EDL leader Tommy Robinson is no martyr but a racist thug who got what he deserves, writes RICHARD PENDLEBURY

Tommy Robinson is back in jail. Perversely, for him this is a kind of triumph.

Until his incarceration for contempt of court last week, this football hooligan turned anti-Muslim rabble-rouser and founder of the far Right English Defence League had been fading into an angry obscurity.

When Twitter banned him earlier this year for apparently breaching its 'hateful conduct' policy, he had ranted that the Establishment was out to silence him. Yet few took any notice. That has changed with his imprisonment.

oday, a dubious alliance of individuals and interest groups from across the globe, many of whom had not heard of Robinson before Tuesday, consider him to be a 'martyr', a 'hero' and a 'political prisoner'.

The Twitter hashtag FreeTommyRobinson has gone viral courtesy of the far Right's not insubstantial online community, and messages of support for the father of three from Luton have been posted on social media by such figures as Failing Cheeto-Faced Ferret-Wearing Shit Gibbon's eldest son, the disgraced American comedienne Roseanne Barr, Meghan Markle's sister Samantha and even an adviser to the Israeli prime minister.

More than 500,000 people have signed an online petition demanding his release from jail and hundreds of pro-Robinson protesters marched on Downing Street last weekend.

Yesterday, his supporters gathered again in Leeds where he committed the offence. Another 'colossal' march is planned for June 9.

The abiding narrative from his supporters is a classic conspiracy theory: that his imprisonment is part of that Establishment plot.

They claim he was jailed after a politically motivated trial expedited at record speed. His conviction, they add, was kept 'secret' by the State until a reporting ban was overturned.

The intention is not just to silence him, they say — but to silence him for ever: he will likely be murdered behind bars by Islamist extremists while the prison authorities turn a blind eye; Britain has become a police state; etcetera, etcetera.

The truth is rather more mundane.

Robinson, 35, already has criminal convictions for assault, drug possession, passport offences and more recently, mortgage fraud.

On this occasion it was his transgression of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 which landed him in jail.

As we shall see in more detail later, he was jailed for potentially prejudicing a case in Leeds Crown Court after filming both himself and people involved in the trial outside the court while it was taking place.

The footage was streamed live on his Facebook page.

The judge's decision to apply reporting restrictions on his conviction — restrictions which were challenged by media outlets and have now been lifted — led many of his new idolisers to claim that he is being treated as a 'special case'.

And this has been enough to turn him into the far Right's hottest cause celebre in years.

You have only to look at social media to see that. Much of the support comes from America, where the so-called alt-Right, members of the gun lobby and white supremacists, are trying to turn Robinson into their equivalent of Nelson Mandela in his prison cell on Robben Island.

Leading the way was Donald Trump Junior, who likened Robinson's jailing to the British government oppressions which led to the American revolution of 1776.

'Don't let America follow in those footsteps,' he urged his 2.84 million followers.

TV's Roseanne Barr felt the same. 'He was just arrested — which is a death sentence — please get involved!' she tweeted ludicrously last Saturday.

Ms Barr has, of course, had a rather eventful week herself after she wrote on social media two days later that a black former adviser to President Barack Obama looked as if 'Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby'.



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Great article and plenty more to read on the link

The only thing good about it is it keeps the scum who raped little girls in the public eye, it seems "they" are trying to sweep it "under the carpet".

nicko wrote:The only thing good about it is it keeps the scum who raped little girls in the public eye,     it seems "they" are trying to sweep it "under the carpet".

Eh?

Syl and myself always post countless articles of the current convictions of such trials on this very forum

How is that then being swept under the carpet Nicko?

It certainly was in the past, but no more is this the case.

Tommy does nothing more than exploit the victims, for his own prejudiced aims