Is Britain Having A Patriotic Awakening?

thousands of right-wing protestors, but what rallyers say was actually hundreds of thousands of patriotic citizens. The rally was met with a major police force of more than 4,000 officers, who set up a sterile zone and used armored vehicles, horses, drones, and dogs, and what officials called the biggest policing operations in years. It was also countered by pro-Islamic

demonstrations. In this episode, we sit down with Alan Miller, an independent journalist and co-founder of the Together Association, who is on the ground there during the rally talking with Britons who say they're fed up with the way the government has been treating them. I'm daily wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howl. This is a weekend edition

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enter thank you 25% for 25% off. That's promo code thank you 25 and takeleam.com. Joining us now to discuss the massive United Kingdom event is co-founder of the together association and independent journalist Alan Miller who is there between these

clashing rallies. Alan, great to have you on. Thanks for having me here. So first we've

been tracking the increased frustration among many people in the UK over the way the government is handling a lot of things. Immigration, one of the key policies, that's an issue. What was the focus of the United Kingdom?

“I think the key focus is a number of areas. One really important part of it is free speech.”

And United Kingdom around the sense that free speech is something that should be for everyone. It's a fund foundational principle. And Britain has been very, very important in universalizing that internationally. And over the recent years there's been a lot of pressure put on free speech. We've seen that there have been many arrests for so-called non-crime hate incidents. That's where people are saying things or posting them on social media. And they're

arrested, and that we've seen debanking around people's political views as well. And also we've seen how both police and the judiciary has been weaponized around certain types of protests and it's not consistent down the line. That was true during the lockdown period with responses to people who are challenging some of the COVID news as well as more recently we've seen it in response to things like the Southport murders and other protests that have been happening.

So I think on the one hand, that's a key thing that people are doing. And also a sense that

there's been a big discussion about flying flags, flying the British flag, flying some George's flag, the English flag. That's also a part of it. And really, the British public wanted to be able to come out. I think the sense was that they could come out and be united around common values and principles that they share. That often they are then being presented or

crescendo around a lot of the key issues where we've had a situation where people are very concerned

around the boats, the small boats that are coming in with a legal migration with some of the hotels, having those those people there that often not documented and concerns around the local areas with increased crime or things like that. And when people discuss them or raise issues with them, or say they have concerns about them, they've often been branded as though they are the ones

“with the problem. And so I think, you know, the United Kingdom is about saying that people”

can be united, it can be proud around these traditions and values and cultures of enlightenment and freedom and also to take pride in the country without being called names and out, without being insulted. And that was the spirit, very much of it because it was very much like a celebration. It had a festival like experience all sorts of age groups, different demographics. So we consistently see anybody right of sinner described as far right from the press

over in the UK. Again, that was the case with the protesters for the United Kingdom rally. How would you actually characterize who was involved there? Yeah, I'd say that John, it's very much like you'd get at sort of when we had the Olympics on or when you had a jubilee or a coronation.

I never witnessed or saw anyone doing aggressive behavior, no hateful behavior, no shouting,

“assuming basically people smiling a lot, so lots of flags. And then there was a big dose of”

good humour. And unlike some of the other protests we see, where there's quite intimidating chance or where people are saying things about Britain and other people within Britain. People very much wanted to get the point, of course, that they're fed up of being treated with this contempt as though they're tarnished with something that's really bad. The government and the Prime Minister talks about being divisive. But actually, it's many of their policies that have

been obsessed around the identity and DEI and other issues that have actually illuminated and made these issues such a big thing. Rather than having a united approach that's based on a sovereign nation and really supporting the public and a lot of it is to do with the fact that many of the mainstream politicians are so divorced from the public. They've been so estranged. They've come to fear

“the public can be contemptuous of it. I may only see it in terms of negative strains and that always”

they're kind of this mad mob ready to turn into a horrible thing. And it's so insulting because it was actually our grandparents who actually did fight real Nazis. And the idea that being proud about this nation and its history and its traditions then makes you a far right or a fascist or any of these terms, which are very specific terms. It's a very lazy, it's a very lazy and pretty disgusting set of means. But the other thing that happened John is that people are saying we're just not listening

into it anymore. It's like we have this expression because water off a duck's back. It's like you're saying these things about anyone who's got concerns or about a whole range of issues, surveillance,

borders, free speech. Basically it means nothing anymore and we're not going to be put off by that.

