The armageddon of mass far right protests supposedly due to take place across Britain last night came to… absolutely nothing whatsoever. As Sky News’s long-serving crime reporter Martin Brunt put it:

“There’s no evidence yet that our teams on the ground have seen any far right activity – the counter protests have got no protests to counter.” 

As the night wore on, special coverage arranged by the main broadcasters – which sent cameras across the country, dispatching correspondents and TV helicopters far and wide – became increasingly embarrassing. An example from ITV’s Paul Brand summed up the position:

In all honesty there seems to be very little purpose to the gathering here. You hear the odd word about immigration but most people seem to have come out for a look and to see if anything kicks off. A fair bit of drinking and low level aggro but no major unrest.

— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) August 7, 2024

As news hounds desperately tried to spot the slightest hint of far-right activity, there was less attention on the developments of the past few days, including:

• Keir Starmer inventing what he called a ‘standing army’ of public order cops.
• The Director of Public Prosecutions threatening terrorism charges on rioters.
• The police activating a national public order mobilisation, deploying 6000 officers (no doubt on a significant overtime bill).
• Remarkable calls to shut down X and all social media platforms completely in an outburst of anti-free speech authoritarianism.
• An under pressure Met Commissioner Mark Rowley losing it with a reporter and taking it out on a microphone.

As it turned out, the threat turned out not to be in evidence. Were rioters just taking the night off, or is this much-hyped episode of disorder now over?