What I Saw at the Unite the Kingdom Rally
100,000, 150,000, 500,000, a million, three million? An estimate of the size of the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally in central London on Saturday is evidently challenging, perhaps impossible. (All these figures have been claimed somewhere.) The drone footage looks like a CGI representation of a massed army from Lord of the Rings. Then there are the at least one-and-a-half million who were following events on livestreams. But does the figure really matter? Suffice to say the numbers who were there, and those that would have liked to have been there, were extraordinary – historic even – and far surpassed the expectations of the police or the mainstream media. A better question might be: what does it all mean?
I was there for much of it. So packed did it become that I had to almost fight my way out. (I had a train to catch.) This was a bit of a problem as the police had sealed off most of Whitehall making it very hard to leave. The idea seemed to be to create empty buffer zones to prevent confrontations with rival protestors. Fair enough perhaps, but the cordoned-off area was simply too small, leading to gridlock and a certain amount of panic. I only got out after feigning a heart problem and claiming my wife was on the other side of the thin blue line with my medication. My Oscar-worthy performance worked, testament to what I found was the overall reasonableness of the police.
But they were close to being overwhelmed at times and one take-away message from the day is that the authorities underestimated the breadth and depth of feeling of people in UK who oppose the direction the country seems to be taking. The rally was called ‘Unite the Kingdom’ and the proliferation of Union Jacks, flags of St George, Saltires and Welsh Dragons evidenced the UK-wide appeal of this event – not just how frustrated people feel, but a renewed spirit of Unionism, too.
The number of crosses and placards proclaiming Jesus Christ our saviour was, to me at least, surprising. “Jesus is King” was chanted from the stage at one point. How real this is (is Tommy Robinson a regular churchgoer?) is questionable but it certainly added a flavour to the proceedings and reinforced the mood of a people striving for a higher, better, ancient authority to appeal to. Proselytisers handed out literature and if they didn’t seem to be making too many converts, they were welcomed nevertheless.
The mood, if it can be summarised, was not angry or aggressive, just defiant, determined and resolutely patriotic. I would summarise it thus: “We are British and proud of it. We quite like our little island and don’t want it transformed. We are sick of being smeared and caricatured, censored and silenced.” If the crowds might not be called diverse – though there were people of every skin pigmentation – no one appeared excluded, accept, perhaps, Sir Keir Starmer, who is loathed. I even bumped into Piers Corbyn and had a brief chat to him about climate change. Interesting that this old Leftie should see potential for scepticism in this crowd of supposed ‘far-Right bigots’.
Almost no party political figures seemed to be present (Ben Habib excepted), not from the UK anyway, and interest in traditional politics seemed lacking. Advance UK had a couple of stalls, I saw one UKIP banner, one “Farage for PM” placard, but of Reform as a party virtually nothing. They were no doubt keeping their distance from what many will depict as an unsavoury manifestation of extremism, but I didn’t detect much enthusiasm for or interest in the bookies’ favourite for our next PM.
And what of Tommy Robinson? He arrived over Blackfriars Bridge within the main body of the endless march enclosed within a phalanx of bodyguards and flanked, apparently, by Katie Hopkins and Laurence Fox. I nearly bumped into him at one point, which brought me up short. I had almost wondered whether Tommy Robinson was real. Such is his mystique that he seemingly exists as much in the imagination or YouTube as in the flesh, a liminal character like Ned Ludd, Watt Tyler, Jack Cade or Robin Hood.
Whoever or whatever Robinson is, he was clearly idolised by a substantial section of the crowd. But not, I suspect, by all. One of the benefits of actually being there is that you can judge to what extent the generalisations of the mainstream media were borne out. The Tommy chant was struck up a number of times, but never quite took general hold. I could be wrong but I sensed there were many who chose to keep a little distance between the main man and the general themes of the day. Whatever else yesterday was, it would be wrong to characterise it as ‘Tommy-fest’.
Those themes were love of country, of British culture, a rejection of mainstream politics and mainstream media, and a resolute defence of free speech. Charlie Kirk was appropriately memorialised and there were huge cheers for Elon Musk who appeared via a video link to speak with Robinson. Musk spoke of his love of the UK and desire to see it stand up for its core values. Robinson thanked him for his acquisition of Twitter and opening up the global debate. The mainstream media were hardly mentioned at all, which speaks not just to the contempt most there feel towards them but their growing irrelevance to large sections of society.
