |
On immigrants & | burning their effigies |
That’s “free speech” | that’s licensed violence |
The absentee prime | minister reappears |
pressured to speak up | to say Britain will |
‘Never surrender | flag’ to the Far Right—|
Trying to channel | Churchill when he’s |
More a Chamberlain | whose nationalism-|
Appeasing piece of | paper is a rain-soaked |
Napkin—too little too | late, the damage is |
Done, the flag has | already been surrendered |
To nativist division, | if we are to represent |
Tolerance & diversity | vexillographically |
Then we will have to | invent a new one ||
