Sadly, we’ve become used to far-right protests in recent years. Whether it’s the vast demonstrations led by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson) in central London, or the hundreds of local protests outside hotels and HMOs housing asylum seekers, the sight of far-right activists chanting anti-migrant slogans has become all too common.
What we saw in Dover and Portsmouth over the weekend feels different. At roughly 7am on Saturday morning, hundreds of balaclava-clad men, dressed all in black, began piling out of the backs of vans and blocked roads around Dover port. Shockingly, the police appear to have known nothing about it in advance.
