Veterans band together to report anti-vax ex-paras who stormed BBC
TWO Parachute Regiment veterans have been reported to the police for taking part in a violent anti-vaccination protest at a BBC site after paratroopers helped track them down.
Protesters opposing vaccine passports and child vaccinations attempted to get into the old BBC studios in west London, seemingly unaware that the national broadcaster moved production of its main news programme out of the building in 2013.
Images from the protest at Television Centre showing two members of the crowd wearing the distinctive maroon beret of the Parachute Regiment caused anger among veterans and personnel.
Andrew Fox, formerly a major in the Parachute Regiment, said within 30 minutes of the incident being highlighted the airborne forces community had identified the pair and passed their details to him.
One, Marco Bruin, was a member of support company in the Second Battalion (2 PARA). The other, Ricky Regan, was discharged from the Army in 2011 for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan.
Mr Fox said: “For him to be spouting about freedom and being a soldier fighting for freedom in the UK is a little bit rich. He’s obviously not the finest soldier the British Army’s ever had.”
Mr Fox said it had been inappropriate for them to wear their berets to a political protest. “It’s really not the thing to do,” he said. “The men of Arnhem, Mount Longdon and Goose Green, they fought for people’s real freedom: freeing Europe from the Nazis, and the Falklands from the Argentines. Not for vaccine passports that don’t exist or mandatory vaccinations that aren’t happening. Also, they were in the right location when they fought,” he added.
To attack the wrong building wearing the beret of an elite unit was “a particular breed of special”, he added.
“That beret is so hardearned, it means so much to so many people. Every paratrooper when they pull their beret on feels immense pride, not only in what they’ve personally achieved but also the achievement of their forebears and what that beret represents.” No arrests have been made following the protest, which was also attended by Piers Corbyn, brother of the former Labour Party leader Jeremy. One police officer sustained a minor facial injury in the demonstration. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said an investigation has been launched.
Mr Fox said it was disgusting that the two veterans wore their berets “for a protest like that, where people are assaulting police officers”.
He added: “They were trying to actively storm a place where journalists were working because they wanted to do something about the BBC. It’s really not acceptable to associate the Parachute Regiment beret with that.”
The official Twitter account of the Parachute Regiment said the two men had been reported to the police and any other former or serving members found to have attended the violent protest “will be rooted out like a cancer”.
Serving soldiers were almost unanimously against the pair’s actions, Mr Fox said, which highlighted the ethos of Pegasus, the symbol of British airborne forces since their creation in the Second World War.
“It reflected really well on the regiment that a very tiny minority were immediately condemned from not only the hierarchy but also the veteran community and, most importantly of all, those still serving.”
‘For him to be spouting about freedom is a little bit rich. He’s obviously not the finest soldier we ever had’