Falkirk group Save our Future and Our Kids Futures have held three protests in one month outside of the Cladhan Hotel, leading to a member of Patriotic Alternative (PA) using it as a platform to make speeches and distribute leaflets.
The visit came while PA member Richard McFarlane spoke at a protest in Falkirk for the second time on Sunday. With their banner, members of the group with photographed with Epping hotel protest organiser Callum Barker, who has in turn been pictured with members of the far-right Homeland Party — which formed as a result of a split from PA.
READ MORE: Falkirk hotel protest group branded ‘far-right Trojan horse’
Scottish podcaster Craig Houston, who was previously charged for targeting a councillor with racist abuse online, was also pictured.
Barker has been central in the organisation of protests at the Bell Hotel, which became the focal point of demonstrations and counter-protests over the summer after a resident asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in July.
Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal overturned a temporary injunction granted by the High Court, which would have meant 138 asylum seekers could not be accommodated at the hotel after September 12, over a planning permission row.
The council could still be granted an injunction following a full hearing of its legal claim, which is due to be heard in the week of October 13.
Previous pictures show Barker with other Homeland activists holding placards branded with the logo of the group and is known to have made speeches at the protests.
Homeland is a neo-Nazi organisation founded by former officials from the fascist British National Party (BNP). Its leader is Kenny Smith, a former senior official in the BNP when the party was led by Nick Griffin. Smith was convicted of firearms offences in 2022.
During a court case last year, Anthony Burrows, the Homeland Party’s “nominating officer,” attempted to defend identifying Adolf Hitler and the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke as his political inspirations as “internet tomfoolery”. Burrows lost his shotgun licence.
The group’s name itself echoes the primary slogan of the so-called “Fourteen Words” slogan coined by American neo-Nazi David Lane: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”.
However, when questioned over the origin’s of the group name, they said: “We strongly reject any attempt to associate our group with extremist organisations or far-right ideology. Our name, Save Our Future & Our Kids’ Future, was chosen by ordinary local residents to reflect exactly what it says: a community standing up for the safety, security, and wellbeing of families here in Falkirk.
“Any suggestion that it has its origin in, or links to, neo-Nazi slogans from the United States is both misleading and offensive.”
Stand Up To Racism commented: “At no point have the organisers made any attempt to eject those openly identifying as Nazis from their protests.
“Their recent trip to Epping to pose with English neo-Nazi Callum Barker shows exactly what this group is about: building a network of white supremacists under the false banner of community concern.”
