Large crowds of peaceful counter-protesters have filled streets in towns and cities across the country on a night that had been billed as seeing more than 100 far-right demonstrations. They have yet to materialise. In pictures: Counter-protesters on streets across England with signs of ‘love’, ‘unity’ and ‘good vibes’. We’ve rounded up a selection of photos of signs being held by counter-protesters across the country, as they seek to reject racism and anti-immigrant sentiment. Many of these counter-protests are taking place outside asylum centres.  It appears that widespread disorder has yet to materialise and no sizeable far right protests have been reported so far. Instead anti-fascist demonstrators have made their feelings clear.

Birmingham Makes its Point as Diverse Crowd Marches Through City

By correspondent Paul Kelso

Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter was braced for a far-right protest and potential disorder and violence.  Instead, it saw an eloquent and entirely peaceful expression of anti-racist sentiment from a large and diverse crowd of Birmingham residents and political groups.  The anti-racist counter-protest began at 7pm at the Clock Tower on Fredericks Road, the location of the Refugee and Migrant Centre, a charity that’s operated since 1999 and identified as a target in a list of planned far-right protests circulated on social media.

By late afternoon, this largely commercial area was mostly deserted, with jewellery businesses shuttered and shops and restaurants including Tesco Express and Costa Coffee closed early – their windows boarded up just in case.  Over the course of the next hour, the demonstration swelled to perhaps 500 people, young and old, many politically affiliated, with banners from the Birmingham and Black Country representatives of Stand Up to Racism.

Spontaneous turn – Speeches and chants decried the anti-migrant protests of recent days, proclaimed support for immigration and condemned racism. There were also chants and placards in support of Palestine, all watched by dozens of local residents. With the threatened far-right protest not materialising, around 8.45pm the protest became a march, moving spontaneously down the hill into Victoria Square in the city centre, chanting “Whose streets? Our streets”. The move was not coordinated with the police and traffic was briefly stopped, but no harm came of it and the demonstration concluded at the feet of Queen Victoria’s statue – point made.

Rioter Derek Drummond became the first person to receive a prison sentence on a violent disorder charge following nationwide unrest –  as we reported at 12pm. The 58-year-old, of Pool Street, Liverpool, was jailed for three years for his part in violence in Southport. The Crown Prosecution Service has now released police bodycam footage relating to the disorder in the town on 30 July, which you can watch here.

Relief in Hull – as Question Turns to Why the Far-Right Did Not Show Up

By communities correspondent Becky Johnson

It was eerily quiet on the streets of Hull. Some shops on a road into the city centre closed their shutters around lunchtime amid rumours a far-right protest was about to get under way. By the evening, around 100 police guarded the part of the city where riots had flared on Saturday.  Officers in riot gear waited with vans full of police dogs next to the migrant hotel that was attacked at the weekend. The streets were much emptier than usual. Few cars were on the roads. Buses drove through the city with no one onboard.

But 8pm – the time advertised online for the start of the protest – came and went with no sign of any demonstration or counter-protest. Officers wondered to themselves if the sentences already handed down to rioters were beginning to put people off. Far-right and anti-migrant protests chant at each other – While anti-racism protesters have outnumbered any far-right demonstrations – if they’ve materialised – across the country, one town where counter-protests have had something to directly counter is Aldershot. Both groups have remained peaceful, with chants on either side of the road. Demonstrators outside Aldershot Enterprise Centre waved Palestinian flags and chanted “refugees are welcome here”. On the other side, groups waved England flags and sang “Rule Britannia”.

Explained: What Does ‘Two-Tier’ Policing Mean – and Does it Exist?

By Faye Brown, political reporter

Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has today knocked back accusations of “two-tier policing” as “complete nonsense”. He said such claims – pedalled online by Nigel Farage and Elon Musk – put officers dealing with the ongoing riots at risk. The phrase is used to describe the impression that some protests and demonstrations are dealt with more harshly than others. What are the origins of ‘two-tier’ policing? The term has been used to suggest police are more heavy-handed with people on the right of the political spectrum than the left.

Even before the current rioting in the UK, the idea was propagated by the likes of English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, actor-turned political activist Laurence Fox, and former ex-minister Robert Jenrick. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage summed up the sentiment when he claimed that “ever since the soft policing of the Black Lives Matter protests, the impression of two-tier policing has become widespread”.

Courtesy: Sky News