The far right are targeting the BBC over Stephen Nolan’s mild challenges to their racism

A far-right group is encouraging its followers to target the ‘home’ of prominent BBC presenter Stephen Nolan, along with the BBC offices in Belfast.

Stephen Nolan: far-right target BBC in Belfast

In a Facebook message posted on 23 September, the Official Protestant Coalition, which refers to itself as Prod Co in abbreviated form, urged supporters to attend:

Two protests this week Friday 26th @ bbc headquarters @6pm and the 27th @ Stephen Nolan’s house @2pm.

The image indicating Stephen Nolan’s house address does not appear to be his place of residence, but is in fact a “former registered office”. The BBC “headquarters” presumably refers to the broadcaster’s Ormeau Avenue location, the workplace for the majority of its journalists in Belfast.

Nolan and the BBC in general have attracted the ire of racists in recent weeks, as the presenter of the corporation’s daily The Nolan Show radio programme has been outspoken in his condemnation of recent bigotry-driven attacks, notably an incident at the east Belfast Connswater shopping centre in which three delivery drivers were attacked seemingly for simply being people of colour.

Another recent flashpoint was Nolan’s appearance at another episode of vigilantism, as a mob attempted to drive a sex offender out of his home, again in the east of the city. Turning up with a camera crew in tow, Nolan was jeered by an angry mob. One man can be heard shouting:

Every chance you get, you sit in your big fucking house, putting us down.

The man continued:

You forget where you came from, don’t you? Where you were born and raised?

The anchorman attempted to respond but was repeatedly shouted down.

Class dynamic at play

The exchange does reflect the class dynamic at play in issues such as migration and housing of sex offenders. While the former matter is largely a confected problem played up by a right-wing media, the latter are often housed in working class areas. An opportunity exists for the left to reach those objecting, should we find a compelling way to convey the fact that our inability to deal with virtually all issues of concern is a result of the resources hoarded by the 1%, and the detached media and political class that support them.

Though it’s painful to give Stephen Nolan some credit, he did address this to some extent the following day on his show, saying:

There is a real anger within some of these communities that it is only in their communities, it is only in working class areas that are struggling that these offenders are being put into. And what people were saying to me last night is why can’t they be put into a hostel, why can’t they be pushed away from children? These people can’t be watched 24 hours a day, and the community is frightened.

That doesn’t appear to have pacified his detractors among Prod Co and their ilk, however, with the protests against Nolan and his employer still planned to go ahead. Based on recent form from the group, that’s far from guaranteed, however. A call for a protest to shut down both Belfast airports on 17 October fell through, with an alerted PSNI and opposition from their own supporters putting an end to the plan. One commenter said:

I completely understand wanting to protect children etc, but what does disrupting 2 airports and blocking freight going to shops going to accomplish, not hating on folks wanting to do something but just want an explanation of what this will achieve.

Another planned demonstration, this time for 22 September saw Prod Co “Calling all patriots and supporters [for] quick flash protests!!” It clearly flashed so briefly that it didn’t materialise at all, with no visible activity taking place. Another damp squib was the 18 September ‘Operation Shutdown’ protest, which featured dismal attendance at many locations.

Total inaction from Facebook on hate-filled page inciting violence

Any right-minded person visiting the group’s page will wonder why the real Operation Shutdown doesn’t involve the closure of the group’s Facebook account, given the clearly illegal content contained within. A sea of Islamophobic and anti-migrant posts sees Muslims depicted repeatedly as paedophiles and sexual predators. One post bearing the image of Vlad III, the former Voivode of Wallachia (better known as Vlad the Impaler), and the text “Trust me. You only have to impale a few of them. The rest will go home,” clearly amounts to incitement to murder of migrants.

Activists who spoke to the Canary report total inaction from Facebook in dealing with such messaging, despite regular complaints to their content moderation teams.

More recent posts go on to look longingly at well attended and impressively choreographed Palestine protests. One such demonstration took place on 22 September, and saw a large crowd of anti-genocide protestors block Belfast’s Chichester Street in a mass “die-in”.

A prop coffin featuring the wording “Death of the UN” and “Death of democracy” lay beside the activists, as smoke billowed and air-raid sirens played amidst the scene of ‘bodies’ strewn across the road. “They know how to do the protest well and get the support”, was the verdict of the Official Protestant Coalition. The staging may be one factor, but perhaps the real reason for the good attendance is that the overwhelmingly decent people of Belfast are more keen to stand against hate and violence through support for causes like Palestine, rather than the bile-filled campaigns of the far-right.

Feature image via screengrab.