So really destroying the effectiveness of their own rhetoric by applying these labels to basically everyone. Now, this started off, of course, as the United Kingdom rally, but it was quickly answered by a pro-Islamic or pro-Palestinian series of demonstrations. What exactly were the counter-protestors trying to do there? Well, so for the last couple of years since October 7th and the brutal attacks there, almost immediately, they have been these pro-Palestine rallies and demonstrations, having

really significant numbers. And it's interesting because kids' time was saying that the hay and these things wouldn't be allowed in terms of speech and expression. But many people have been very concerned over the last couple of years. We're all sorts of things. We've seen everything as it happens from support to terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, people celebrating those type of jihad, the idea or some of them there. And of course, not everybody that goes there does that. There are

people that are genuinely concerned about whatever they think's happening. So that's the discussion about what's happening in the Middle East. It was meant to be that. But very quickly, we began to see that it's often about what's happening here as well. We see very few British flags or English flags. There's kind of quite a hostile and aggressive approach. Many people say they're scared to come into London and often it's presented that if you criticize those things, you're an Islamaphob

or you're a racist. But actually, there are many people, as they say, of colour, that are not comfortable

associated with things that's in many instances of ruin their own nations. And yet it becomes presented as a whole thing. And so then what happened is that the organizers, what they've now said is that they're doing it around the NAC bar, which is the in the creation of the state after the Arab Israeli wars in 48 that basically they have this NAC bar, which is the disaster. And within that, they also said, this is a counter-demonstration to unite the kingdom. So that was

their reasoning. And it was so interesting, because the thing is words are really important,

as at all well, and others always reminded us, because when you make a words meaningless,

“it's very dangerous, because you need to be able to use and identify these words. So actually,”

because there are people that are actually far right, and there are people that are racist. And we need to be able to decipher and discern that and explain it. And I think we should fresh those ideas out in society and let the antiseptic of reason illuminate those things. And we can debate them. Actually Britain's got a very good record of being very welcoming of all of Europe and internationally, of having lots of different people and communities. That's something

very different to people's concerns about mainly men, young men coming in on boats and illegally, into communities. And we've had 200,000 since, you know, only in the last sort of nine or 10 years, we've got many people on a watch list with the intelligence services. We've had a variety of incidents, terrible things like knife attacks and other things, and then, of course, rates and sexual assaults. And so people have got genuine concerns about those, those things, and they should

“be able to discuss these things without them being smeared and branded. And that's something”

very concerning to people and people are very furious about it. Not hard to understand why, in that case. Now officials went all out preparing for this rally over the weekend in ways that,

frankly, we've never seen them prepare for things like left-wing or Islamic rallies in recent years.

Was that warranted? Was this overkill? What are we to make of this immense police presence from this weekend? It's so interesting because we've had a lot of people saying that they're not happy with the introduction of live facial recognition on our streets. And this is the first time that they were doing our big protests like this. And they said they're going to do it only for the people who are coming to unite the kingdom, not to the other protests, where all sorts of things

have been chanted and said, some things, we may talk about incitement to hatred or violence that are linked to, as I say, terror organizations and other things. So it's not to do those protests, but it is to do unite the kingdom. In the same time, the Prime Minister said that they're going to make sure that their police will be checking what people are saying. And he took great pride in saying that he stopped people coming into the country to speak people from the states,

