In World War II, the Allied fleet deceived Hitler on D-Day, leading him to believe that the invasion would target Calais instead of the Seine Bay in Normandy. Now the opposite is happening, and bands of smugglers transporting illegal immigrants from France to England are departing from Utah Beach – one of the legendary landing sites – heading to Portsmouth.
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The maneuver – which responds to increasing surveillance on the French coasts – has caught the British government by surprise, which has set up the entire apparatus in Dover (Kent) to receive migrants and process their asylum applications, including a detention center. The fact that traffickers have swapped the shortest trip (38 kilometers) for a much longer route that means a ten to twelve-hour sea journey is considered worrying by the authorities.
Also for the inhabitants of Portsmouth, one of the main ports of the British Navy and former capital of its maritime empire. Among them is Daniel Thomas, who calls himself Danny Tommo, was bodyguard to far-right activist Tommy Robinson and driver of a Royal Hussars tank, and became known for his tirades against Muslims at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, London. He spent two years in prison for attempted kidnapping. He now enjoys his freedom leading the so-called Patriots Platform and using social media to mobilize people in anti-immigration events.
They are organized in regional cells and always carry the phone number of sympathetic lawyers
These “patriots” wear masks and black shirts, in the style of Benito Mussolini’s squadristi (the paramilitary arm of Italian fascism) and Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, whose attire was a symbol of intimidation against trade unionists, socialists, communists, and anyone opposing their ideology. Although they theoretically reject violence and limit themselves to blocking access roads to ports, as in Dover and Portsmouth in recent days. They are organized in regional cells, with a structure inspired by left-wing anarchist groups, radical environmentalists like Extinction Rebellion and Stop Oil, and football hooligans. They carry the phone numbers of sympathetic lawyers in case things get ugly, and know by heart Articles 10 and 11 of the Human Rights Act, which establishes the right to assembly. Activists attending their events are ordered not to take photos or film with their mobiles, communicating among themselves through Facebook groups.
This self-styled “army of Christian patriots” (one of their favorite chants is “Christ is king”) aims to “recover our borders, restore order, and make Britain for the British.” The call in Portsmouth, after learning of the arrival of a giant boat with 140 immigrants on board from Utah Beach (Normandy), was: “Everyone come, our city is being demographically replaced.”
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In Dover, about two hundred “black shirts” caused chaos by blocking the roads entering and leaving the port, causing many passengers to miss their ferries. A similar number (which disappointed Danny Tommo, who expected about ten thousand) confronted the police in Portsmouth, who had to resort to using pepper spray, and blocked the departure of buses with immigrants heading to Dover until dawn.
Like Mussolini’s and Mosley’s “black shirts,” intimidation is the modus operandi of these masked Englishmen. Proof of this is that they have identified on social media some volunteers of the organization (RLNI) dedicated to rescuing bathers or boats in distress, including immigrant dinghies, and helped transfer those who had departed from Normandy to Portsmouth, and made their addresses public to turn them into potential targets of fanatics.
In the twelve months up to September 1, 16,513 immigrants have arrived in England by boat, 43% less than the previous year. But the “patriots” wearing black shirts are indifferent to this decline, because their message is that asylum seekers “steal, kill, and rape our women and daughters.” And they hope that the hundreds they mobilize now will become thousands, and tens of thousands, until the entire country rises up in arms.
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