A GLASGOW representative has called for the council to use its powers to stop a 'mass deportation' march scheduled for Saturday.
Greens councillor Dan Hutchison wrote to Glasgow City Council’s chief executive, Suzanne Millar, and Director of Legal and Administration, Mairi Millar, to ask that an order is made to stop the march on the grounds of protecting public safety and order.
“I believe the actions and words of the organisers are an incitement to violence and a risk to public safety and order on our streets”, Hutchison said.
“Ukip use phrases like ‘these streets are our streets’ and ‘we will protect ourselves’. Well, they aren’t their streets, they belong to the people of Glasgow. And we don’t want fascists calling for our friends and neighbours to be deported.”
The party’s newest leader, Nick Tenconi, organised what the party billed as a “mass deportations tour” in cities across the UK, including Nottingham, Liverpool, Newcastle and London.
Campaign group Stand Up To Racism have organised a counter-protest in response, with a march planned through several city centre streets such as West Nile Street, George Square North and South, High Street and Nelson Mandela Place.
The group re-issued a letter of complaint to Glasgow City Council on Thursday after reportedly being told by officials that “there wasn't clear evidence” that the Ukip march posed a risk to public safety.
After referencing evidence of the party’s affiliation with far-right agitator Tommy Robinson and a video of Tenconi saying “these streets are our streets” outside of a home burnt out during the anti-migrant riots in Ballymena, the letter states: “This is the politics of the people who have been given permission to march through Glasgow on July 26 as part of a ‘mass deportation’ tour.
“They chant the same racist and Islamophobic hatred that led to the far-right riots last year and we, the co-signers of this letter, urge Glasgow City Council to withdraw the permission to let a fascist-led organisation to march through the streets of Glasgow.”
