This afternoon was out in York at a generic anti-immigration demonstration. I would say about seventy people (at a guess) turned out, but there were many more counter-protestors.

Speaking at the event was one Anne Marie Waters of the For Britain party. She stood up on a bench and faced the counter-protestors who chanted slogans to drown us out. From what I gather, Waters was mainly speaking about grooming gangs but I’d be surprised if anyone heard anything, particularly since the PA was malfunctioning.

Among the protestors was a contingent of Patriotic Alternative activists who stood in a row waving flags like a sectarian paramilitary outfit. In other circumstances I’d cross the street to avoid them.

Mainly though, the protestors were Yorkshire locals who seemed to all know each other quite well. They are protest veterans. I met them in the pub beforehand for a chat. They’re basically ordinary working class people with typically unpolitically-correct working class views. I quite like them. Notably absent was anyone from Linton-on-Ouse.

On the whole I was left wondering what the point of it all was. Turning up to have a few beers and a square off with the lefties doesn’t seem like a valuable use of time. and I can’t see what it accomplished. I almost didn’t give my speech but was handed a megaphone and so I made the best of it by turning my back to the lefty mob and spoke in the direction of passers by. For what that was worth. I think I’ve found the one political activity that’s even more futile than blogging.

The counter-demonstration was far better organised, not least because it was sponsored by York Central’s Labour MP under the banner of Stand up To Racism (with all the identical pre-printed placards). Rent-a-mob. Evidently the Rachael Maskell never matured beyond student politics, and being that her voter base is likely the university payroll, she has no cause to listen to York’s working class. They certainly weren’t there to listen anyway. Their sole intent was to ensure nobody got a hearing – and I’d say they succeeded.

As you might expect, the lefty mob was the stereotypical middle class liberal set peppered with a few self-righteous crusties, and a brief showing from the local Antifa children, who (I’m told) were dispersed by the police.

The take-home point for me is that Labour will throw considerable resources at ensuring York’s working class community don’t get to speak. They themselves had no speakers and nothing to say for themselves. Anyone who disagrees with their basic premise that “refugees are welcome here” is a neo-nazi and that’s the most sophisticated argument they’ve got.

I’m not actually surprised they’d rather not let people speak. I’m categorically not a supporter of Patriotic Alternative but Sam Melia is more than capable of articulating his arguments which is more than the brain-dead Rachael Maskell can without resorting to juvenile slogans and sixth-form sentiments.

The event passed relatively trouble free. I’m told there was one arrest for alleged threatening behaviour. The police are to be commended for policing it with fairness and professionalism – which is more than I was expecting. I expect this demo won’t be the last of its kind and the current underperformance of this government on immigration will likely see a resurgence of a weekend protest movement in the style of the EDL.

If anything, it only paraded the weakness of the anti-immigration sentiment at the street level, and if that’s the level of organisation then such a movement will accomplish nothing. But at the same time, is rather bins the notion that the far right is the “greatest threat” to our democracy. In recent weeks we’ve seen far larger crowds of sectarian Islamists.

As to my speech, I spoke nominally under a UKIP banner but I was really there to voice my own point of view in my own capacity, independent of any organisation. Because of the banners on display, it will no doubt be recorded as a far right demonstration, and I will be associated with it by way of sharing a platform with them. People can think what they like. I don’t really care. What I’ll remember from today is that I had something to say, and when the PA was malfunctioning, Patriotic Alternative handed me a megaphone, while the left attempted to silence me. That’s all I need to know.

My speech was as follows:

I never imagined myself turning up to an event like this, let alone speaking at one. But when speaking out on this issue gets you labelled racist and “far right”, there’s really nowhere left for the left to go – and I have nothing left to lose. You can’t cancel the already cancelled. 

To be considered far right these days is to merely venture an opinion that doesn’t conform with the left-wing orthodoxy. 

Ultimately, I felt obliged to speak. It would be far less bother for me not to – and to simply keep quiet to avoid public criticism. That’s what they want me to do – so that’s what I shan’t do. The only way to preserve free speech is to use it without fear. I will not give way to those who demand our silence. 

This issue isn’t just about immigration and it’s not about race. This, for me, is about fairness. On this you have to start from first principles. If you believe in borders then it follows that borders must be enforced. I know some would happily close the borders, but that’s a different debate. 

As it stands, we as a country believe in borders. We recognise that not all who wish to come here can come here. We have an immigration system. It’s more generous than I would like – but that’s the rule of law – decided by a flawed but legitimately elected government. 

The weakness in that system is an antiquated asylum regime which is wide open to abuse. Not only is it being abused, it is weaponised by an army of human rights lawyers and NGOcrats to subvert our entire immigration system. 

This powerful lobby wants to bring about the open borders their liberal ideology demands. The majority – our democracy – is subordinate to the rich few: The self-declared citizens of nowhere and their mindless drones who come here today to shout slogans. 

That makes this bigger than the immigration debate. This exposes who really has the power. Those who have it do not wield it legitimately. The daily flotilla of dinghies is just a symptom of that. One of many symptoms of a decaying and moribund democracy. 

What makes this such a flashpoint issue is the essential dishonesty of the progressive left. Most of us can agree that we can and should help genuine refugees. But there are many ways to do that. It does not follow that we can or should open our borders to all comers. 

