To ask if you'll be attending the anti fascism protest on 13 September

[Whatafustercluck]

I'd like to go in solidarity with like minded people, but worry about it turning violent. I won't be taking my children and will likely be going alone. Lots of people I know detest Tommy Robinson but will stay away due to the likelihood of trouble, but I really want to help send a message that racism and hatred won't win. Is anyone here considering going, or decided to stay away?

To clarify I meant 2/3 to 3/4 of the population will be fed up of the current situation. Whether they will or won’t use vote Reform due to that is another story but the poles suggest if there was an election tomorrow they would win.

Reform maybe won’t do well in London but that’s irrelevant when there is the rest of the UK vote

Police data. It has been reported across multiple news channels.

Lol you literally just posted calling me ridiculous and a liar for posting about statistics.

I had a look at Care in Calais’s site. It seems the volunteers mostly shift boxes in a warehouse.

I’m very doubtful about the purpose or benefit of sending schoolchildren to do this. I suppose it could be a CV thing - like the infamous Thai orphanage for a fortnight during a gap ya.

This perfectly illustrates the class dimension to the issue, and why it's so toxic.

So pupils at a top independent school in West London are sent to help migrants in Calais.

Meanwhile HMOs are going to be set up in the poorest neighbourhoods, a lot of them up North. And you wonder why people are angry?

The possibility of crimes against women amongst undocumented male protestors...oh the irony.

Not anymore. Even if those parents thought it lovely DfE had put a stop to it. Too unsafe.

We should all worry about the HMOs and where they'll be located.

Of course better off people won't be affected so they get the warm fuzzy feeling of chanting 'Refugees are welcome here' knowing it won't be where they live.

@5MinuteArgument - I take your point. I would say though, that at this particular school, they do a lot of voluntary work in the local community. The CareforCalais initiative was just one thing. Plus over 20% at the school are on bursaries. Also, it's a London school where few children have 2 white British parents - lots of Europeans, Mixed British / Indian / Chinese etc. In the local context here, a hotel with some men who may happen to be Muslim in it, would not be seen as any more if a 'threat' than a hotel with any other men in it. There are loads of hostels everywhere anyway.

So why are you joining in with hate speech @Rachel12349863244 ?

You may be ok with what's happening, but it doesn't sound like you'll be bearing the brunt of it. Is it likely that an HMO with 8 undocumented men will be set up next door to you? That's what's happening in places like Bolton where housing is cheap.

Why is this so hard for people to understand?

There are hostels for all types of people all around me @5MinuteArgument . I wouldn't know who I was standing next to in the street. How does an undocumented man look any different to any other man?

Beam me up, Scotty.

You come to Hammersmith @5MinuteArgument . Stand on King St and tell me which men are undocumented.

The statistics don't support your claims.

UN Women did a study finding that 99.3% of Egyptian women had been sexually harassed and 90% had been physically touched against their will.

Also, see below link pinched from a similar thread last week....

2017 UN Women and Promundo survey in four Middle Eastern and North African countries (Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine) found that 90% of the men surveyed admitted to harassing women in public because they found it fun.

The Survey

Who: UN Women and Promundo conducted the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) in the Middle East and North Africa.
Where: The study focused on men in Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Palestine.
Why: It aimed to understand men's views and experiences related to gender and gender equality, including the extent of street harassment.

And then there's Lara Logan who was publicly raped for 30 mins while covering the Arab Spring (nearly died and probs would've had she not escaped) and the numerous other reporters who've suffered the same fate - you can find their names on the article about LL.

How many recent examples are there of hundreds of western men publicly raping women in city squares? Certainly doesn't happen on Oxford Street or by the Bullring!

And the 1200 German women sexually assaulted in one night by men described as being of middle Eastern appearance. That doesn't usually happen in the West either.

I’m very doubtful about the purpose or benefit of sending schoolchildren to do this. I suppose it could be a CV thing - like the infamous Thai orphanage for a fortnight during a gap ya.

I agree and there have been threads on here about the iniquities of privileged young people doing projects in Africa to make the. Feel good rather than actually helping.

I had some close shaves with men in Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco for sure @GingerPower . My point was, it's no worse than close shaves I've had with men in other parts of the world or here in the U.K. Different yes, but not worse.

Again, most sexual abuse happens within families, as anyone who has been a victim of this will know.

You mention ‘all cultures’ here being the same threat to women more or less. Do you include Afghanistan and Iran in that?

@Barbadossunset - I do take your point and it was certainly something that crossed my mind at the time. But my kids did meet asylum seekers in the camps. They saw the conditions they live in. They heard their stories. It wasn't all men. There were women and children there too. They also have friends whose families were refugees. My own DH's family were refugees.

So on balance, I think this kind of exposure can only be a good thing. It stops young people making generalisations and othering people. Any of us could have been born elsewhere. There but for the Grace of God...

Maybe if some of these protestors shouting "Get the scum out" (or whatever delights they chant outside the hotels) actually went in and talked to some of the asylum seekers they fear so much.. who knows? They might learn they have more in common than they think. They might stop fearing them so much. .

Of course. Why would I feel any more threat from an Afghan man than anyone else?

Do you know what is happening to women in Afghanistan under the Taliban?

Your posts are making me wonder if the couple who breezily travelled to Iran are still locked up

@hotelinfo what did the schoolchildren actually do in the Calais camps? Presumably they were supervised by a teacher from their school?

@hotelinfoin case you missed it

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165622

You’d be happy to live with this as it’s all pretty much the same?