At the funeral of a relative who spent quite a lot of time in prison for his role in a politically absurd and militarily futile operation, the man in charge of his team described his approach to their trial at the Old Bailey. The unit commander recounted that he’d tried to persuade the deceased that he might receive a shorter sentence if he argued that he’d been coerced and maliciously influenced by sinister men. In practical terms it might mean twelve or fifteen years instead of twenty plus of high security prisons. While you may not agree with his politics or his methods, his response that he would accept full responsibility for his actions and take whatever punishment the imperialists gave him showed political integrity.

At the time of writing, our assumption must be that Daniel Thomas is innocent of the charges against him. He says he didn’t try to sink a boat with a person on board while at sea. However, he is the ugly public face of the fascist militia Patriot Platform and has a long history of involvement in the violent sub-culture of the English far right and has been a bodyguard for Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Thomas is not some virginal twenty-year-old who has spent the last eight years on a computer in his bedroom, got radicalised and then did something stupid. He is an early middle-aged fascist leader with a long history of repellent activism. People like that are not supposed to cry in court when they are told that they are going to spend the weekend in prison.

Hitler didn’t start wiping away the tears when he was sent down for the Munich putsch. None of the Nazis who were sentenced to death at Nuremburg turned on the waterworks when they were told what was going to happen to them. No one said of Herman Goering, “he’ll be scared, he’ll be worried, he’s going to be fearful, he’s going to be panicking about his kids and his missus, the mother of his kids”, which apparently is what Yaxley-Lennon said of Thomas’ emotional state.

In an episode of The Sopranos, Johnny Sacrimoni loses the respect of his scumbag criminal mates when he cries as he’s being taken back to prison. Today’s scumbag fascists are apparently a more emotionally literate and forgiving bunch and still seem to be giving their support to Thomas even though he has failed his first significant test of political leadership.

It is one thing to bring together a bunch of violent racists to attack asylum seekers and harass lifeboat crews. He has just swept up some of the human dust that always comprises fascist movements. But there is a big difference between being part of an anonymous mob wanting to harm defenceless people and publicly taking responsibility for your actions and accepting the consequences

When the time comes when some pot-bellied member of the master race stands over Thomas’ coffin to give his eulogy, it won’t be to say in the reported words of my departed relative, “I will take my punishment like a man” but something along the lines of “Tommo was only crying because he’d promised to take the kids to McDonald’s on Saturday”. This is not a great way for an aspirant British Fuhrer to be remembered.