Bus driver in headscarf shows far-right Tommy Robinson demonstrators everything that’s great about Britain

‘Whose side would you rather be on?’ the Ukip leader asked. ‘Robin Hood, or the Sheriff of Nottingham?’ The crowd was uncertain of the right answer – weren’t they both English?

On an afternoon when thousands of far-right protesters draped themselves in Union Jacks and anti-Islam ideologues vied with each other to give the most patriotic speech, it was left to a woman in a headscarf to show everyone the best of what it is to be British.

Specifically, a woman in a headscarf driving the number nine bus to Hammersmith.

As demonstrators left a rally in support of jailed EDL founder Tommy Robinson, they blockaded her vehicle in Trafalgar Square. For almost 30 minutes, they rattled windows and pinned “Britain Loves Trump” posters to the windscreen.

Yet surrounded by dozens of protesters, the driver reacted with almost stereotypical Britishness: with courage, tolerance and with an exquisite amount of eye-rolling. Occasionally, she appeared to check a watch.

Like a captain of a ship, she refused to abandon her vessel, even after passengers were evacuated amid fears for their safety. She remained in her driving seat almost throughout. At one point she seemed to ask if protesters would let her continue her journey. They did not.

Only when police reinforcements arrived was the street cleared.

The demonstrators, themselves, were not so calm. They threatened to fight among themselves as some demanded the bus be let through, while others chanted they would not be moved.

One, Perry Fitzpatrick, from Kent, told The Independent: “Today is a peaceful protest about freedom of speech. Now a handful of idiots will give us a bad name. It looks f******* terrible.”

Another, who declined to give his name, had an opposing view. “We want our country back,” he demanded. When asked how stopping a double-decker from heading down Cockspur Street might achieve that, he found himself unable to provide specifics.

In fact, this was a pattern throughout the afternoon’s rally, too. In conversation, demonstrators repeatedly said they were there to defend freedom of speech and Western democracy.

“Once that fails, my brother, everything else comes crashing down,” Harry, from London, told me in McDonald’s.

Yet, when engaged on what exactly that meant, there was a similar lack of clarity. It was a sunny day, after all, and many were several pints in.

One chap held a banner proclaiming Robinson the only man in Britain brave enough to expose Muslim grooming gangs. What about Andrew Norfolk, I ask – the Times journalist who exposed the Rotherham child sex scandal. A blank look. “Who’s that then, mate?” came the reply.

The demonstration itself – held in Whitehall and organised by the Middle East Forum, a right-wing American think tank – was pretty much what you’d expect: all anti-immigration chants and pro-Trump rhetoric. An inflatable pig with a mask of London mayor Sadiq Khan attached to it was passed about the thousands present. One banner labelled Germany’s chancellor, “Merc***”. The new Ukip leader, Gerard Batten, got arguably the biggest cheers of the day. Mohammed, he asserted, “was a paedophile”.

Not all his speech was so well-received, however.

A protester dresses as a Crusader to keep Islam at bay (The Independent)

A distinct lack of applause followed when he compared Robinson’s law-breaking – he was jailed for 13 months after admitting contempt of court – to that of the Suffragettes, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. The crowd appeared unsure whether or not these counted as compliments.

“Whose side would you rather be on?” persisted Mr Batten gamely. “Robin Hood, or the Sheriff of Nottingham?”

People were uncertain of the right answer. Weren’t they both English anyway?

Geert Wilders, as is his considerable rhetorical gift, was less ambiguous. The anti-immigration Dutch politician, who appeared via pre-recorded video message, kept his message simple.

“The enemy is Islam,” he said. “We are losing our country, our culture, our identity. Our countries are no longer safe. And now they are jailing those who protest. Who do they think we are? I will tell them. Tommy’s band of brothers.”

Robinson, he added, should not be in prison. On the contrary, he should be prime minister.

“Around the corner is Downing Street 10,” he declared. “And who lives there? Theresa May. But who deserves to live there? Tommy Robinson.”


 Many protesters expressed an affinity with the sensibilities of Donald Trump 
 (The Independent)

He added: “We will never abandon you. We will not rest until you are a free man.”

To the side of the stage, one protester appeared not to be heeding the message. He lay, a can of lager by his hand, snoozing under a tree.

Other speakers included controversial US congressman Paul Gosar, Kent Ekeroth of the far-right Sweden Democrats party and Filip Dewinter, a Flemish populist. To paraphrase one organiser, this was truly an international brand of nationalists.

The crowd, too, was equally (euro)-cosmopolitan. Union Jack and England flags were everywhere but so too were US, Russian, Czech Republic, Danish and Welsh banners. One lad wearing a soldier’s helmet had a flag of Mars.

“Have you heard of the TV show, The Expanse?” he asked me. “Mars is a democracy. Earth is run by an unelected bureaucracy. You see the analogy? I am for Mars.”

An Italian in the crowd, Luca, a 24-year-old carpenter, said he had come because “Islamisation is happening all across Europe”.

“It’s not being racist,” he said. “It’s about being brave enough to acknowledge that Islam is incompatible – in some forms, it’s incompatible – with the values of Europe. If we don’t address this now, it will be too late.”

I was intrigued and asked how he felt about Brexit. “Come on, Britain is a beautiful country, I have been here five years, but this is your decision,” he said. “If in a year, you want me to leave, I understand. I leave. No problem. No bad feelings.”


 Flags from countries such as Russia, the US and Czech Republic were also flown (PA)
 (PA Wire/PA Images)

Others in the crowd were less inclined to speak. “Fake news pr***s,” one middle-aged woman declared when I introduced myself as a reporter.

If the rally itself was well enough attended, an earlier march failed to really materialise.

Only 100 or so people turned up in Temple Place, near Embankment, to stride on Whitehall in a planned show of right-wing force. The reason for the small numbers became clear once we arrived at the final destination. A vast number of protesters had, it appeared, decided to spend the early afternoon outside The Lord Moon Of The Mall pub, in Whitehall, soaking up the good weather and indulging in the occasional chant.

It was the same place many of them would end up when the speeches – and that bus blockade – were finally over.

Defending one’s country – even if it’s from threats that many would consider imaginary – is, it seems, thirsty work.