Sorry About That, Nigel!
Last Tuesday the UKIP leader Nigel Farage was due to visit Northampton Market Square, where several hundred supporters had gathered, in pouring rain, to greet him. But the visit did not take place.
A gang of only about 30 rowdy hooligans were allowed to disrupt his visit, and turn him away, while the police stood by. Some of these hooligans were not even local people, but appeared to be 'rent-a-mob' protesters from Corby and elsewhere. As for the police - words fail me! The small crowd of demonstrators could easily have been contained in one corner of the Market Square while the the event went ahead, if there had been a reasonable number of officers on duty. But only two or three were present.
Hundreds of Northampton people, including myself, were deprived of seeing Nigel Farage because of the actions of a small mindless minority, some of whom thought they were being very left-wing, when in fact they were themselves being fascist and undemocratic. We might not all agree with Nigel about the EU, and some of us might not agree with some of UKIP's ideas either, but in a democracy everybody should be allowed to have their say.
To come along to prevent a public event like this taking place is a disgrace, and the people responsible, including those one or two well-known Northampton individuals amongst them, should feel highly ashamed of themselves. Their behaviour was not unlike that of the Hitler Youth in pre-war Nazi Germany, who would prevent public events taking place because they opposed the politics of those who were invited to attend.
So, on behalf of the decent majority of people in Northampton who believe in giving everyone a chance, I would like to apologise to Nigel Farage for the disgraceful behaviour of the very few who took it upon themselves to act in a very undemocratic manner. These were not the fair-minded people of Northampton, these were a few silly spiteful people who thought they would employ mob rule, and take the law into their own hands.