LIVESTREAMING FROM the passenger seat of a car in San Diego, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, breathlessly described the past year. Twelve months ago he was in solitary confinement(单独监禁), having been found in contempt of court(藐视法庭) for repeatedly libelling(诽谤（现在分词）) a Syrian schoolboy. In September, he claimed, he brought 1m people onto the streets of London for a rally (police say it was 150,000), beaming in a speech by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. Despite criminal convictions he was allowed into America, visiting the State Department, which had given him a waiver(豁免权), hobnobbing(（与要人）亲近、交往) with congressmen and touring podcasts to warn that radical Islam was changing Britain. On May 16th he will be back home to hold “the biggest patriotic gathering [the] country has ever seen”.
从圣地亚哥一辆汽车的副驾驶座上直播，斯蒂芬·亚克斯利-列侬（更为人熟知的汤米·罗宾逊）气喘吁吁地描述过去一年。十二个月前，他因多次诽谤一名叙利亚男学生而被判藐视法庭，处于单独监禁。他声称，九月他带领100万人走上伦敦街头集会（警方称15万），并播放了世界首富埃隆·马斯克的讲话。尽管有刑事定罪，他还是被允许进入美国，访问了给予他豁免的国务院，与国会议员交往，并奔波于播客节目，警告激进伊斯兰正在改变英国。5月16日，他将回国举行“这个国家有史以来最伟大的爱国集会”。
Mainstream politicians shun(回避，躲开) him and commentators dismiss him as “marginal”. He is too toxic(有毒的，极不受欢迎的) even for Nigel Farage, the right-wing populist(右翼民粹主义者) who leads Reform UK. A survey for The Economist by More in Common suggested that only 14% of Britons have a positive view of Mr Robinson (though YouGov, another pollster, finds that 29% of British men like him, up from 9% in 2021). He is brazen(厚颜无耻的) about his bigotry(偏执，顽固的偏见), posting messages implying that Muslims poison dogs in parks, and is accused of grift(欺诈，骗钱): during his libel case he admitted losing £100,000 ($136,000) gambling while collecting donations from supporters (though Mr Robinson insists that the money came from a property sale and donations never go to him personally).
主流政客回避他，评论家称他为“边缘人物”。他甚至在领导改革党的右翼民粹主义者奈杰尔·法拉奇看来都太有毒。More in Common为《经济学人》进行的调查显示，只有14%的英国人对罗宾逊持正面看法（不过另一民调机构YouGov发现，29%的英国男性喜欢他，高于2021年的9%）。他厚颜无耻地宣扬偏见，发布暗示穆斯林在公园毒狗的信息，并被指控欺诈：在诽谤案中，他承认在收集支持者捐款的同时赌博输掉了10万英镑（13.6万美元）（尽管罗宾逊坚称该资金来自房产出售，捐款从未进入他个人账户）。
Yet in many ways it is irrelevant what the mainstream thinks. Backed by rich American donors, for over a decade Mr Robinson has sold a distorted vision of Britain that has gone global: the cautionary tale(警示故事) of a nation overrun by(被……侵占，泛滥) “Islamic invaders” (Muslims are 6.5% of the population in England and Wales, roughly double the 2001 rate), its people silenced by a woke liberal elite(觉醒的自由派精英). Efforts to deplatform(封杀（平台）) him have backfired(适得其反). Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former strategist, has called him the “backbone(脊梁，支柱)” of Britain. Mr Musk pays his legal fees.
然而，在许多方面，主流想法并不重要。在美国富有的捐赠者支持下，十多年来罗宾逊兜售了一种扭曲的英国形象，这种形象已走向全球：一个被“伊斯兰侵略者”（英格兰和威尔士的穆斯林人口占6.5%，大约是2001年的两倍）占领、人民被觉醒的自由派精英噤声的警示故事。封杀他的努力适得其反。唐纳德·特朗普的前战略师史蒂夫·班农称他为英国的“脊梁”。马斯克支付他的法律费用。
