I am very, very pissed off about what happened here in London yesterday. London is an open, tolerant, welcoming world city, home to thousands of different cultures and people from all over the world; yesterday afternoon saw it’s streets hijacked and trampled by 100,000 mindless morons with no understanding of diversity or value for cultures other than their own. Of course, being me, I went up there yesterday afternoon, although I now wish I hadn’t. At about 11 I set out, taking the Jubilee Line up to Westminster. I had intended to go directly to the counter-protest, but as soon as I got out of the tube station I found myself surrounded by countless flag-waving idiots, many carrying banners which wound me up instantly.

The sight was utterly repugnant. I’ve been to quite a few protests here in London over the years, about a variety of issues. Most of those issues were just and sensible. The gathering of idiots London saw yesterday was neither of those things, but the venting of bile and hate by those too stupid to direct their thoughts and feelings elsewhere. Obviously, I know we should be open-minded and tolerant of those whose views we disagree with – part of valuing diversity is valuing diversity of thought. Yet what I saw yesterday was an insult to those values: most of the people there had been bussed in from across the country; people I doubt had ever met anyone who didn’t speak English as their first language. They were just here to shout and scream, drink larger and hurl abuse. For most of the men I saw yesterday, it was just an exercise in looking ‘hard’: I doubt you could have had any kind of meaningful debate with any of them about the politics at hand. As I found when I went to Canary Wharf a couple of weeks ago, for such people, it seemed to be all about whipping up animosity and social division: demonstrating that they were better than ‘the elites’ – ie those they unconsciously feel inferior or subordinate to. Frankly, it felt like an abject intrusion upon everything that I feel is wonderful about London, like shit being trampled into it’s very streets.

I stayed up there for most of the afternoon. I tried to find the counter-protest, but got lost, eventually crossing the river to the south bank. When I eventually found my way back to Westminster I found the station shut, so I set off for Green Park, trying to avoid the showers. It had been a disturbing, sickening afternoon: I felt very angry indeed about what I had seen, and still do. Such acrid xenophobia has no place here in London, and it felt like the metropolis had been intruded upon by morons with no idea what they were saying. The capital had been hijacked and misrepresented. Surely the country is better than such thuggery; surely we cannot allow the wider world to see us like this. My biggest fear now is whoever organised this gathering of halfwits will feel emboldened and try to do so again. If that happens, those of us capable of rational, independent thought must be ready to show our opposition.