It had to happen. Following the initial outbreak of mob violence in Southport, following the murders of the three young girls at a Taylor Swift inspired event, and the subsequent thuggery in London, Hartlepool, Sunderland, Aldershot, Lyme Regis, Windsor and Henley on Thames – I may have misheard some of the locations on the news – it was inevitable that here in cool, trendy, gentrified Bristol™ we would not be immune to pissed-up, coked-up violence. And tonight, violent thuggery is coming home.
Our plans for a relaxing late afternoon and early evening tour of some of Bristol’s finest public houses in town have been abandoned following the announcement that a gathering of the far right, along with assorted football hooligans from more than one club, is being held at Castle Green this evening.
It can only be a coincidence that both Bristol clubs have so-called friendly fixtures at the same time in the city today, as Rovers ‘entertain’ Cardiff City, whose fans of course have no history of hooligan and disorder and City, who play the Dutch side Willem II, who like many clubs in the Netherlands are famed – or it is infamed? – for their hooligan ‘ultra’ supporters. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, hopefully nothing. But coppers are taking no chances by invoking Section 60 powers for the city centre, up Gloucester Road as far as Horfield and across Bedminster, Southville and Ashton Gate. I’m taking no chances, either, because these will be the areas where potential rioters will be gathering and/or moving through and frankly when I go out for a beer, I usually tend to avoid places where I might find myself caught up in, or rather actively avoiding, groups of idiots out for a ruck.
As well as the far right gathering – it is not a protest or a demonstration as the media wrongly keeps calling it – there will be a gathering of anti-fascists, a pro Hamas – sorry, pro Palestine – rally on the city centre and thousands of people just out for a quiet or not so quiet afternoon on the lash. I had intended to be part of the latter group, but quite frankly the ugly scenes of violence in certain parts of the country have rather put me off.
As we have previous noted, these riots are but a passing phase. They have been coordinated by the likes of Danny Tomo (Daniel Thomas), who is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s right hand man and like Yaxley-Lennon he calls for action but quietly disappears into the background when things kick off. Funny that. When largely middle aged white men find themselves arrested and then banged up, their heroes are nowhere to be seen. The far right know they no longer have a hard right, populist government who bow to their every whim, hence Nigel Farage’s increasingly unhinged offerings. The game for the far right isn’t up just yet, but they know for at least the next five years they will be speaking to themselves.
Mind how you go if you are out and about in Bristol today, whether you are in town, in and around either of the football grounds or along excellent drinking areas like the Gloucester Road. Remember: it only takes a minute for a life to be ended or changed forever. Why take a chance?
