Monday 13 June 2022 11:40 PM Immigration raid mob organised by a Marxist teacher, a council legal officer ... trends now

What does mob rule on the streets of Britain look like? Anyone who looked out of their window in the vicinity of Evan Cook Close in Peckham, South-East London, on Saturday afternoon will already know the answer.

'I never expected to see anything like this,' is how one resident summed up the feelings of many to describe the scene which unfolded.

But you can judge for yourself by typing the words 'Evan Cook Close' into Google. Film footage, shared on social media, shows outnumbered police coming under siege from hundreds of screaming protesters.

Ironically, the clips, along with a barrage of posts from Left-wing groups, councillors and activists, were supposed to paint the Metropolitan Police in the worst possible light, using heavy-handed tactics against peaceful, law-abiding demonstrators.

'Police Brutality' was the caption accompanying one short film.

It shows the exact opposite: officers being violently shoved and abused by the crowd and, in the midst of the chaos, attempting to remove individuals who had fallen to the ground in the melee for their own safety.

So what was the so-called injustice that lay behind the mayhem?

Just moments earlier, Home Office officials had arrived to arrest a suspected illegal immigrant, a Nigerian from Lagos, who is understood to have overstayed his visa.

But protesters surrounded the van that was taking him to a removal centre for deportation. Hence the reason for police reinforcements.

'Let him go, let him go,' they chanted. Four hours later — shortly before 5.30pm — that is exactly what happened. The suspect was released on bail instead of being taken to an immigration removal centre.

'People power wins,' tweeted a group called Anti-Raids Network. People power — or anarchy in the UK?

Either way, on Saturday afternoon a group of Leftist protesters — whose views, by definition, are not shared by the vast majority of the electorate — succeeded in subverting the democratic process.

Events in Peckham may not have made the front pages, such are the troubled times we live in, but the outcome must have left many wondering who is in charge of the country at the moment.

It comes amid a 'deluge of legal claims', to quote a Home Office source, tabled by human rights lawyers to prevent Channel migrants being put on the first flight to Rwanda today. 

The suspected illegal immigrant at the centre of the Peckham protest is believed to live alone. Neighbours describe him as a 'very friendly, very respectful man in his late 30s'. We know little more about him, except he was called 'James' and was active in a local church.

But let us agree he was a decent and popular member of the community. Nevertheless, the number of foreign nationals overstaying their visas in Britain, which is widely seen as a major problem, has nearly doubled in five years.

According to Migration Watch, 49,420 people had overstayed their visas in 2016-2017. By 2019/20, the total had risen to 91,863, says a report by the think-tank.

On top of this, almost 10,000 migrants have already crossed the English Channel this year, more than double the 4,200 people who reached the UK by the same stage in 2021.

Almost everyone, apart from the kind of groups represented in Peckham at the weekend, believes an effective immigration policy is essential.

An important element, as harsh as it may sometimes seem, is removing 'overstayers'. This is precisely what immigration officials, then the police, were prevented from doing in Evan Cook Close. 

They were ambushed by political agitators and a number of local politicians,

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