Fine. But performative. I saw them as pagans Larping. I generally thought the whole thing made patriotism look chaotic and off-putting. The use of crosses came across like a LARP more than genuine religion and definitely didn't inspire me to return to church as someone who grew up in a religious household and has been thinking about returning to my roots.
Humans do not evaluate systems in isolation. They evaluate them in fields of contrast. At one point I was walking past a crowd of men old enough to be my dad's age chanting "get your tits out for the lads."
Women were crouching to piss up against walls. Men were standing up and pissing in bushes.
"Get them out" was on a placard held by woman in bikini top too small for large bosom (does she have OnlyFans? Probably). As if Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips haven't done enough damage to the image of British women. Yes it does matter to me.
More chants to "Take it off! Take it off!" Lots of wanting to get tits out for some reason.
Americanised, shouty prayers, nothing like the dignified Christian warmth of my youth.
I have been and remain concerned about Islam. In particular the misogynistic aspects of Islam that seem deeply embedded in every madhhab.
But almost everything going on at the Unite The Kingdom march read as low-order, high impulsivity signals.
I'm not a modern Green voter who has bought into whitey = evil, legalise all drugs, side with Islam. But I would honestly feel more relaxed on a train journey with women in hijab and niqab than on a train with drunk women who want to get their tit's and bits out to save Britain, even if they are holding 5foot crosses.
Contrast produces metaphysical re-ranking. I also cringe when "patriots" post photos of themselves putting bacon on Qurans. Partly because they don't know what they're doing which is essentially harming their own cause.
So the target of UTK (clearly Islam, not immigrants) got up-ranked in symbolic dignity by contrast. And the performative Christianity only made it more offensive.
There's also a mimetic thing going on. The protesters clearly want to define Islam as chaotic / threatening / uncouth. But their own expressive style became the more visible thing that was chaotic / threatening / uncouth. So the symbolic aggression rebounded onto the aggressor.
Being in Britain is like watching a train wreck in slow motion and there's not much you can do but watch as OnlyFans "Christians" vs Niqabi Muslims collide.