Masked protest is a foreign import Britain could really do without

We're becoming a nation of cowards aren't we? Time was, a Brit would have the guts to stand up and be counted for what he or she believed in, to be accountable, responsible, gutsy and brave, indeed to be proud to be seen to take a stance, openly and honestly, against perceived threats to our liberty. No more. Today's protesters too often slink around like vermin, sneaky, sly, anonymous. We live in the age of the masked protester, an angry but spineless animal, with neither the courage nor the decency to stand by their beliefs. It is an unwelcome foreign import with its roots in the Middle East and north Africa where it has been a commonplace for decades. And, as ever, we largely have the numpty Left to thank for embracing it as the bespoke uniform of the modern protester. It basically lets little boys feel 'badass' for a few hours. Don't get me wrong, once here it was greedily adopted by the far right too - as evidenced in the anti-migrant protests in Dover and Portsmouth this weekend where hundreds of fully-masked black-clad thugs - many linked to Daniel Thomas' Patriot Platform - attempted to stop coaches carrying illegal migrants. But 'facial coverings,' said Nigel Farage last night, "quite frankly, are not the British way". And he's right. Think they wore masks on Cable Street? On the Jarrow March? Or even during the miners' strike or the Poll Tax riots? And more recently, at the massive 1983 CND rally, the Countryside March in 2002 and the Stop the War demo in 2003, masks were completely absent. And whether you agreed with the protesters or thought they were nuts is irrelevant - their commitment to their cause was open and honest, it was there for all to see. Facial coverings were not, and are not, the British way Farage, leader of Reform UK, is now demanding a total ban on face coverings in public calling them a 'menace' to society which has nothing to do with valid political protest and everything to do with bullying, intimidation and crime. He did not shy away from stating the stark-staringly obvious - that any ban must absolutely include the burka and the niqab. Of course it must. I have never understood why a person gets a bye from following laws the rest of us have to because of a special dispensation from a man who lives in the sky. It is the third decade of the 21st century for God's/Allah's/Yaweh's/Vishnu's sake! As debate raged in the wake of the weekend protests, Farage said: 'Face coverings are a menace. Whether it is a heavy-duty balaclava worn by a gang member or the dark mask of 'Antifa' extremists their purpose is to bully and intimidate.' And he's right. Of course, the Left immediately waded in with knee-jerk criticism about civil liberties. Not quite so much about civil responsibilities though. Many of those self-same critics will hate Farage for engineering Brexit, they are the kind who are all too easily in thrall to a Europe they see as somehow morally superior to the antediluvian UK. So they may have to help explain why so many European nations - France, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany, Italy and Norway have all clamped down on face-coverings, including the Burka. Irrespective of the moral/misogynist dimension to the burka and niqab (I once interviewed a poor, miserable young girl in Blackburn who told me 'my dad says I am going to have to start wearing it'), there are profound, and potentially deadly, practical ones. After attempting to bomb a London Underground train during the failed 21/7 attacks in 2005, terrorist Yassin Omar fled the capital disguised in a full-length black burka. The 6ft 2in fugitive even shaved his arms and carried a handbag as he travelled by coach to Birmingham. Eight years later terror suspect Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed similarly evaded surveillance after entering a west London mosque in Western clothes and emerging concealed beneath a burka. There is no way the burka should be exempt. As Farage said, a ban is a ban, no special pleading, no religious exclusions. Or as the Reform boss put it more simply - 'a ban, no ifs or buts'.