An attempt to charge a Washington man, Sean Dunn, with a felony after he threw a subway sandwich at a law officer & shouted “Fuck you! You fucking fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” has failed, so far.
A Grand Jury refused to indict Mr Dunn. A lesser charge followed and on 6th November Dunn was found not guilty
Washington’s Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a Trump fan, called the sandwich throwing a ‘serious crime’.
Throwing things at police and soldiers was a common feature of London crowd protests in the nineteenth century. Things thrown included rotten fruit, rotten eggs and even dead cats. In more recent times eggs (usually not rotten) and milkshakes have been the more common projectiles of protest.
Really Useful Knowledge was a term used by radicals in the 1830s and 1840s to refer to ideas and details of current developments that were not available in ‘official’ media and circles. This was known as useful knowledge but referred to by radicals as really useless knowledge.
Above is an extract from the Times front page story on 27th August relating to various developments on asylum, small boats, Government policies etc.
Buried away at the end of the article which continues on page two is a paragraph that notes that arrivals in ‘small boats’ are running at their lowest since August 2021.
Don’t expect Farage to be issuing a media release on this or the BBC headlining it on its news site.
Of course were it not for the impact of Brexit and the absence of legal and safe routes for those seeking asylum (75% of whom are approved) none of this would be happening at all.
Bluster from Farage announcing not policies but prejudices is a current feature of politics and of media stenographers who faithfully copy down every utterance of the Dear Leader.
Meanwhile in May Reform won actual or practical control of 12 local councils in England. It started with bluster and Farage sidekick Zia Useless droning about DOGE teams.
The Times (26th August) has reported on what Reform Councils are actually doing. Aside from the occasional performative flourishes and an inability to find anyone competent to lead Councils in a few cases the answer seems to be, they are struggling to get by in hard times, just like other Councils.
Its not that they can’t make a difference based on their hard to far right politics its that this requires not bluster but policies and planning. Not in Reform’s remit it seems.
I sometimes fear that people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress worn by grotesques and monsters as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis. Fascism arrives as your friend. It will restore your honour, make you feel proud, protect your house, give you a job, clean up the neighbourhood, remind you of how great you once were, clear out the venal and the corrupt, remove anything you feel is unlike you…
It doesn’t walk in saying, “Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.”
Farage gave his last ‘conference’ of the Parliamentary recess on 26th August. They were meant to be weekly but he missed the last two. Did the media who follow his every move notice. Of course not.
The conference was the usual Farage bluster and marked the reappearance of sidekick Zia Yusless whose main role seems to be reflect on Farage’s charisma by contrast with his complete lack of it. We are talking the charisma of the pub bore here but it appeals to some.
Politics is, as Farage understands far better than Starmer, at least partly about image and theatre, playing a part. When a politician changes their image there is usually a reason (public or private). For example if a male politician grows a beard it will provoke media comment. Farage has only once delved into the area of facial hair when he briefly wore what some might have seen as a ‘porn star’ moustache before quickly shaving it off.
Now however he is appearing with very largely grey hair. A simple point is that he is just stopped dyeing it. There was controversy about it in 2018/19. It sends a message, though quite what message is at yet unclear, and the ever Farage curious media is too lazy or fawning to ask…
E P Thompson & the Making of the English Working Class. Made in August
E P Thompson signed the contract for the Making of the English Working Class in August 1959. It was for a book rather shorter in length than the one that was eventually published but one that was also meant to cover a much longer period. As Thompson noted the Making, which is the best part of a thousand pages long in print, was just the first chapter.
By April 1962 a note in his MI5 file suggests he was ‘desperately’ trying to finish the book. He did so finally in August 1963.
The original August 1959 contract with Victor Gollancz was for a book of 60,000 words covering the period 1790-1921. The Making gets to the mid-1830s and as Thompson underlined was in fact the first, if very long, chapter
30 years and many more books and campaigning later he sadly died on 28th August 1993.
Glance at most mainstream media over the past few days and the impression is that there have been mass protests at hotels used to house asylum seekers. The Times ran several front pages, the BBC news website couldn’t keep away from headlining it and so on.
Nigel Farage of course did not waste an opportunity to see if he could provoke another round of the Farage riots.
As the report from Stand Up To Racism, who organised counter protests at many locations, the far and fascist right did mobilise some numbers. The numbers were not huge and sometimes outnumbered (as in Liverpool) by anti-racists but they did happen.
The likely focus of all this is another exercise in self promotion by Stephen Yaxley Lennon in central London on 13th September
Stand Up to Racism report
This weekend saw significant far right demonstrations aimed at harassing asylum seekers with 300 in Wakefield, 200 in Altringham and 200 in Cheshunt, Essex. The far-right also mobilised over 100 people in Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Chichester, Orpington, Leeds, Cannock, Crawley, Tamworth, Nuneaton, Perth and Newcastle.
However, despite Nigel Farage urging more protests outside hotels housing refugees after the Epping ruling, the far right did not mobilise the numbers expected.
The biggest demonstrations this weekend were organised by Stand up to Racism with 500 in Liverpool and 500 in Bristol. As well as Bristol and Liverpool, Anti-fascists outnumbered the far-right in Leeds, Leicester, Rhoose, Cardiff, Exeter and Perth, and in Newcastle numbers were similar.
Ben Jennings, The Guardian 26th August 2025. Steve Bell’s cartoon critique of Netanyahu in 2023 saw him despatched but the pressure of protest has shifted the dial…
Media headlines have focused on job losses in hospitality reported by the Office for National Statistics. The job losses are put down to a rise in national insurance rates and the minimum wage.
Certainly the hospitality industry has issues that the Government should be addressing, for example the post pandemic environment and business rates and perhaps in particular the difference in tax between supermarket drinks and those sold in pubs.
As often hospitality bosses focus on increasing wage costs while complaining that due to a cost of living crisis people can’t afford to drink in pubs. Do they ever wonder if these two things might be linked?
Unite Hospitality which organises pub and brewery workers is spot on with its statement below
Figures released today by the ONS show that 54% of the 164k job losses since October last year were in hospitality — a sector that bosses have built on poverty pay & insecurity. We hear employers say ‘labour costs are too high.’ But labour isn’t a cost — it’s the people who keep the doors open. If you can’t pay staff a wage they can live on, then something is seriously wrong with your business model — and perhaps, you shouldn’t be in business. The most effective way to defend yourself from mass job losses and poor pay and conditions is to collectively bargain. Just ask
@Village_Hotels strikers: they won a 10% rise + end to zero-hour contracts by unionising!
