On Friday evening, Guardian columnist Owen Jones celebrated his thirty-fifth birthday — an event that wouldn’t normally make headline news, but for the fact that on leaving a bar in the early hours of Saturday morning, four men followed, made a beeline for Jones, knocked him to the ground, and kicked him in the head and back before they were finally dragged off of him and fled. Jones says the way the group moved and the fact they specifically targeted him made clear it “was a blatant premeditated assault” and he believes they had been watching him for some time in order to leave immediately after his group did. Jones’s friends were also kicked and punched as they fought to protect him, and the attack would have been far worse had they not risked their own safety.

The attack was not the first time Jones has been harassed but it was the most violent incident this year, a period that has seen the columnist spat at and followed by the far right, while MPs and other journalists have been verbally harassed and threatened. Previous altercations around Parliament led to police increasing their presence at protests in Westminster, and to the fencing off of College Green, opposite Parliament, with security allowing access only to those with press or Parliament cards, or escorted by broadcasters.

After Jones spoke publicly about the attack and confirmed he had reported the incident to the police, many people — both members of the public and journalists — offered support. But quickly, some of the extensions of solidarity and condemnations became heavily caveated, with certain people feeling the need to clarify that they disliked or disagreed with Jones, while fringe Twitter activists questioned the veracity of Jones’s report and attempted to sow disbelief around his version of events.