Britain First – the new kids on the block of right-wing racial and religious hatred – have spent the last few days on a ‘national tour’ of pub function rooms. Previous to this their main activity has been a series of controversial publicity stunts ‘invading’ mosques. With a notable lack of irony they chose to protest against Muslims supposedly imposing Islam on everyone by forcing their way into mosques around the country, intimidating elderly Muslims and forcing Bibles into their hands.
They have got a bunch of publicity and a lot of Facebook ‘likes’ from stunts involving a handful of members, but have never held a demo or been forced to show their hand on the streets in terms of how much support they actually have. So the last few days of their ‘national tour’ have been an interesting illustration of how Facebook likes relate to real world boots on the street, i.e. not at all – you might have got a lot of clicks for posting up pictures of sick puppies and Rik Mayall, but that doesn’t mean anyone’s willing to leave the house for you.
Anti-Fascist Network 