Tommy Robinson’s sentence shows how hate has gone global

LEEDS Crown Court provided an unlikely backdrop for a storm involving alt-right American blogs, a far-right Dutch MP and Donald Trump’s son. On May 25th Tommy Robinson, an anti-Islam activist and founder of the far-right English Defence League (EDL), was sentenced to 13 months in jail for contempt of court. It came after Mr Robinson—whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon—commented on an ongoing case outside the court, streaming his opinions live to his Facebook page, which has 860,000 followers. Mr Robinson had already received a three-month suspended sentence and a stark warning from a judge for pulling a similar stunt last year. But reporting restrictions, designed to prevent the collapse of the trial on which Mr Robinson was commenting, meant that these circumstances were not made public until four days later.