A personal account of the NF march in Chatham, Kent:
"The police were in evidence around Chatham station from quite early on. The British Transport Police (London South Area) appeared to be calling the shots, with Kent Police making up the numbers -- to the tune of four or five van-loads (they must have been shorthanded over at Priestfield Stadium for the Gills home match against Nottingham Forest).
The Kent coppers (whose officers had been liaising beforehand with people from Medway United and Unite Against Fascism) seemed more relaxed (or at least bored) about the situation than the Transport Police, who were a bit twitchy and, in at least one case, obnoxious.
Around 1:15pm, one of the Transport Police (no. 2058) spotted me lurking in the station car park and chased after me, demanding that I produce "some form of ID" and explain my "suspicious behaviour" -- i.e. loitering near the railway with a camera. I asked him if he was in the habit of arresting train spotters. He cited his stop-and-search powers
under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, but admitted I didn't fit the police profile of a suicide bomber (I said: "what's that? An unarmed Brazilian on his way to work?"). He got no information from me. Officer 2058 subsequently amused himself taking pictures of me (as did the two-man Transport Police video "Evidence Gathering Team" who turned up later) and earnestly jotting down the numbers of anti-fascists' cars and other such vital intelligence.
The anti-NF demo grew to a respectable size (at least 50, by my reckoning) long before the NF turned up. Most people were from the Medway Towns (including some local Asian youth), and others came
from places including London, Brighton, Dover, Canterbury, Whitstable, Faversham and Sittingbourne. Political groups that were represented included anarchists, the Labour Party, the Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers' Party -- but, of course, there were also people present who didn't belong to any faction (me for one). The demo was given a very welcome focus by the banner that was brought along by members of the Passport and Records Agency Branch of the Public and Commercial Services Union.
The only journalist present was Sam Lennon, chief reporter for the Kent Messenger Group, who came with a photographer.
At about 2:15pm, four NF supporters (chunky middle-aged geezers covered in tattoos) turned up ahead of the main group and tried to lurk unobtrusively across from the front of the station; they soon had a crew of police minders assigned to them.
Around 2:35pm word got around that the main NF group were on their way and that the police plan was to allow them to demonstrate in Victoria Gardens, just around the corner from the station. At 2:54pm the NF arrived on a down train and the police escorted them from the station out the back way into the car park and then up Ordnance Terrace to the Gardens, effectively letting them hold a mini-march. We were also
effectively allowed to march, at a distance, behind the NF (so much for the ban on marches) and then to stand a hundred yards or so away from the bandstand, where the NF staged their demo.
I counted 31 NF supporters -- mostly middle-aged men (who looked like
gone-to-seed football hooligans), a few gawky young lads and one woman (a blonde aged about 30). The only one I recognised was Terry Blackham from Bromley, the de facto NF leader. They also had a couple of kids with them, one a toddler being carried by middle-aged man.
There followed about an hour of mutual insult-hurling across a line of
police (with a couple of Alsatians, brought by theTransport Police,
apparently desperate to sink their teeth in the NF). The NF unfurled two banners: "National Front -- Britain for the British" (with their website address and contact phone number in Birmingham); and "National Front Keep alien wars off British shores" (with their website address). They also
waved "flags of all [white] nations", including the stars-and-stripes and
the Apartheid-era South African flag. There was some desultory NF chanting: "Rights for Whites!" and "The National Front is a white man's front -- join the National Front!"
One copper was heard to remark that he couldn't tell what the difference was between fascists and anti-fascists. A WPC said that she always voted Tory, "because that Maggie Thatcher did the country so much good". A retired teacher on our side was amused to find two of her ex-pupils facing her in the police line.
From 3:47pm the NF were treated to the scintillating oratory of their leader, Terry Blackham (tree-surgeon, hod-carrier and convicted runner of guns to Ulster Unionist paramilitaries). Blackham, who seems to be putting on a lot of weight these days and was as inarticulate as ever, promised the NF would continue turning up wherever white people were in peril from the immigrant hordes. The NF then traipsed off back to
the station, accompanied by more jeering, and were loaded onto the next Charing Cross-bound train (at 4:18pm -- so they spent a total of 1 hour 24 minutes in Chatham).
Some of them were not in evidence on the platform (including the four who turned up early at the station and the man carrying the kid) -- this may mean that they were actually locals, although I certainly didn't recognise them."
h34r:
