Day 76. Armagideon Time. (17/3/19)

Counter terrorism police are investigating the suspected far-right inspired attack in which a man suffered non-fatal stab wounds.

The attack was on Saturday night in Stanwell, Surrey, where a man carrying a baseball bat and a knife was seen shouting racist comments.

A man aged 50 was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and a racially-aggravated public order offence.

Counter terrorism police said it had the "hallmarks of a terror event".

The 19-year-old victim sustained non-life threatening injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment.

That's from bbc.co.uk. About 45 minutes ago.

I hadn't meant to return to yesterday's themes so soon. Had hoped not to return to them at all, to be honest.

But then there was that. And that needs to be spoken about.

This is the right wing. This is what has been allowed by giving racists and bigots a platform. This is what happens when you normalise hatred. This is what happens when 'newspapers' allow 'columnists' whose only achievement in life is to not win Alan Sugar's shitty little show to describe refugees fleeing war zones as 'cockroaches'.

Will the attacker be a loner with mental health issues? Very possibly. He'll definitely be portrayed as such in editorials that ask where it all went wrong while their own front pages whip up more prejudice. And if he is 'a loner with mental health issues' (which, as I've said, is quite possible) then he needs to not have the worldview of certain sides of the media anywhere near him. But that worldview is prevalent and unchallenged.

And at the same time as this individual, serious, attack is happening, we are all able to mock Nigel Farage and his 'march for leave' as the 60 or so marchers who have paid for the privilege of this century's own label Lord Haw Haw watch from a bus as they shuffle through the rain. We're able to laugh at this motley attempt at an epic protest march as it shows up how pathetic and unorganised the campaign to leave Europe which has crippled the country truly is. We can smile knowingly as their route for today involves crossing a bridge which is closed on Sundays.

We can laugh at them. So we do.

Because those on the march are possibly the mildest representation of intolerance. They're the cuddly, comedy, supposedly acceptable face of race hate. They're the old folks in cagoules protesting systems they don't understand to bring back a country that never existed, a golden age that only ever lived in myth.

While the individuals, the single 'fighters for the cause', are out there, unseen, not attracting media attention, until they've carried out their attacks.

We have absolutely no reason to fear the majority of the 'out' campaigners. We have no real reason to fear Yaxley-Lennon and his immediate cronies; they're in this for the profit. They're in this for the £1m house and the £10k Rolex and the fast cars and the cocaine.

There are not enough of them to create this civil war that they keep threatening. They're a nothing. Physically, they're a nothing.

Psychically, they're a disease and they're spreading their culture of hate to those who aren't able to reason with the flaws in the argument and are most likely to be triggered  by the message.

There's the paradox: the extreme right, nothing as a group but potentially exceptionally dangerous as individuals. Not the leaders, those who'd happily view themselves as foot soldiers.

It's beyond time that the leaders were denied the luxury of having their words heard.

I stand by the necessity of freedom of speech. Everybody has the right to say what they believe.

It's just that nobody has the right to have their beliefs disseminated.

(Soundtrack: The Clash. Live at Shea Stadium. Because it has bollocks and a message. Because they always did.)