Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany and de facto EU boss, said in her New Year message at the outset of 2015 that Pegida had “hate in their hearts”. It’s an interesting comment from a woman who sees her own people attacked in the street but doesn’t think it important enough to control her borders. German women tell her they’re frightened, but she appears rather unmoved.

Pegida, meaning Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, began in Dresden in 2014. The group seeks to halt the mass migration of Muslims to the Western world, as it fears the growing influence of Islam. Its initial march through Dresden in October 2014 drew only a small number of people. They persevered however and continue to hold Monday night walks through the city, sometimes attracting 10,000s of supporters.

Just a few days after Merkel’s condemnation of Pegida, the iconic cathedral that dominates the city of Cologne switched off its lights in protest at their presence there. The dean of the cathedral suggested those walking with Pegida should “think about who they march alongside”. He cannot have known that one year later, events in his city would prove Pegida right, and perhaps it was he who should be thinking – about what mass immigration is doing to the German people.

It was of course Cologne that hit the headlines when a 1,000-mob of migrants robbed and sexually assaulted 100s of women during recent New Year celebrations in the city’s square. Some of the migrants even hit Cologne Cathedral – shooting fireworks in to its grounds.

Following this assault of Germans on German streets, Pegida returned to Cologne. While police did not have the resources to prevent the assaults, they certainly found what was needed to attempt to crush the protest. Police stood by and watched German people attacked by immigrants, but used water cannon on protestors days later.

Needless to say, media coverage of Pegida has been less than flattering. This is hardly a surprise when the German Chancellor had described them as people of hatred. Here in the UK, – BBC coverage is similarly disparaging. Routinely referring to Pegida as “far-Right”, and those who oppose them as “anti-fascist”, the image of Pegida as a crowd of racist thugs is reinforced again and again.

I recently became deputy leader of the newly formed official UK branch of Pegida, and so set out to attend my first rallies. I was completely stunned by what I saw. I was stunned not only by the behaviour of the so-called “anti-fascists”, but at the scope of the lie we have been told. The fact that decent people carry on protesting in the face of such lies is a testament to their courage and commitment.

My first rally was in Copenhagen. Myself, Tommy Robinson and Paul Weston went there to help with the launch of Pegida Denmark – led by Tania Groth.

Behind a banner reading “For Freedom” we set out on a short walk through Copenhagen’s city centre. We walked with men and women of all ages. It was not an all-white affair, and it certainly wasn’t a group of football hooligans or neo-Nazis. These were decent ordinary people who are desperately concerned, as I am, about the changing face of this continent – change that is likely to be irrevocable and to make us significantly less safe and less free.

While we walked through Copenhagen, we were heavily guarded by an excellent Danish police force. It was perfectly clear from the outset what the role of the police was to be – to protect us from violent attack by “anti-fascists”. There wasn’t a single act of aggression from Pegida marchers. There was no shouting or baiting, all of this came exclusively from the black-clad leftists lining the streets. If Angela Merkel really wants to see people with “hate in their hearts”, she ought to join a Pegida rally and see just what brutes we are up against.

Two days later, we were in Dresden to speak at their weekly gathering. This was an enormous crowd comprised of men and women of all ages, no Nazis, no thugs, no one that would cause the slightest bit of alarm. There was no violence, no threats, no intimidation. Yet again, the role of the police was to protect us from the “anti-fascists”.

To give you an idea of Pegida Dresden; at the end of the rally a small group of men and women, perhaps in their 60s or 70s, played guitar and sang German folk songs on the city square. I stood and shook my head as the realisation of the size of the lie became more and more apparent.

This is an extraordinary situation we are in. Leaders all over Europe continue to change our continent beyond all recognition and label those of us who object as immoral, as monsters. A complicit media sustains this falsehood by dutifully labelling Pegida “far-Right” and the thugs who threaten us as “anti-fascists”.

We are living in a Europe of two realities – actual reality and the one manufactured by our leaders.

Those who live in actual reality are demonised as a matter of course, in an attempt to frighten the public in to believing what they know isn’t true, because otherwise they’ll find themselves labelled “far-Right”.

Our leaders are putting on a show. Their lies are fantastic and fly in the face of all evidence. Now, EU leaders tell us that the Cologne sex attacks have nothing to do with migration, despite the fact that they were carried out by migrants. Merkel pretends she is listening to Germany with hints that she will make it harder to claim asylum. While she does so, 1000s continue to enter her country every day. It really is Orwellian. We are living in the year 1984.

So now we approach the launch event of Pegida UK, which will take place in Birmingham on February 6th. I am optimistic. I hope that the leftist thugs will leave us alone. I hope that racists and neo-Nazis will leave us alone. If they do, we will have a peaceful march and rally and will express our opposition, as is our democratic right, to the growing Islamisation of our country and continent.

We cannot let left-wing thugs defeat us or frighten us away. The intent of the leftist fascists is to create an atmosphere so toxic that ordinary decent people will be scared to attend. We can’t let them do it.

The stakes in this are extraordinarily high. The influence of Islam in Britain has already profoundly altered our society. Free speech is dead, and thousands upon thousands of sexual assaults and rapes continue to go unpunished.

It’s time for us to ignore the stage- show our leaders are producing and look instead to reality. If we don’t take steps now, however difficult it may be, our reality will become ever darker, and the lies ever greater. Only courage can defeat tyranny, and telling the truth in the current political climate, is the most courageous act of all.