"I smell a virgin...
" Katie Hopkins said, looking straight at me. "I smell lefty, pressy scum!" The far-right commentator was addressing an audience of 500 people in a soggy tent in a rural corner of northwest England. I was standing at the back but that didn't stop her singling me out.
The crowd theatrically booed me, as if I was a pantomime villain. I blushed. This was one of many strange moments I witnessed at the three-day event, officially called the Weekend Truth Festival (WTF), that some may call a conspiracy theory gathering.
As well as being called out by Hopkins, I saw children chanting anti-vax slogans and had a magnet applied to my arm to prove my COVID vaccinations are the antenna of a bioweapon. Read more: How 'TikTok idiots' and conspiracy theories are disrupting police Solar eclipse: Experts debunk outlandish claims from conspiracy theorists This was the first WTF and its organisers hailed it as a success. Its programme featured talks from speakers, including celebrities of the movement like Hopkins and former Southampton footballer Matt Le Tissier, as well as workshops and other activities with dozens of RVs and tents arranged around a giant marquee.
The festival attendees, who describe themselves as part of the "freedom movement", paid a £100 donation to see their "truth heroes". There are many political and ideological dividing lines in British life, but perhaps the deepest, and most damaging, is that which was on show here - when one part of the populatio.
