On Saturday the 7^th December, a Traditional Britain Christmas function at the King’s Head in Mayfair (owned by Mitchells & Butlers) was cancelled by the venue after a protest by far-Left extremists outside. It had been publicised both by the aptly named ‘Red Flare’ far-Left activist group and a London Antifa group.

To get a flavour, here’s a sample of some of the most recent posts by this Antifa group: on demos for Palestine under the banner ‘From The River To The Sea’ #; on armed Irish Republicanism #; in support of Kurdish activists after Kurdish members were arrested on terrorism charges #; the International Freedom Battalions (Western Marxists physically supporting a violent breakaway Kurdish state in Syria #); a reshared post calling the British armed forces ‘torturers and rapists’ #; implied threats to GBNews commentators #; calls to throw ‘fascists’ on the railway lines #; and their most recent post (on December 9^th) calling not for debate but for attacks #. This group's chants for the evening included such phrases as “you’ve lost your country”.

The Red Flare group themselves with their more friendly media contacts aren't as overt as their comrades in arms, yet they also sell t-shirts with an axe wielding masked man in black bloc garb under a call to ‘destroy’ not ‘debate’ (# or archive.)

This is the revolutionary Marxist context in which the protest happened.

We were due to have a speech by the writer Peter North, with some catering and festive bonhomie, yet the fates had something else in mind. At 7 pm. around thirty left-wing extremist people clad in black bloc, alongside some unmasked camera people arrived and unfurled their banners outside the venue’s two entrances, preventing access to the building, that included our function on the first floor. The majority appeared to be twenty-something students including many gullible young women, with some shadier others in the background. The venue called the Metropolitan Police and they attended. We spoke to them and requested that the police allow the entrance to be reopened so that our remaining attendees could gain access (only fifteen or so had access by this stage). On several occasions police informed us that their intention was to do exactly this, but that they would require additional colleagues, so we should hold the catering and wait. In hindsight this seems to us to have been a procedural method of buying time. 

Soon after the police shepherded about 50 unlinked pubgoers upstairs - many of whom then got into fascinated conversations with our attendees over the drama downstairs and then were sent back down again, where some of these males stood at the door ready for any upsurge in any Marxist shenanigans. 

Several TSG vans duly arrived, but still no action was taken. The police then asked us whether we would consider cancelling the event. We refused to consider this option, on ethical and safety grounds (more on this later) and also because many of our attendees had travelled from Scotland, Wales, the West Country etc. at significant travel expense and with hotels booked. Others had flown in from the continent.

After the previous government’s Public Order Act of 2023 #, police now have significant powers to impose restrictions on protests (zoning, timing etc.) and a long-standing legal obligation to uphold the rights of people and groups conducting their lawful business.

To our surprise, on several occasions the police in attendance denied that these obligations existed or were applicable. They kept deferring to a Desk Sergeant, miles away, who would somehow assess the situation and take a view on how far they would act. One officer for instance strongly denied to this writer that the offence of blocking the highway included the pavement! This is patently false and absurd. Section 137 of the Highways Act 1980 says “if a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way willfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence” and subsequent trials have established that this includes pavements, doorways and grass verges and that the area in question doesn’t even need to be impassable. Those arrested would then have their fingerprints and DNA taken and could expect a prison sentence of up to six months and/or a fine if found guilty. Either the officer was ignorant of the law or he wished to be intentionally deceptive, take your pick. The full extent of the police's actions, was a sweet talk with the masked gang by a softly spoken policewoman (see below**, apologies for sound quality). They were easily brushed off, because they didn't require them to move and were happy to let them call the shots.

The aforementioned Public Order Act 2023 also makes it an offence when the purpose of a protest is to “intimidate others and prevent them from exercising their lawful rights” which was the explicit intent of the protest. No attempt to remedy this happened and to our knowledge no arrests were made. The TSG were on hand, but they waited until we had left the venue and only then moved in on the protesters moving them on, not before.

The venue had asked us to depart the building as they intended to close it down. Yet 45 minutes later we travelled past the venue and saw that there were around twenty customers in the downstairs bar, sat around the various tables.

A great many of our attendees were anonymously along the road in a separate venue, so we then gathered people together and went to a different venue for the duration of the evening - which was very pleasant.

This brings me to the safety aspect mentioned above. Antifa groups have a tried and tested methodology with various layers. When their actions are pre-planned as this was, they bring their ‘legal observers’ in hi-vis jackets, people who support anyone arrested, both as witnesses and to provide legal advice (as the far-Left Green and Black group often does for left-wing events). They have cameramen, so that they can build intelligence and try to dox people. They have toughs who stand away in the background and wait, to potentially ambush those who are found in small groups. And they have their spotters who at a distance follow attendees, so that they can report to this former group the location of strays. One small group of our attendees on leaving the venue noted two of these people, walking separately as they went on a circuitous route around the area. They had their ears welded to mobile phones reporting in, about 50 yards back, one had a camera slung across his chest. We had earlier brought this issue up with the police when they asked us whether we’d close the event and they denied it was relevant or even a concern. Thankfully our attendees were wiser (one in particular) and so on this evening this smaller TBG group avoided a potential meeting with the tools of their trade, such as metal bicycle locks around the skull. If they hadn’t been so alert, the Metropolitan Police could be considered the dual culprits here.

For reasons that will be understandable in time, I will leave this summary here and update it later. We also have many other photos and recordings which will be included soon enough.

What is clear enough to our Committee members is that whether it was their objective or not, the Metropolitan Police - under Sadiq Khan remember - were on this occasion the handmaidens of revolutionary Marxists seeking to prevent upstanding members of the British public being free to go about their lawful business. This is the antithesis of their official role that they are obligated to provide in our society. One hand was effectively washing the other, how ironic. This has been a very informative experience on a different number of fronts and in due course we will, like any true reactionary, be sure to update our procedures and approaches to such things in future.

I’ll leave you with two interesting details: the response of the venue trying to placate a 'Red' Marxist Antifa group and the recollections of an Antifa member on BlueSky regarding the attitude of one of the King’s Arms members of staff who was on duty that evening (the chef).

** Three TSG vans, at least a similar number of police cars and this is how the Met Police treat a masked Marxist gang breaking the law. Kid gloves treatment.

 

With several TSG vans outside the venues whose job it is to uphold public order and the law (and countless other police patrol vehicles) not one was deployed to require the Antifa group to stop obstructing a business or the public's right of access. Instead they remained in their vehicles until after the event had been shut down. "Generally each carrier has an advanced (police) driver, six constables, and a sergeant. Territorial Support Groups often comprise three carriers, twenty one constables, and three sergeants reporting to an Inspector." It stands to reason that this 'Inspector' decided that they should stand down.