THE GUARDIAN: The activist’s latest imprisonment and run-in with the law may serve only to boost his popularity and brand of hatred
far-right activist Tommy Robinson was characteristically defiant. “Death, prison or glory, we will never submit to your lies,” he declared. “They want to send me to jail [but] the world will know I told the truth.”
On Monday, Robinson was duly sentenced to 18 months in prison for contempt of court. He had shown no remorse and there was no realistic prospect of rehabilitation, said Mr Justice Johnson at Woolwich crown court. “All of his actions so far suggest that he regards himself as above the law.”
In the dock, Robinson pumped his chest and saluted his loyal supporters in the public gallery. They blew kisses back. He was taken to Belmarsh high-security prison in south-east London.
The jailing of Robinson is the latest episode in his apparently inexorable rise from the owner of a tanning salon in Luton, Bedfordshire, to the brash pin-up hero of the far right in the UK, the US and beyond. He is, arguably, the most potent individual to have emerged on the British far right since Enoch Powell. » | Harriet Sherwood and Ben Quinn | Friday, November 1, 2024
