The migrants’ punctured rubber dinghy

The rubber dinghy, carrying around sixty migrants, had been adrift in the English Channel for about 40 hours when British border control officers arrived to disembark the migrants and take them to reception centres on land. The transfer had concluded, and a police officer remained on the dinghy, when Danny Tommo, aboard a small boat, approached, drew a knife, and slashed the dinghy—all the while proudly filming himself and posting the footage on social media. Danny Tommo, whose real name is Daniel Thomas, aged 37, is the latest figure in a network of anti-immigration activists who, not only in the UK, spread xenophobic, para-fascist and anti-Semitic rhetoric and messages, and carry out demonstrative actions that endanger both migrants and law enforcement officers. Danny Tommo founded the Patriot Platform and operates in the ports of entry for migrants crossing the English Channel – the flow is at its lowest since 2019, so there is no ongoing emergency – and, amongst all the recently prominent activists, he stands out in particular for having already served time in prison: he kidnapped someone during one of his punitive patrols, but it was the wrong person (who says in interviews: ‘I’d like to go and protest against migrants, but how can I if the person who kidnapped me by mistake is there?’).

This morning, Danny Tommo was arrested following his criminal demonstration, and his associate and mentor Tommy Robinson – a staunch neo-fascist – has launched a fundraising appeal for his bail, denouncing the witch-hunt against his poor friend who works so hard to ensure the safety of the British people. Many Britons are growing increasingly disillusioned, particularly with Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage (who appears almost moderate in comparison), which has lost the momentum it built up in recent months in the latest polls—largely due to a lack of funds rather than migration concerns: the ‘friends of the people’ who pocket millions of pounds without declaring them to the public are not exactly popular.