UKIP gathered at the steps of the Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral on the afternoon of the 21st of March for a march and rally to be addressed by their leader, Nick Tenconi.
I attend Sunday Mass at this cathedral, and the local Dean had opposed this being used as a gathering place because the event was advertised as a ‘Walk For Jesus’, which could have made it look as though it was endorsed by the local Catholic church, which it most definitely wasn’t, nor by any reputable mainstream Christian denomination.
I attended to document the event, though I did so from the sizeable counter-demonstration side of the divide. I don’t like UKIP’s sectarian brand of Christian Nationalism, especially given their attempted appropriation of the phrase Christ Is King. These are words associated with the Catholic church, which have been denounced as antisemitic by the Christian Zionists, so, given UKIP’s strong support for Israel, I find their attempt to claim this formulation for themselves to be ironic.
I do, however, support UKIP’s right to assembly and to peacefully demonstrate, and I also support the right to counter-demonstrate.
UKIP are essentially a far-right, Islamophobic sect nowadays, a far cry from the days when Nigel Farage first came to political prominence as their leader.
So, it wasn’t a big surprise that they were vastly outnumbered on the day. One of the organisers of the counterdemonstration, speaking at the end of the event, put UKUP’s numbers at 40-50 and the oppositional figure, comprised of Trade Unionists, community groups, Pro Palestine organisations, individuals, including Christians, anti-fascist groups and small groups of the usual Leftist sects, at 1000 -1500.
The first figure sounds about right. The second may be a slight exaggeration, but 800-1000 wouldn’t be widely off the mark.
I’m not a great fan of slogans like ‘Refugees Welcome’ (how are we defining ‘refugee’, for one thing) or ‘Nazi Scum Off Our Streets’, because I think serious political analysis needs to be able to distinguish between different shades of opinion. Christian Nationalists and Nazi aren’t one and the same. Claiming that they are and using similar language to categorise Civic Nationalists like Farage and Rupert Lowe, reduces phrases like ‘Fascism.’ And ‘Nazism’ to mere political boo words.
But instinctively, and for personal historical reasons, my sympathies, despite being anti-open borders and holding broadly socially conservative views, will always be broadly with the Left, especially given current events in West Asia; and on a beautiful sunny pre-spring afternoon, there was a nice carnival atmosphere on ‘our’ side.
Plus, the police did their job and kept the two sides apart and the event trouble-free. UKIP got to have their little march and rally, so, just for once, you could say that everybody won.
Anthony C Green, March 2026.
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