Were there bad elements? Plenty certainly had the look. There were some rough-looking muscle-bound men, skinheads, all-body tattoos, military garb, lager in hand. Aesthetically you can understand why many jump to the conclusion that at least some of Tommy Robinson’s followers are undesirables – particularly when they are told so over and over again by the mainstream media. For the most part, though, I’d agree with the estimable Trevor Philips who described the attendees as “the sort of people you would meet in a country pub”.
I saw no trouble whatsoever, but there were apparently 25 arrests on Saturday and a similar number of police were injured when Unite the Kingdom came close to clashing with an ‘anti-fascist’ group. It’s not clear exactly what happened or how many of the arrested were counter-protesters or indeed what exactly the injuries amounted to. By way of reference, there were 528 arrests at the Notting Hill Carnival this year.
More out of curiosity than anything else, I watched the BBC report of the rally that evening. It focused almost entirely on the one (that I know of) ugly confrontation which it seemed to be suggesting characterised the whole event and everyone there. The reporter looked a little dazed and demoralised, perhaps overwhelmed by the scale of the event or vaguely guilty about the partiality of his own reporting. He mouthed the orthodox complaints of ‘far-Right’ violence but his demeanour suggested acquiescence to a deeper truth: that what happened yesterday in Whitehall and what it signifies cannot be so easily defined or so easily dismissed.
Philip Patrick is a freelance journalist.
Stop Press: In the Times, Trevor Phillips warns politicians and journalists that they dismiss the Unite the Kingdom march at their “peril”. “Calling this movement the product of extremist rabble-rousers will no longer do. Mainstream politicians must wake up.”
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I wonder if Badenough or Two tier Kier could attract such numbers to a gathering?
Tommy Robinson managed it, no wonder they are terrified
You know the answer Dinger. 😀
Only if they were put in the stocks.
Of course Farage & Tice weren’t there.
Farage spent a year lying about Tommy Robinson and Richard Tice dismissed the million plus at the rally and millions watching online as “that lot”
But what’s Rupert Lowe’s excuse for not attending? And what’s even stranger is that he’s made no mention of this humongous patriotic gathering on his Twitter page at all. Not a single acknowledgment, like it didn’t happen. And he’s a frequent poster who regularly talks about all things ‘Britain’, due to him being a legit patriot, or so I thought. So I’m a bit puzzled, to be honest.
Tells us all we need to know. I am sure Tice will be spewing out the usual TR is fascist etc as well.
RUPERT LOWE SUPPORTERS GROUP:
“Make sure you attend the Unite The Kingdom rally on 13th of September
in London. The rally point is Waterloo station at 1pm.
We will be there.
Fun day peaceful demonstration.
Leave any anger behind and show solidarity.”
I totally agree.
RUPERT LOWE SUPPORTERS GROUP:
“Make sure you attend the Unite The Kingdom rally on 13th of September
in London. The rally point is Waterloo station at 1pm.
WE WILL BE THERE.
Fun day peaceful demonstration.
Leave any anger behind and show solidarity.”
But was that from Rupert?
Precisely. Farage does not have the coconuts to do what must be done. TR does. Farage is a weakling on the Koranimals and on the legal, quasi legal invasion.
I respect Tommy Robinson he is a true patriot and a family man.
His aura, at the moment, means any political party that aligns with him will supply the whole nine yards to the enemy who will immediately use it ,with sanctimonious glee, to riddle that political party (Reform) with holes too big to survive! I don’t like it, but that’s the way it is.
With a bit of luck during a new government and a new veiw on reality, Tommy will eventually get the approval he rightly deserves
Once you’re in, then show your coconuts!
That’s in effect what happened with UKIP when Tommy was taken on board there. The MSM were far more interested in smearing Tommy than listening to UKIP’s message.
It wasn’t a political rally.
You’re right, but Tommy’s sponsor Pakistani Millionaire Habib made sure that no elected politician was invited, because he wanted all the attention to be focused on himself, in his dream of using his £millions and Tommy’s popularity as a springboard into No. 10.
I’m sure that neither Farage, nor Tice, nor Rupert Lowe, nor any elected British politician was invited by Tommy’s sponsor, who wanted the whole show to himself: Pakistani Benyamin Naeem Habib, who is using Tommy’s immense popularity to piggyback himself into No. 10.
