00:00Would this site intimidate you?
00:02And are these balaclavas that we're seeing becoming yet again the uniform for far-right
00:08anti-immigration protests?
00:20Over the last couple of years we've seen a massive rise in far-right protesters taking
00:26to the streets in the UK.
00:27But over the last couple of months we've seen loads more of them wearing balaclavas.
00:33But why suddenly now?
00:35In the early days of like the English Defence League people would have these like almost
00:40like V for Vendetta type masks with the Union Jack and this like rather exaggerated kind
00:45of nose and that looks somewhat sinister.
00:48I think somewhat in the early days of the English Defence League, at least the leaders used
00:52balaclavas to mask their identity.
00:55It was often emblazoned with like a St George's flag though.
00:58If we look back at the Southport riots in 2024 where cars were set on fire and violence broke
01:03out.
01:04There were absolutely no large groups of protesters wearing balaclavas or even face coverings.
01:10And we saw the same at the Unite the Kingdom rallies last year.
01:14But over the weekend hundreds of masked black clad protesters took to the streets in Dover
01:21and Portsmouth.
01:22And just days later we saw those same similar scenes right outside the Daily Mail newsroom
01:28in central London.
01:29This one has the ire and feel of rioting groups a bit more in terms of that aesthetic sharper,
01:37maybe a bit more chaotic and a bit more intimidating.
01:41Now these scenes have clear parallels with what we saw in Belfast in June this year.
01:46During the anti-immigration riots, rioters wearing balaclavas took to the streets setting
01:51fire to cars and attacking hotels housing asylum seekers.
01:56I think it's to hide their identity if they're caught either from coverage by leaders within
02:02the group or through the streams of other auditors or citizen journalists within the
02:07fire.
02:07And there was actually a case back in Belfast, I think it was, or one of these earlier riots
02:13where one of these streamers actually identified someone who, and that was actually used as
02:19evidence in court against them.
02:21So they're very keen to learn from those incidents.
02:24One thing to note, however, Patriots Platform, the group behind the Portsmouth and Dover protests
02:30over the weekend, largely mobilised their crew off social media, which is completely different
02:37to what we saw for Unite the Kingdom rallies and other far-right anti-immigration protests over
02:42the last couple of years.
02:43They've relied on social media X, Telegram and often Facebook to come together and arrange
02:49their protest.
02:50So could avoiding big social media platforms signify that they're actually trying to hide
02:56the identity of the people organising these protests?
03:00They have actually leaned into, I think, more of the slow media trend, right?
03:04So individual phone calls and sort of organising in ways that actually are quite relational and
03:12interactive, as in one-on-one.
03:15And I think perhaps this is to circumvent inspection from public and policing authorities, you know,
03:22maybe this is a way to actually protect their anonymity.
03:25But I think it's also a way to also avoid the gaze of social media companies in case they
03:30are engaging in any types of illegal or criminal activities.
03:33And as anti-immigration protests become increasingly more organised and visually coordinated, are we
03:40seeing balaclavas become yet again the uniform for the far-right?
03:45There isn't a kind of a week that doesn't go by without some sort of incident or scuffle
03:50or protest or demonstration against irregular forms of migration in the UK.
03:58So whether it's patriotic platform or another outfit, there seems to be a lot of brewing resentment
04:07and dissatisfaction.
04:10.
04:10You
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