The hundreds of black-clad and masked anti-migrant protesters who descended on Dover on Saturday were loud and clear in their message: “Stop the boats”.
The one problem? There were no small boat arrivals to the UK that day – and the only vessels that the demonstrators disrupted were ferries carrying Britons away on holiday.
Ministers and local politicians have condemned the actions of the protesters, which brought Dover “to a standstill”.
Chris Vinson, leader of the Conservative group on Dover District Council, said that while there had been no reports of violence, “having the path of your vehicle blocked by men wearing black paramilitary gear and balaclavas is extremely intimidating, when it’s not clear why they’re there”.
Videos of the demonstration have drawn comparisons to the “Blackshirts”, the paramilitary wing of Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party in Italy, as well as Oswald Mosely’s British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