people from Europe. At a time when they don't see mass diligent to be able to stop and protect our borders from other people. And David Lamy, the home secretary said, we'll speed up, open up capacity for courts to try people, you know, I believe in freed demonstrations, but, and there's kind of whole threat of two-tier police. And you think, well, if you can open up the courts for this, why can't you open up the courts for all the crime people are experiencing all the time that they're

so unhappy about from shoplifting to assaults and all the different things that are happening around Britain that burglaries are very difficult to get police attention. So it's very much demonstrated a kind of view by both the measures, politics, and police, and bringing in police forces from other areas across the UK, that these were a problem. This was a particular problem. The kingdom, early last time, it had many people. They were like, you know, different estimates, but I would say

certainly over a million people, some have said a million and a half, some of the mainstream

press tried to say 150,000. And so, at one level, there is always a question about safety and

“policing and everything. And I think it's important that there are two groups, you know, shouldn't”

should be in different places and everything, and that's sensible. But the way in which this was presented and the way, which this is discussed as though these terrible people are coming to, you know, the centre of London with this hateful, divisive rhetoric and approach. And then you see grandmothers and mums and daughters and kids, people from all across Britain that are smiling, waving flags very peacefully, calmly, and a very British way to be honest, which in American

the States, you see much more of that. But yet, when people try to do that here, they're now branded as being extremist and dangerous. Yeah. Now, just to clarify, you're saying that there were over a million people at this, because the official reporting is that there were maybe tens of thousands, you're saying it's at least hundreds of thousands. Indeed, so that was the last one

which is laughable as well. So I don't know the exact number, but certainly hundreds of thousands,

there's some footage that has been shown now from drones that really shows how far it goes back. Obviously, some people are trying to show some other footage, which is earlier in the day, and they say, "I'll look, people weren't there," but it was significant number. So hundreds of thousands of people, definitely. There were a few dozen arrests, but you said you didn't see any violence yourself. You saw mostly people celebrating their country and in a good spirits and

enjoying this event, correct? Yeah. So what the police have said is that there were 43 arrests made

“on the day. I think they said that 22 were at or around the United Kingdom, Raleigh, and 11 were at”

the Palestine NAC bar, Raleigh. And then another 11 that were not attributed to any. Now, other day of policing, when you get back, amount of numbers, you think about anything. Of course, that's a low number. And if you also look at the numbers of arrests last time and then compare them to the other protests where they regularly have many arrests, there is then it really shows

that it's a very limited amount. I just think it was very unfair to present the public like this,

and it demonstrates that in spite of all those numbers and all those things said about them,

“people were very well behaved. So I think that that should reinforce that point. And the”

fact is that the prime minister, when he had his mayor Colburn, was trying to save his political career and came out, he used that to do a couple of very important things. One is to say that he's going to limit free speech and the rights of protest. The other is to go further into the EU. He's so tone deaf. He's so not able to understand what's going on with a public. So it's a dangerous concoction. But John, the great thing about the British public is that people are calm,

they're reasonable, but they're robust and they're stoic and they're strong. So it all in all,

“it was a really remarkable event. I think the British public are making sure that their voices are”

heard. We're seeing this also with this sense of what people are calling populism, but no longer the conservatives and labor, but actually new political parties like reform that has just done really well performed really well in the local elections with thousands of councillors and then a sense in which things are going to change and the British public is not prepared to be prevented from insisting on freedom, free speech and privacy just because people call them names and it's altered and actually

it's going to be counterproductive and I really hope to see a situation where with all these things, that were the rights to have a jury trial which they're trying to stop with with imposing digital ID, with limiting free speech that we turn this around with everyone and the public and how our voices are the might bits and bits that together. We're also important and also very important that people like you were on the ground documenting what actually took place at this rally

rather than the way it's been characterized by politicians and the press. Alan Miller, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, John, thanks for having me. That was Alan Miller, co-founder of The Together Association and this has been a weekend episode of Morningwire. [BLANK_AUDIO]