Moreover, the status of refugee implies an eventual return to their country of origin, but we all know that those who pay smugglers to cross the channel do so to start a new life here regardless of whether they have any right to do so. 

We are persistently fed the lie that dinghy arrivals are desperate and destitute when most are economic migrants who have chosen Britain and see it as their right to be here. 

That right, though, is being decided one court case at a time, in defiance of the majority public will. It is for the people and their political apparatus to decide who has a right to be here, not out of touch judges. The bloated dysfunctional system of human rights and international treaties is now in direct conflict with democracy. 

The subsequent row over human rights is not about human rights at all. The NGOcracy and the liberal elites know that reform of human rights is an attack on their power to dictate to the rest of us. 

These are people imbued with the notion that they are more enlightened than the rest of us, and use their influence to stifle debate and strangle democracy. They believe liberal democracy means getting their own way every single time – and that decisions they perceive to be wrong should be corrected by the courts. 

When the democratic process is then side-lined in favour of rule by legal and judicial elites then consent to be governed begins to evaporate. That’s what’s happening here. We voted for an end to mass immigration, but it’s activist judges who have the final say. This cannot be sustained. 

Ultimately the current regime does more to protect the rights of foreign gang rapists, murderers and paedophiles than the rights of British citizens who are increasingly told what they can’t think or say. 

What’s worse is the hypocrisy. The liberal chatterati pretend to speak of the poorest but when it comes to bogus asylum seekers, they’re all too happy to dump unlimited numbers on the places already struggling with problems of their own. Rotherham, Bradford, Rochdale. You know the list. 

When challenged on how many should be allowed to come, and where we’re going to put them, they have no answers. The only time you’ll see an honest answer is on the far left – where York’s MP says that it doesn’t matter if you have to wait longer for a doctor’s appointment or if class sizes grow. She thinks it doesn’t matter if your neighbourhood is turned into a lawless slum. She is at least to be commended for her honesty, if not her intelligence. 

Rachael Maskell relies on the university payroll and student vote so the working class of York doesn’t have a voice. 

– 

Ultimately these people don’t believe in democracy or the nation state as you or I understand it. They believe in the cult of human rights where the citizen has no more rights than anyone who rocks up in a dinghy, and that public funds exist only to massage their already overinflated egos. 

They certainly don’t believe in freedom of speech, and though they notionally think we should be allowed to vote, they prefer it if votes don’t influence anything. Their version of democracy is a sham. 

The dinghy migrant issue is set to be a festering sore in British politics for the long run. It’s looking like Patel’s Rwanda plan will be ineffectual as a deterrent and that the number of illegals removed will be so low it won’t make any meaningful impact on the numbers presently in the system. 

Illegal immigrants still have good odds on evading deportation, and the Home Office won’t keep pace with the levels of new arrivals. The Nationality and Borders Act is not likely to improve matters when the Home Office is deeply dysfunctional and when the Tories are reluctant to make any radical reforms to the Human Rights Act. 

All the while, we see a torrent of daily crime reports that expose the hollowness of the “diversity makes us stronger” mantra. The streets are increasingly lawless yet we’re supposed to pretend we’re enriched by diversity. Over the last decade machete attacks and acid attacks have become regular fare in local news. Child grooming and terrorism fester in our city suburbs but we’re not meant to talk about it. The police and the local media brush it under the carpet. The left makes excuses for it. 

If we carry on as we are, we will lose our towns and cities to violent gangs. Islamic extremists will be calling the shots in local government. The police will cower behind political correctness and the rule of law, and respect for the law, will disintegrate. We risk living under a two-tier police regime and we’ll become an ungovernable country. We’re halfway there already. 

Unless we restore control over our borders, we will see the cultural balkanisation of the UK. England itself is no longer a coherent, contiguous culture. Brexit exposed the massive gulf between London and the rest of the country, but there is further fragmentation between county and conurb – as cities become ethnic minority ghettos. Britain’s open borders are only going to increase the divisions. If they thought Brexit was toxic and divisive, they ain’t seen nothing yet. 

– 

It is the majority view that immigration should be controlled but the latest census data shows some towns growing by more than 117% in size. Yet there is an acute housing shortage in places close to centres of employment. It also explains why schools are oversubscribed and access to timely healthcare is collapsing. 

The data also shows a decline in births, which is more than likely a consequence of increased competition for resources. When starter homes cost in excess of £200k, which aren’t even large enough to bring up a family, we’re making it harder and harder for young people to set down roots. 

The glib answer is always to build more houses, but if demand created by mass immigration keeps piling up then demand will always outstrip supply. 

If we want a society that is fair to all then that starts with managed borders and controlled immigration. If we wish to remain a liberal and tolerant society then we must be able to remove those who cannot and will not integrate. If we want safe streets and trust in the community then we cannot afford a constant churn of foreign nationals from places where women and girls are tradable and disposable commodities. 

When our infrastructure is creaking, the national grid can’t cope with existing demand, and the NHS is imploding, we’re not in a position to invite half the world to our shores. Especially not if we want to preserve the unique character of this beautiful country. We inherited something special and it is our duty to preserve it for the next generation. As the custodians of that inheritance, we are failing badly. We must unite to tell our political masters that enough is enough. Our patience is not infinite.