On German TV, this was reported as (reportedly, I have this from third party sources) as “thousands attend rally of far-right extremists in London”.
Thanks for the article.
Surely they meant ” A few people attended rally of extreme far-right Nazi extremists in London”.
Tells you all you need to know about their legacy media. Still, I can always cheer myself up by spending some time on Blackout-news.de and read about the latest job losses, bankruptcies, company relocations, rising energy costs, growing risk of blackouts etc. I wonder what the German for schadenfreude is?
They probably just copied this from the leader of the BBC article on that without even reading the text of it (which talked about “about 150,000” people attending).
Good piece in the Spectator by Jonathon Sacerdoti about his and his husband’s attendance (in yarmulke). Some bits he felt uneasy at but the only insult he reported was from the counter-demonstration by antifa.
He pointed out that the bits he felt uneasy about were part of life and free speech, or words to that effect. To his credit.
“… his and his husband’s attendance … ?
How easily our culture has become debauched. Yet the same “his and his husband” complain about people who can’t define a women.
If he has a husband, is he his husband’s wife?
Interestingly the BBC had Jonathan Sacerdoti & Sir Trevor Phillips on the World at One.
Sarah Montague was totally bemused when they both kept telling her how wrong she & the whole BBC & MSM were about what was going on.
She kept trying to insist it was a racist bunch of deplorable fascists, they kept telling her it was just normal people.
It occurred to me, this was the Overton window opening up in real time.
Overton Window. Time for defenestrations.
Is there a law that if there’s a large demonstration of some sort, the police have to allow an antagonistic counter-demonstration in the same area on principle? Since they are intended not to meet, why not insist they are at different times?
It was gratifying to see that the Antifa Hate Not Hope mob could only muster at most 5000 supporters (figure quoted by MSM so probably an exaggeration) whereas the huge number of patriots outnumbered them by a huge margin
Hmmm… let me see, how many pro-Israel and Jews protests have been allowed during the Palestine terrorist marches?
None… for their own safety.
Only if the counter demonstration is Leftie-loonie, otherwise the not Leftie-loonie counter demonstration is not allowed to avoid violence.
I went because I felt compelled to go. I also wanted to see for myself quite how far the MSM would warp and twist things
As mentioned above the Jonathon Sacerdoti piece in The Spectator really gets it across.
Many people there were just ordinary people who had the urge to attend, and the overall mood was very good humoured and positive
I am so glad I went
It’s really strange isn’t it? Normal people at a Tommy Robinson event.
A magnificent day.
Whatever people think about Tommy he can mobilise the British people. Is there anybody else in the country capable of pulling off what Tommy managed on Saturday? And do not forget two days before the event Westminster Council doubtless under the direction of the little khant or Kneel, tried to pull the licence but were overruled by the police.
Well said🫵
Thank you.
Well done to you for attending!
It was a magnificent triumph for Tommy and patriots worldwide, and a moving tribute to martyred Charlie Kirk, with British Patriots chanting his name in the streets of London.
A truly historic event.
What I take away from it is the great likelihood that for every peron that attended there will be another 5-10 that didn’t, but who definitely feel the same way.
This should be a giant, screaming WAKE UP call to politicians of every stripe, and should also pull the blinkers off people who still rely on the MSM for their news.
I imagine that the numbers attending the next such rally will be even greater – I didn’t go this time as I wasn’t feeling too well but I hope to attend the next one. The fact that there was so little trouble will reassure many others who stayed at home and watched it on TV and encourage them to attend in person next time
I like this young lady’s take on her experience of attending. But look at some of the comments, if you can see them. Once again, the racists raise their ugly heads. This is the particular flavour of ‘patriotism’ I’d personally give a wide berth, because these people don’t speak for me. “Deport”, “She’s got to go”, just because she’s not white.
The irony of people with these views is this: It’s an indisputable fact that there are 2nd generation migrants who were born in the UK to non-white parents who migrated to England who are more patriotic than indigenous white natives who can trace their ancestry back three centuries within the UK. “Say what??” Well, look at the next gathering of Socialist Workers. See what the predominant skin colour of these Lefties is. The vast majority of oikophobes and anglophobes are white.
As I’m sure the posters who went to this event will attest, there were plenty of non-white patriots in attendance, and yet there’s hostile supposed patriots who’d quite like to see the back of them and send them to a country they have no affinity with. But what was the dominant colour of those numpty counter-protestors?
https://x.com/Sargon_of_Akkad/status/1967571833634623755
Thanks for posting this TikTok video of the black woman saying she felt perfectly safe there. She speaks such good sense! It sounds like the anti lockdown marches I went on when I felt I could speak to anyone as a fellow protestor no matter who they were.
