EDL Walthamstow Demo Cancelled: will the EDL demonstrate elsewhere?

Today the EDL have been banned from protesting in Walthamstow, but given that in the past small groups of EDL have turned up at a variety of locations - such as Hebden Bridge and Totnes - for impromptu flash demos, will such activity take place today? It had been suggested that the EDL could protest outside of Parliament instead, but whether anyone will take up the offer to do so is unclear. If information emerges, from whatever source, it will be posted here as it becomes available.

However, for some reason the SWP front group We are Waltham Forest and its umbrella UAF campaign have been exempted from the protest ban in the borough, and this morning therefore gathered for a static protest - a self-billed "victory" rally - in Walthamstow town centre. Around 250 are said to have attended. However, the deeply unappealing prominent UAF member and anti-free speech activist Martin Smith claimed that they numbered over 1,000. Quite why UAF is not seen as a threat to public order whereas the EDL is when activists associated with the former have instigated a great deal more violence than the latter over the years, is something of a mystery. For some reason, although UAF is under de facto SWP control, David Cameron continues to support the campaign.

Updates
The anti-EDL Hope Not Hate blog reports that a number of EDL were drinking in St Stephens Tavern near Parliament at the beginning of this afternoon, with representatives of the Dudley, Exeter, Portsmouth and Torbay divisions being present. It looks as if Totnes will not be getting a visit from the EDL today. The numbers are said to be "low". Compiling estimates of numbers in various Hope Not Hate postings, their blog is claiming, as of 13:33, that the EDL number circa 100. It also states that a number of "anti-fascists" [sic] have turned up to oppose them. As the police have not given these agitators the right to protest near Westminster today, will they deal with them appropriately, for they have clearly turned up with a view to provoking conflict with the EDL?

The Casuals United blog has posted an image of a leaflet handed (shown below) out to EDL protesters by the police at King's Cross. As can be seen, they have been instructed to demonstrate in Old Palace Yard opposite the Houses of Parliament between 1pm and 2pm only, with the leaflet stating that the demo had to take place there instead of in Walthamstow "to prevent serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community". It would be interesting to know what intelligence the police had received pertaining to the likelihood of such violence erupting in Walthamstow and who was behind any associated threats. It seems unlikely that they would have originated with the EDL.

Despite the EDL not being in Walthamstow this afternoon, one tweeter by the name of Henry Comfort claimed at 13:13 that nonetheless police in riot gear were "eveywhere in Walthamstow today".

The Waltham Forest News reports that UAF supporters this afternoon violated the ban on marches in Walthamstow, with several hundred of them breaking away from their static protest at 1.30pm to march down to the junction at Selbourne Road. There, the police stopped them, and scuffles broke out. Clearly, had the EDL come to Walthamstow today, it would have been the UAF demonstrators who initiated any violence. By 2.30pm the UAF marchers had been dispersed.

Leaflet handed to EDL Supporters by the Metropolitan Police at King's Cross

EDL to rally in Rotherham: Saturday 13 October

Following recent revelations concerning Muslim grooming gangs in Rotherham and the failure of the local police and social services to tackle this problem for years despite being aware of its existence, a decision has been taken to hold an EDL demo in the town. This is scheduled to take place on Saturday 13 October. Shamefully, the Far Left have thus taken the decision not to highlight the statistically significant overrepresentation of a particular ethno-religious group in perpetrating this type of crime, but to try and blind the public to its reality by calling for a “multi-cultural rally” in Rotherham on the same day. In essence, judging by what has happened historically, this means that some UAF supporters will be seeking to initiate a violent clash with the EDL.

The Rotherham Advertiser quotes Pat Keenan (President of Rotherham Trades Council) at some length, and to his shame he has fallen for the dangerous myths constantly peddled and regurgitated by UAF spokesmen across the country:

“The overwhelming majority of people reject the EDL’s attempt to use racism to divide our society."

“Their attempts to spread racist myths about sexual exploitation must be exposed and challenged. They seek to blame one community for society’s problems."

