It’s always tempting to self-soothe when the far right is on the march. Tommy Robinson’s new book, Manifesto: Free Speech, Real Democracy, Peaceful Disobedience, briefly topped Amazon’s bestseller chart last week – above Boris Johnson’s memoir, but also above Richard Osman, the fastest-selling hardback fiction author in British history, and Sally Rooney. Oh well, I thought. Maybe the book itself is not that bad? Maybe he’s turned over a new leaf?
It is that bad: I will not read it, because I will not buy it, because the day I put £24.99 or any fraction thereof into the pocket of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is the day I’ve parted company with the material world. But here’s how it is described in the blurb: “For decades the political class have openly planned to replace the indigenous people of Europe and in Manifesto we focus on how they are doing this in the UK.”