You’re right, Maria. Sadly there’s people that aren’t interested in nuance or viewing people as individuals because they cannot see past the colour of somebody’s skin and want them booted out the country on that basis alone. These deluded racists harp on about wanting to live in a country that resembles 1950s England, which is nothing but a fantasy. We are where we are and have to work with what we’ve got. One can be anti-mass immigration without being a racist and non-white British patriots do exist.
So when are you going to answer my repeated simple questions, in response to your endless whingeing about “racism”:
“WHEN ARE THE ISRAELI PEOPLE GOING TO BE FORCED TO ACCEPT A NIGERIAN CATHOLIC WOMAN to replace Netanyahu?
Or a Pakistani Muslim as LEADER OF ISRAEL?
Why do Jewish people like yourself accuse the West of “racism”, while DEMANDING ISRAEL’S RIGHT to be an ETHNOSTATE?
Can you not see your own HYPOCRISY?
I really appreciate these first hand accounts of people who actually attended rather than lazy journalists who weren’t there and presumably watched the BBC coverage instead. There was a ridiculous article in the Daily Telegraph yesterday that quoted Sir Kweir saying that he wouldn’t surrender our flag to far right extremists (smash the gangs, 20b black hole blah blah blah, you know the mantra) which garnered over 12,000 comments protesting at their biased reporting. MSM really need to look at themselves and realise they need to be on the right side of history and not just spew government propaganda as the DT did during the scamdemic. Considering cancelling my sub as I’ve only stayed for the comments for quite a while now
Thanks for the article but not sure what this is in aid of:
”Whatever else yesterday was, it would be wrong to characterise it as ‘Tommy-fest’.”
Who here is so idiotic to think of it like that? Seems like a cheap dig at Robinson – who gets off his arse and gets things to happen.
PS Dear Mr Philip Patrick I think you will find few of us here are much into “fests” for any individual- we recognise important contributions to the cause of freedom, but we don’t believe in saviours.
“…the authorities underestimated the breadth and depth of feeling of people in UK who oppose the direction the country seems to be taking.”
Yes, because it is not up to the authorities to take this country in any direction other than the one the country wants, especially if that direction is chosen by unelected and self appointed non national entities like the UN, WEF, EU and especially the Davos set – and Blair.
“No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race.”
Richard Feynman
There’s a report by Kathy gyngell on TCW. I was struck by this bit:
“Then I listened to some quite terrible stories from a group standing close to me from Forest Fields, Nottingham, which has a significant Muslim population – what their life is like there as a white minority. They were not racist but fearful, angry and dismayed about their abandonment by politicians and police. They simply described the facts – harassment, arson and terrorising of local people until they were forced out; the women not daring to walk outside at night, the absence of any concern from local police, their fears for children in local care. Stories that are never sought by MSM – ones the MSM does not want to hear. I would have recorded them but they didn’t want me to – afraid, for all the obvious reasons.”
More than anything else the so-called mainstream has to wake up and realise what islam is doing to Britain.
Forest fields onto Hyson green in Notts was well known as a prostitute area all my life, everyone new it and avoided it.
The worst time was the Goose fair on forest fields when the law took a back seat.
Hyson green police station looked more like stalag 15 with its barbed wire and security gates and cameras than a cop shop(its not there anymore,even the police had to move out!), and now ,apparently, it’s even worse! Lord help them
Show me the names and addresses of all those arrested at and before the Notting Hill carnival that were released to the public one day after the event!!! Richard Hamilton, 42 (22.07.83) of Braeside Place, Glasgow, was charged with assault on an emergency worker. He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 15 September. He was remanded in custody. Matthew Wilkins, 55 (19.09.69), of Villa Gardens, Waterlooville, was charged with breaching Section 14 of the Public Order Act and disrupting a person engaged in lawful activity on Monday, 15 September. He was remanded in custody. He will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, 18 February 2026. Lewis Siverns, 33 (26.06.92), of Farmer Way, Sandwell, was charged with assault on an emergency worker. He was bailed to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, 1 October. Jamie Brewer, 35 (25.09.89) of Choat Place, Chelmsford was charged with actual bodily harm against a police officer and attended Highbury Magistrates Court on Monday, 15 September. Aaron Wren, 36 (29.07.89), of Kingswear Garden, Rochester, was charged with Section 4A of the Public Order Act and was bailed to appear at Highbury Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 29 September. James Moore, 50 (02.01.75), of Pulchrass… Read more »
Philip Patrick wrote:
” The rally was called ‘Unite the Kingdom’ and the proliferation of Union Jacks, flags of St George, Saltires and Welsh Dragons evidenced the UK-wide appeal of this event – not just how frustrated people feel, but a renewed spirit of Unionism, too.”