“The EDL does nothing to protect the victims of sexual violence. Sexual predators and paedophiles exist in all communities, as do their victims.”

He added: “Each time the EDL assemble, minorities and trades unionists are subjected to threats and racial and religious abuse."

“Recently the EDL were prevented from marching through Walthamstow in London due to a fantastic show of unity from the local community.”

“It is essential that we show the same level of unity here. There’s no place for Nazis, racists or their allies in Rotherham’s multiracial, multicultural and multi-faith community.”

If Rotherham locals have any sense, which I am sure many do, they will keep well away from UAF and its deceitful spin about the allegedly anodyne nature of Islam. Advocate of violent confrontation with the EDL Weyman Bennett will be addressing a public meeting at the town’s ‘Unity Centre’ next Monday evening, with the paper claiming that local MP Denis MacShane will also be present. Being aware of MacShane’s politics, it would be nothing short of a miracle if he did not seek to make political capital out of this by appealing to Rotherham’s Muslim voters.

Pat Keenan employs a number of routine lies about the EDL including: calling them Nazis, whereas the EDL have burnt swastika flags and have ethnic minority members and supporters; claiming that the EDL scapegoat “one community for society’s problems”, which they do not, and neither do they claim that paedophilia is uniquely perpetrated by Muslims, but they do correctly highlight the fact that the phenomenon of on-street grooming is a predominantly Pakistani Muslim one. Given that the EDL are routinely and purposefully mislabelled as “racists” and “Nazis” by some trades unionists and UAF ethnic minority supporters, is it any surprise that some EDL demonstrators are tempted to voice their dissatisfaction by yelling abuse at their sworn enemies? The EDL are not, as UAF would have you believe, the current incarnation of Mosley’s Blackshirts, but a grassroots protest group made up of people from disparate backgrounds, although many who turn out for their marches are drawn from football firms.

UAF's effective controlling organisation - The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) - has in a recent article sought to exonerate Muslim grooming gangs from responsibility for the crimes that they have perpetrated in Rotherham, instead laying the blame for the abuse on lack of staff, thereby using the case to call for an increase in public spending in this sphere. This is also, of course, a blatant attempt by this anti-free speech party to solicit support from public sector workers in the town. The article states:

But social workers in Rotherham give a very different account of why the authorities failed to stop the abuse. “I’m not surprised young women fell through the safety net,” one social worker based in the town told Socialist Worker.

“There’s a huge shortage of staff—and particularly of qualified staff. The way the service is run is all about ‘cost management’ rather than getting out there and helping people.”

And it is sexist attitudes towards the victims, rather than imagined “sensitivities” about race, that hold back investigations.

The SWP is part of the problem when it comes to the specific crime of organised Pakistani Muslim paedophilia, because it constantly pushes the line that it does not exist and that to say that it does is 'racist', thereby facilitating ongoing abuse and running the risk of allowing the abusers to go unpunished. It claims to be a party representing the 'workers', but when it comes to ordinary working class English people, it sees them as expendable, preferring instead to court Muslim support.

How much money will be wasted on supporting the UAF counterdemonstration and who will be footing the bill? Doubtless, much of the funding will be drawn from union members’ subs, which is a disgraceful misuse of trades unionists’ funds in the current economic climate, and other monies may be forthcoming from the local council. If you are a Rotherham voter, keep an eye on which of your councillors are backing this protest in favour of hiding the reality of Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs, and be sure not to vote for them at the next election. Too many vulnerable Rotherham girls have suffered already because of this type of crime, and with its reality having been recently exposed, nobody – such as UAF – should seek to hide it from view again. One last question: why is it that the Rotherham Advertiser only allowed UAF and its supporters to give their perspective, whilst denying a platform to the EDL and their supporters? Is this balanced reporting, or propaganda? Why not write to the Rotherham Advertiser demanding that they allow the EDL the opportunity to give their side of the story in its pages?

