Oh Tommy Tommy - ASYLUM YOURSELF

After Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, was found guilty of committing Contempt of Court in 2019, he accused the judiciary of lying, maintained that all he had done outside the court in Leeds was to repeat information already in the public domain, and tell his followers that the state was out to get him, honestly.

What he did not tell, but what soon became well-known, was that Lennon had attempted to plead with Combover Crybaby Donald Trump to grant him asylum in the USA. That’s the same Stephen Lennon who has been telling the world about asylum seekers not being genuine refugees, deciding that when it comes to Himself, he’d rather like to be one.

Sadly, the probability of his wish being granted was vanishingly small, not least because he possessed a criminal record - which had already led to his having been barred from the States - and that to get round the refusal to grant him a visa, he had entered the USA on a false passport, been rumbled, and had his criminal record further extended as a result.

But, as Sky News reported at the time, “In an interview on the right-wing channel InfoWars on Monday, the former English Defence League (EDL) founder said: ‘I feel like I'm two days away from being sentenced to death in the UK … I beg Donald Trump, I beg the American government, to look at my case. I need evacuation from this country because dark forces are at work … This is a direct appeal on behalf of my family”.

He loved the USA, honestly, despite the USA not loving him and his criminal record. It looked pointless and pathetic, but as the Guardian has now reported, some of those Stateside who were favourably disposed to Lennon really were working to get him asylum in the country: “his team approached the Republican senator Ted Cruz’s office about securing a visa … [he] discussed moving his family to Texas in 2019”. There was more.

“Such was the influence of Robinson’s supporters that they asked advisers to Cruz, the Republican former presidential candidate, for legal advice on securing an extended visa for ‘someone who needs protection’ [!]. Terry Giles, a prominent American businessman and friend of Cruz, told the Guardian he asked the senator’s office for assistance but did not disclose that the visa was for Robinson”. Protection from what?

Perhaps he and his supporters thought that he should have protection from the consequences of frequently, and flagrantly, breaking the law. But do go on. “A record of a meeting between Robinson and his most influential supporters at the Four Seasons hotel in London in early 2019 describes Giles, 72, as ‘actively working with Senator Cruz to advance Tommy’s visa’”. And who else was present at this impromptu summit?

It “was also attended by Robinson, his solicitors, a Ukip adviser, the rightwing Canadian pundit Ezra Levant and Lisa Barbounis, an executive for the Middle East Forum”. All the usual bigots, then. But sadly, Lennon “lost interest in moving to the US ‘once he realised that he couldn’t go back to the UK if he declared asylum’, according to the files”.

Which shows just how serious his situation wasn’t. He wasn’t a political prisoner, he was just trying to evade the consequences of his own actions. All wind and piss.

Asylum seekers are “fake refugees” - unless they’re white, and called Stephen Lennon.

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