The summer of 2018 will, in pop culture at least, be remembered as the summer of the biggest film team-up of all time — Avengers: Infinity War — in which ten years’ worth of superheroes and villains collided in an explosion of sound, fury and fantastic fight scenes.

Another team-up in 2018 — less funny and nearly as bleak as Thanos’ plan to destroy half of all living creatures — isn't bound to go down in history despite the wishes of many of the participants.

The Day For Freedom, a march and rally, nominally in defence of free speech, was sparked off by ex-EDL leader Tommy Robinson. Its grim gravity ended up pulling in propagandists, provocateurs and fringe politicians from a wide-range of right wing and self-proclaimed left wing positions. Large contingents from the far right Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA) and Veterans Against Terrorism were in attendance.

The speakers included self-described “internet super villain” Milo Yiannopoulos; Canadian journalist Lauren Southern (via video after she was refused entry to the UK); Ukip leader Gerald Batten; Markus Meechan, aka Count Dankula, aka the man who taught a dog to do the Hitler salute when it hears the phrase "gas the Jews" and was prosecuted for doing so; For Britain founder Anne Marie Waters; Vice cofounder and Proud Boys creator Gavin McInnes; Breitbart News’ London editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam; and Tommy Robinson. The lineup also included faded comedian Liam Tuffs alongside singers and a drag artist, whose presence caused consternation among some attendees and activists.

The crowd was not entirely white, nor entirely middle-aged, but those watching the speeches were by and large white men, with a significant number of them identifying as former or current members of football "firms" — groups of men willing to literally fight for their clubs, now turning their frustration and anger in a new direction.

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The potential online audience was far larger, particularly as RT — formerly Russia Today — the Russian-state funded broadcaster with a significant UK operation, heavily promoted the event. It was also clear that plenty of money had been invested in the production — a large screen played out slickly edited promotional videos, the speakers words boomed out from a large PA system and the plentiful private security hired to look after Robinson and the rest of the speakers wore high-vis jackets with his website address emblazoned across the back.

The first incident of the day that highlighted how confused many of the Day for Freedom attendees actually are about the notion of free speech happened about 20 minutes after I arrived. The radical Christian speaker suggested that “God even loves pedophiles” and a group of men there for the march began screaming at him that he “couldn’t say that”. So, it seems there are some limits to free speech.

At Whitehall, I took a seat on the grass behind the statue of Field Marshall Montgomery and listened as an Australian YouTuber chatted with a family from up North who’d positioned themselves within a brief walk of The Red Lion, usually a haunt for politicians and Westminster operators, the bar was heaving. Pints in hand, flags and banners beside them they explained that they were looking forward to seeing all of the speakers but were gutted that Lauren Southern wouldn’t be there in person. “Shame she’s not here,” said one of the blokes. “She’d attract some men.” Groups of men were having their photos taken in front of the Cenotaph, one man ran across and touched Montgomery’s feet as if it were a statue of the Virgin Mary.

At about 3.10pm, Raheem Kassam took to the stage, his speaking style all hyperbole and exclamation: “We’re on Whitehall. We are in the heart of the British government!” I thought of this line all afternoon as speaker after speaker claimed that Britain no longer had free speech.

The marchers from Speakers Corner arrived, many of them filming themselves on their mobile phones, banners and a selection of flags above them, mostly Union Flags but also — as Kassam noted — Welsh, Scottish, EU (!) and Kekistan (a made up nation beloved by 4chan meme lords). The smell of dope floated through the air and I heard more than one group of blokes discussing how much coke they had left. In the crowd, one man proudly showed off his Martin Luther King, Jr. T-shirt with the slogan “Free speech for all”. Two men discussed their activist groups: “You can join but you’ve got to get active, see.”

Theresa May then Sadiq Khan flashed up on the screen, both provoking boos from the crowd. Kassam told the attendees that they are “the rebellion”. More speakers, including the comedian Liam Tuffs who dismissed millennials as “top knot, skinny jeans, tampon-wearing snowflakes", then Milo Yiannopoulos boasted about how expensive his clothes are (“I paid $4,000 for this jacket.” “I’ll earn more money this year than BuzzFeed and Gizmodo reporters will in their whole lifetimes.”) Of all the cliche tropes, listing people he couldn't stand (everyone), he told the crowd that they were brave. Most strikingly, for someone who constantly rails at over-sensitive "snowflakes", Milo assures his audience that it is they who are the victims. Tommy Robinson attacked the government, but claimed that the people are on his side. He announced that he will be suing Twitter for discrimination after it shut down his account and attacked the mainstream media.

One attendee, who identified himself as John, lives in London but grew up in Edinburgh. After offering me a Tunnocks caramel water from his Uber Eats bag — which he had seconded as his picnic basket for the day — he explained that he had been inspired to attend by Tommy Robinson and his fear of “creeping Islamicisation”. He showed me his Twitter bio, which identifies him as a contrarian, and agreed that the attendees at the march came from a very wide range of groups.

While the crowd and speakers consistently claimed to be silenced, they stood in the centre of one of London’s most famous locations and said whatever they wanted. While they claimed that Britain is lawless, in the thrall of marauding Islamic gangs, and oppressed by a state that doesn’t understand them, their event passed off largely without incident.

Perhaps it suits this coalition of victims who claim that everyone else is too sensitive, of men and women who are unhappy with the words of others while they claim their own are suppressed, to honestly believe that there is no free speech in Britain. But their own march and rally show, that’s far from the case.