The Disgraced Hack Turned Pub Landlord and The Home of The So-Called “Kent Militia”
If you’ve read our piece on the mickey mouse Border Force vigilante ‘Active Patriot’, you might recall that we described how in June 2020, he “partially relocated to a BnB in Dover whose owner is sympathetic to the far right” in order to pursue his “migrant hunter” grift. This photo may remind you:
This is the First & Last Pub and Adventure Backpackers Hostel, East Cliff in Dover.
Active Patriot, real name Alan Leggett, has been living at the attached hostel for many months as his established base for his ‘hunting activity’. He is far from the only fascist grifter who makes use of the facilities – over the past 15 months, the pub has played host to various far right figures such as the “migrant hunter” citizen journalists, as well as lead organisers in the anti-Islam English Democrats, seemingly ignoring the situation with the pandemic that had forced the country into lockdown for much of that time.
The discount hostel prices and ‘sanctuary’ offered by its sympathetic owner has empowered the far right to make it their base for activity. In particular, the likes of the grifters in that we wrote about in March and assistants such as ‘Andy Red Volvo’ use the site as a drinking hole after filming in the day, or as a late night gathering point before embarking on their ‘night missions’. On one such occasion, several individuals including Tracey Wiseman travelled to Napier Barracks late at night to set off fireworks over the site, in order to deliberately terrify the residents. Other occasions have involved the “migrant hunters” breaking into sites used by Border Force in order to access papers and rummage through equipment.
The fireworks incident at Napier Barracks, livestreamed by Tracey Wiseman.
So, who is hosting this?
The owner of the pub, who Active has previously described in streams anonymously as someone who ‘supports what we do’, is none other than disgraced journalist and former News of the World hack Paul McMullan. Paul’s support for the far right, providing them with this secret meeting hub (and a bed for a tenner per night – less than one third of a Daddy Dragon hat), has seen the pub become a revolving door of fascist activity.
McMullan is best known for his shocking testimonies that were part of the Leveson Enquiry, where he defended the hacking of murdered teenager Milly Dowler’s phone amongst other heinous acts – particularly his treatment of Jennifer Elliott, the daughter of late actor Denholm Elliott. McMullan wrote stories on Jennifer in the 90s, ‘exposing’ her as a sex worker having been slipped the information by corrupt police in London. His actions contributed significantly to her suicide in 2003.
Beyond the public testimony and general moral bankruptcy surrounding the subject of his hack journalism, McMullan has displayed views that comfortably align with his new far right friends.
Following the completion of the inquiry in 2012, McMullan had joined UKIP and was reportedly acting as press officer for the Dover and Deal branch of UKIP. In a conversation with channel 4 journalist Michael Crick, Paul said ““I like Nigel Farage very much. He was the sole reason I joined UKIP, and why I wanted to stand. I joined UKIP because of him. I’m not sure I’ve said anything bad about UKIP, and I still think they make a lot of sense.”
In March 2013, McMullan announced that he had applied to stand in the upcoming local elections as a UKIP candidate for Dover, citing an EU law over jam jars as one of his main bug bears. Shortly following his selection as a candidate, McMullan was swiftly removed, with then-leader Nigel Farage denying that he had ever encouraged him to stand in the first place. He went on to stand as a very unsuccessful independent.
Through social media, McMullan also often demonstrates views which are racist, homophobic and misogynistic in nature. A twitter account confirmed to belong to him shows various bigoted, inflammatory comments – including anti-abortion views, where he also admits that he once staked out an abortion clinic for 2 days, presumably while doing his journalism.
On Facebook, his timeline is packed with more of the same racist and grossly misogynist drivel.
McMullan bought the pub and hostel in September 2016, having owned a couple of other pubs in the same area. The google and tripadvisor reviews generally describe the experience as less than positive and often appear to describe him personally in unflattering terms.
One review is particularly telling from approximately a year ago, describing “shocking racism heard in bar by patron who half lives there and some pretty ranty weirdness by staff”.