“Unionism”? How convenient that everyone leaves out the flag of fourth nation of the United Kingdom: NORTHERN IRELAND, which was given short shrift onstage at the rally, quickly replaced by the tricolour of Catholic Southern Ireland, because Tommy wanted to honour his mother.
Here’s a reminder that British Passports say
“UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND”:
Tommy Robinson is a catalyst.
Someone that precipitates an event or change: a person whose talk, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic, or energetic.
This seems to be missed by the usual suspects who called it a rally in support of Tommy Robinson. It was no such thing. It was about the dire situation into which our Country is now descended, and the lack of care of the governing class for the people whom they are supposed to serve.
Hear, hear.
Thank you Philip. I was there too, on my bicycle as before. I witnessed a lot (good and bad) as only anyone could with wheels. I feel the same (Reform- “you are missing a trick here today, “as I messaged my Reform group from my spot in Parliament square) NF and RT have their reasons for distancing themselves I understand, however completely disagree. TR will be one of our heroes of this decade. Reform need to rethink!
I despise the establishment. Their day is done. Punishment is coming doe them all over time.
Remigration. Repatriation. Deportation foe all illegals ans all immigrants who have come here since 2019. Preferably since 1997.
If you really want to save a people, your tribe, you have to be harsh and uncompromising. Crying women and children must not stir your heart otherwise we will disappear as an ethnos.
Two-Tier certainly wasn’t listening. He released a statement informing those who attended the march and those who support the themes behind it that “the UK was built on diversity.”
No it wasn’t, you ignoramus. From Anglo-Saxon times, until the post WW2 era, when immigration slowly took off and was then accelerated to mass immigration from the 3rd world, the population of the British Isles was remarkably stable. In the immediate post-war era, 99% of the population was white British (including the Irish who had settled here).
THEY built the UK: The white British/Irish.
I was there too and this report by Philip Patrick describes exactly how it was. I’ve been on a lot of marches and can say that numbers are routinely exaggerated – sometimes by hundreds of thousands. I try to compare the crowd with those exiting Wembley Stadium. This was larger than that, but 5 times as large? Doubtful. Nevertheless I can say it was the largest demo I’ve been on.
In previous Tommy rallies – particularly the one where he was not present because he was arrested the day before – the Tommy chant was taken up by more people. But this time it wasn’t. Why? I think it was because the crowd was bigger and there was a sense of gravitas about the proceedings. Even the Kier Starmer is a w**ker chant didn’t really take off, though brought a smile to everyone’s face.
I note in yesterday’s Reform announcement (about the new role for Danny Kruger) Nigel Farage was far more reasonable in his comments about the marchers and the march. He has got the message.
First, it is actually possible to estimate the number of people attending. One can take the approximate area used for the form-up, multiply it by about three people per square metre for a tightly packed crowd, add some for those who arrived later, and that gives a reasonable figure. By my calculation, the Met’s estimate of 110,000 to 150,000 is quite reasonable. Anything above 250,000 is wishful thinking.
But here is where it becomes interesting. Someone referred to Section 14 of the Public Order Act. You can find it here: news.met.police.uk/news/met-prepares-for-busy-saturday-of-protest-and-other-events-500986
According to that Met announcement, the area allocated for the Unite the Kingdom demonstration, when packed closely, could accommodate roughly 30,000 people. By the same calculation, the space designated for the No Fascists demonstration was intended for about 17,000 people. There has been no explanation so far for this massive miscalculation. However, it is clear that this caused problems, with about 100,000 more participants than expected.
By the way, it also means that around 100,000 people technically breached Section 14 of the Public Order Act.
Only the ballot box and the defunding of the BBC will wake them up. They are slipping into irrelevance – as is Farage – this movement is bigger than him and he is ‘leading’ from behind.