Veteran activist
A VETERAN rabble-rouser was at the centre of stirring up dissent from the anger provoked by the Grenfell fire.
A video of Ishmahil Blagrove ranting at a reporter in the shadow of the gutted building has gone viral on Facebook. In the clip, he says ‘f*** the media’ and calls for a revolution.
He said ‘sometimes all it takes is a spark’ as he highlighted the 2011 riots that swept Britain.
‘I’m already hearing messages of people mobilising, of police intercepting messages on Facebook,’ he said. ‘We saw what could happen in this country in 2011, over the shooting of Mark Duggan.
‘There are real issues in the underbelly of society that frustrate people.’
Mr Blagrove, a key figure behind the Notting Hill Carnival, is a veteran activist and professional controversialist.
Once a regular of Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, he describes himself as a ‘bona fide hood rat’ who suffered police brutality as a young man.
Friends joke the popular figure in pro-Corbyn circles could even join Labour’s shadow cabinet.