These days, McMullan’s journalist career could be appropriate described as ‘down the pan’ – unsurprisingly, the hack was practically blacklisted by major news agencies following the Leveson Inquiry, save the odd photo sale or an article in the Herne Bay Tmes at £85 a pop. According to a 2013 interview with Vice, he bought his own surveillance van in an attempt to salvage his career, but nobody would hire him.
Instead, it seems as though McMullan gets his kicks by living vicariously through his new fash friends, as according to Active Patriot, he encourages them to use his resources for the purpose of harassing vulnerable asylum seekers.
“Paul, ex News of the World, used to work with Piers Morgan, who owns this place, is actually a patriot, he loves the patriots. You know what he said? “You can have it [the room] for as long as you want”. You know what else he says, “I can entertain as many different people I want here, not in that way but in a footage way”, so if there’s any nationalists out there, every one of them can get the footage and get it out there on their channels”
Active Patriot, speaking on livestream on 24th February 2021
From a career as features editor of a national newspaper, to failed politician, to playing host to the far right “Kent militia” – McMullan continues on his downward spiral.
The Home of the “Kent Militia”
In October 2020, Graham Moore or ‘Daddy Dragon’ (formerly of UKIP, the White Pendragons and currently an English Democrat) livestreamed from YouTube in a video titled “Live from Dover with Active Patriot and the Kent Militia”. The initial scene showed the camera facing Dragon (NOTE: we know he often gets called ‘Daddy’ for short, but not by us – not today), back to the wall of an indoor seating area. Behind him, an English Democrats postcard-sized picture was propped against a mantelpiece. Above it, a poster of pop star Rita Ora was stuck to the wall. We can guess that Dragon placed the English Democrats postcard there himself for effect, less so the poster.
Dragon, beside himself with Proper English glee, opened with “I’m in the home of the Kent Militia, and I can’t tell you where it is”, before he switched the camera view to reveal Active Patriot posed in what was clearly the bar area of the First & Last pub. To the left of Active, a laminated ‘declaration of common law’ on the wall (which Dragon naturally delighted in reading through later on in the stream). Behind him, the flag of the ‘Kent Militia’, styled on both the national English and Kent county design with words that read “ENGLAND, I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK”.
Although the stream was intended as an update on the day’s events (ie. one of Active’s court dates), it quickly descended into something of a bizarre show-and-tell effort where Dragon fussed over various items of interest, such as his English pint and cigar, English flags, English Active Patriot branded tees, English Democrats branded ties, and English literature authored by founding member of the English Democrats, far right Tony Linsell.
That day, Dragon also advertised the pub as the home of the “reformed English militia” and used the occasion as a call to arms for his followers to form their own county militias elsewhere in the UK. This plea was no impulsive, throwaway suggestion – Dragon has repeatedly used his YouTube channel to call for the formation of county militias, and even went so far as to register the ‘English County Militia’ on a US site called ‘mymilitia.com’, a social ‘American patriot network’ where groups register their militia units.
The linked website for the English County Militia, provided as ‘takebackcontrol.vote’, leads back to Dragon’s own personal website, where you can buy various mugs or a red “Make England Great Again” baseball that will costs an outrageous *£36.00*.
In February 2021, driven by his latest falling out with ‘Team Tommy’, Active Patriot also attempted to claim the pub as his own movement rally point. in a string of now-deleted YouTube and Telegram posts, Active attempted to birth the “English Nationalists movement”, in which he also posted a doctored image of the pub with the caption “the home of the English Nationalists”. After much ridicule and criticism from both civic and ethnonationalists within the far right, the posts were removed.
The far right continue to use McMullan’s hospitality to their full advantage, and so the pub remains a hub of activity where they plan and organise ‘patrols’, stake-outs and demos, including an upcoming march in Dover on the 29th May which appears to be organised by ethno-grifter Steve Laws. We assume it is a second attempt on their disastrous ‘anti-immigration demo’ back in September 2020, and expect this one to be a similar shitshow.
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