"Anti-Racism" Group Fabricates Violent Assault
- Alistair McConnachie
- Nov 15, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 20, 2025
Our Freedom of Information request to Police Scotland reveals that "Stand Up to Racism (SUTR) Edinburgh" has invented a tall-tale about an alleged violent assault, in order to excuse its removal of Saltire and Lion Rampant flags, reports Alistair McConnachie.
On the 9th October 2025, The National newspaper published an article entitled "'I'll slit your throats': Scots anti-racism campaigners threatened while removing lamppost flags". (1)
It concerned a group of people from "Stand Up to Racism" who said they were removing Saltire and Lion Rampant flags from lampposts on 5th October, in Sighthill, Edinburgh.
This was during the period when there was a "Raise the Colours" campaign throughout the UK. This concerned people putting up national flags, often with the underlying theme of opposing mass immigration and current levels of asylum seeking, especially across the English Channel.
It appears that "Stand Up To Racism Edinburgh" did not support what they presumed was the underlying message of these flags, and decided to take them down.
They claim, quoting from the article:
"On October 5, Stand Up To Racism supporters attempted to remove Saltire and lion rampant flags on lampposts in Sighthill. [City of Edinburgh Council] took them down on September 12, but they were re-erected.
"If there was any doubt about the message these flags are intended to carry it was dispelled by what happened next. An individual approached threatening to slit our throats and stab us for interfering with 'my flags'. This was right beside graffiti saying 'deport Muslims'. He then violently broke our equipment."
THINGS WHICH SOUND UNLIKELY
There are several things about this report which seem unlikely.
For example, what are the chances that they would be approached by the very person who put them up ('my flags')?
What are the chances this would be "right beside graffiti saying 'deport Muslims'"? And if so, where's the mobile phone photo of this graffiti? Surely that would be newsworthy in itself? Surely The National would want to publish that too? But it's nowhere to be seen!
They claim he "violently broke our equipment"! What equipment would that be? A set of aluminium ladders and a pair of snippers? He would need an angle-grinder to "break" a set of aluminium ladders, or perhaps he just happened to be carrying a sledge-hammer! Did he physically wrestle this ladder off someone, perhaps hurting them in the process? Why isn't that mentioned? Why is there no mobile phone footage?
THINGS WHICH SOUND MORE LIKE AN EXCUSE
The group appears to be a little too keen to describe the politics of the offender:
"They repeatedly said 'I'm a patriot, I hate you lefties'. It's pretty clear that they were coming from the far-right, not as a normal person supporting [Scottish] independence."
So he is definitely not "a normal person supporting independence." Did you get that?
They want it to be known that the Scottish Saltires and Lion Rampants which they were removing were not representing any support for "Scottish independence" – but rather they were representing this unhinged individual and his questionable motives.
As they say: "If there was any doubt about the message these flags are intended to carry it was dispelled…"
OUR SCEPTICISM GROWS
However, we had our doubts.
It seemed to us more probable – given the unlikely sounding nature of their report – that this was a made-up tale intended deliberately to excuse their actions of removing Saltires and Lion Rampant flags.
After all, most people would not approve of anyone removing Scottish national flags – whatever the motives of the person who put them up – and so they had to come up with an excuse which would justify their behaviour.
But they over-egged their pudding.
They even set up a petition, to gather emails for their cause, wherein they called upon the police to ensure "that the perpetrator is stopped" – making it clear that the police did not detain anybody at the alleged incident.
THIS SHOULD DEFINITELY HAVE BEEN REPORTED TO THE POLICE
Threatening to use a knife on someone is a serious offence and should always be reported to the Police. That, coupled with "breaking" someone's personal property, amounts to a very serious incident.
It should be absolutely expected that they would report this to the Police, as a matter of course.
Therefore, it is perfectly understandable that the article reports:
"A spokesperson for SUTR told The National that the police had been contacted during the incident."
OUR "FREEDOM OF INFORMATION" REQUEST
We know that if this actually happened, then the Police would certainly be interested – and they would respond to the incident immediately if they could – and they would follow it up. They would definitely have a record!
Therefore, to confirm events, we contacted Police Scotland, under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, with a copy of The National article.
We asked specifically:
a) Were Police Scotland indeed contacted by these people "during the incident" as they claim; or perhaps after the incident?
b) Did the Police attend the scene of the incident at the time, or at a later date?
c) If so, was anyone arrested on the scene, or arrested at a later date for such affray?
d) What is the status of this incident – for example, is it going to court?
e) Is there a crime reference number for this incident, and if so may I have it please?
On 10th November 2025 we received the following precise response, from Police Scotland, FOI 25-3482:
Police Scotland stated to us, in response to our 5 questions:
"We have no record of this matter being reported to Police Scotland. The information sought is not held by Police Scotland and section 17 of the Act therefore applies."
(Section 17 is referenced when there is no information to report.)
TO CONCLUDE
SUTR lied to The National when they said they had contacted the Police.
We know this for a fact because if they had contacted the Police then the Police would definitely have a record.
If would have been easy for The National to do its due diligence and contact the Police to confirm the details of what sounded like a very serious incident. But they didn't even bother!
Therefore, we must conclude that SUTR's story about being violently attacked is a fabrication intended to excuse their removal of Scottish flags.
"Stand Up To Racism Edinburgh", you've been rumbled.
You made up a tall-tale in order to excuse your removal of Scottish flags. You need to stop lying!
As for The National – please try to do better.
Reference
1. Fiona Brown, "'I'll slit your throats': Scots anti-racism campaigners threatened while removing lamppost flags", The National, print 9-10-25, p2. The online version of 8 Oct 2025 has a slightly different headline here.
We spoke about this incident in our show "Good Evening Britain!" on Wednesday 12 Nov 2025:
"Protect our Country: Policies to Stop Mass Immigration" is available on Amazon here or search Amazon for "Protect our Country".
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