When the London Yellow Vests first appeared in 2018 I gave them both a cautious welcome and pointed out that whether this group would go on to be an effective and sensible protest movement or a haven for lunatics would depend on how the group was managed and who joined it. I predicted that if it could attract lots of ordinary people, the normals who very rarely go to protests and keep out extremist nutters who want to use the movement for their own ends, then it could be a patriotic protest movement that could go somewhere.
Unfortunately, rather than inspire those previously non political to become more political, the London Yellow Vests have completely imploded. They are now little more than a joke and as I saw when I watched their antics a while back, people, both locals and tourists, just laughed at them.
Whilst this London Yellow Vest group said that they were a pro-Brexit protest group and one inspired by the French Gilet Jaune movement, they did not, unlike the early French protests, attract many members of an increasingly disgruntled British populace. Instead they became a magnet for various odd individuals and their similarly oddball hobby-horses. For example: The core of the London Yellow Vests group is the Justice for our Boys campaign whose leader Tracy Blackwell propagated the narrative that her son was killed in a vehicular jihad attack but who was in reality killed, along with two other young boys, in a tragic and horrific car accident caused by a drunken Hindu driver. Unlike for some of the others involved in the London Yellow Vest debacle I do feel some sympathy for Ms Blackwell. She has suffered a great loss and has got involved in this sort of street politics maybe as some way to tell herself that she is doing something. Unfortunately being with the London Yellow Vest loon magnet is probably not what she really needs. I tend to agree with the commentator from Voodoo Media who said that the best thing that Ms Blackwell could do is to go off and grieve for her son properly. I also tend to agree with those who say that Ms Blackwell is being exploited by others for their own ends.
Others who have congregated around the London Yellow Vest banner have been James Goddard who was prosecuted for calling Remain MP Anna Soubry a ‘Nazi’ although he has since seemed to distance himself from the London Yellow Vest group, something that shows some degree of political nous on the part of Mr Goddard. The London Yellow Vest group is a sinking and poisoned ship who need to be avoided by anyone with sensible political intent.
Over time the London Yellow Vest group has gone from mad to worse. First it attracted a whole host of deluded individuals such as Gordon Bowden and his convoluted six degrees of separation conspiracy theory about a business accommodation address in London’s Finchley Road. It later attracted the supporters of a cancer cure Quack and purveyor of ‘Zionist’ and ‘Illuminati’ conspiracy theories called David Noakes. Noakes is a nasty piece of work who ended up being gaoled for producing unlicensed and dodgy quack cures and for money laundering.
Now I’m the first to admit that all political demonstrations, whether they be from the Left or the Right will attract the occasional lunatic fringe element. I’m an ex-Leftie and I know that groups with miniscule support such as the Stalin Society for instance, can turn up uninvited to demos which these outlier groups think they have a political affinity with in order to push the smaller groups ideas to an audience that they see as both receptive and bigger than they would otherwise have. On a large demonstration and in a large organisation these outliers and lunatic fringe are quite rightly not too much of an issue or a problem either for organisers or the public image of the movement. However with a small organisation (I have not seen more than 100 on London Yellow Vest demos) the presence of lunatic fringe elements is a much greater danger. Not only do the fringe groups and those pushing their own agendas have more influence they also taint the public image of the lead organisation. This, and a great deal worse, is what has happened to the London Yellow Vests.
For a while I’d categorised the London Yellow Vests as a bunch of irrelevant protestors from the wild side of politics along with a bunch of opportunistic conspiraloons using the Yellow Vest moniker to promote their particular brand of lunacy or fringe belief. Unfortunately, the London Yellow Vest group has gone far beyond just being a home for the deluded. There have been allegations that the extreme ethnonationalists of the National Front (the political heirs of pre-war fascist leader Oswald Mosley) have infiltrated the London Yellow Vest group and have been seen marching with the London Yellow Vests. The independent journalist Buska Patriot News also became uneasy about the way that the Yellow Vests were going and particularly by the involvement of Tim Scot of the extreme right fringe group Liberty Defenders. As Buska points out in a video (NSFW) linked here, Tim Scot is an associate of those who are known to be genuine neo-Nazis and British National Party supporters such as Jack Sen. Buska has disassociated himself with the London Yellow Vests because of the sort of extreme right lunatics that the London Yellow Vest group has allowed to influence them.
The London Yellow Vests has either been extremely badly mismanaged if it has not kept out the likes of Scot and NF types or it is in agreement with such individuals. These are the dire impressions that the London Yellow Vest has given to me and others.
But, it gets even worse with regards to idiocy and the London Yellow Vests. The YouTuber Voodoo Media has obtained video footage of Tracy Blackwell of the London Yellow Vests appearing to attempt to entice members of Antifa to join the London Yellow Vests and form a joint bloc. This action by Ms Blackwell strikes me as being either politically naive or politically stupid. Does she really think that these dyed in the wool Leftist thugs, for that is how Antifa so often behave, will put aside their views and join with the London Yellow Vests? The only outcomes for Ms Blackwell’s actions as I see it is that either the Antifa types would tell the Yellow Vest group to bugger off or say yes and infiltrate the Yellow Vests and by their actions make the London Yellow Vests look even worse than they’ve managed to make themselves by themselves so far. There is also the possibility that the approach by Ms Blackwell had less to do with trying to make nice with some nasties for a common aim and much more to do with desperation at the decline in numbers of the London Yellow Vest group. If the approach was made for political reasons then it is pointless and stupid, if the approach was made because the London Yellow Vests needs more bodies on the street marching with them, then it is both desperate and quite sad to be quite frank.
As I said at the beginning of this article, when they started up I thought the London Yellow Vests could be a useful patriot protest vehicle. Unfortunately a combination of really piss poor and tired stunts, such as blocking Westminster Bridge and the accumulation of core group of cheerleaders made up of conspiraloons, supporters of cancer cure quacks and the real deal neo-Nazis has done for the London Yellow Vests.
The London Yellow Vest group is to all intents and purposes finished as a sensible and useful protest movement. It has imploded completely and it is the sort of group that anyone with half a brain should stay well away from. I think those who are patriots or Brexiteers should find some other vehicle other than the London Yellow Vests to protest with if protest is on the agenda.