UPDATE
The Morning Star reports that the anti-EDL meeting that took place at Rotherham's Unity Centre attracted circa 100 attendees on the evening of Monday 7 October. It is their expectation that the EDL will manage to muster between 100 and 200 demonstrators this coming Saturday. As at previous such meetings, EDL supporters were subjected to ritual denunciations as "fascists". Local paper The Sheffield Star also ran a story on the protest on Wednesday 10 October stating that extra police would be coming to Rotherham to police both demonstrations on Saturday, but as with the Rotherham Advertiser, UAF were given the opportunity to state why they were demonstrating, whereas the EDL were refused any voice in the paper, which described them as "far right". South Yorkshire Police estimate that the EDL will draw approximately 200 supporters to the town, whereas they anticipate that about 250 counter-demonstrators will congregate next to the town hall.

EDL Rotherham Division at Bristol Demo

Anti-Free Speech Meeting at Labour Party Fringe

It has been announced that elements of the anti-free speech Far Left will be holding a fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester on Tuesday evening. Gathering beneath what it terms “the antifascist flag”, UAF will be bringing together a range of individuals who will be discussing how to make political capital out of manufacturing a phantasmogorical “fascist” threat in Luton specifically, England more widely, and Europe generally. To date, they have been highly successful in raising funds from innocent trades unionists through invoking the spectre of a non-existent recrudescent fascism, and in order to legitimise their ongoing existence and continued funding it is necessary for this bogey to be kept alive in the public's, or at least the Labour Party’s, imagination.

Kelvin Hopkins, MP for Luton North, will be making the most brazen bid for Muslim votes by inveighing against the evils of “the racists and fascists of the English Defence League in his Luton constituency”, whilst other veterans of the cause will include the previously convicted Weyman Bennett, as well as a number of current and former Labour MEPs. Although there are certainly minority elements within the EDL that have caused violence at some of their demonstrations, violence and threat are inherent within UAF’s modus operandi, as most recently demonstrated by the decision to cancel a debate between Stephen Lennon of the EDL and representatives of the Muslim Debate Initiative at London’s Conway Hall that was scheduled for 4 October. In a post on their blog, the Muslim Debate Initiative (MDI) made it clear that it had been cancelled not because of any perception of potential violence from the EDL or from Muslim objectors, but because of the threat from so-called “anti-fascists”. The MDI blog reports the decision relating to the cancellation as follows:

Conway Hall, has decided based upon advice from the Police, and under pressure from various anti-fascist organisations and at least one MP, that the event may put the public at risk to public health and safety concerns under the current climate. Despite the security procedures of MDI within the building, the Venue Director was concerned about the safety of attendees outside the hall when going to, and leaving the event. Therefore, Conway Hall has informed Muslim Debate Initiative that for the time being, they will have to cancel the hire of the hall to MDI for this public event.

The MP concerned was Frank Dobson. Contrary to the assertions of UAF and its ideological confederates, it is not some phantom “Far Right” that we should fear with respect to our liberties, but the very real and influential Far Left of which it is a part. Reading the jubilant piece relating to the forcing of the cancellation of this debate on the UAF website, one is met with the following startling passage:

We believe the EDL is a fascist organisation. Fascism stands for: the total annihilation and mass murder of its opponents including trade unionists, liberals, social democrats, socialists, communists, Jewish, Muslim, black, Asian, lesbian, gay communities and other large sections of humanity. It also stands for war, the destruction of all democracy and freedom. History shows this is what happens when fascism gains power.

Is this what the supporters of UAF truly believe? Does the quote above strike you as having been penned by someone with a rational perspective fully apprised of the facts, or by someone suffering from a paranoid set of delusions? The question is superfluous. UAF is a dangerous anti-democratic campaign group that employs PC anti-racism slogans to mask its SWP-driven agenda. Any decent delegates at the Labour Party Conference this week would be wise to give this thuggish fringe a wide berth, and thereby avoid complicity in manufacturing unnecessary social conflict. 

UAF's Weyman Bennett: arrested for conspiracy to commit violent disorder

EDL Walsall Demonstration

The EDL has held a demonstration in Walsall today. It cited the following reasons for holding the protest in this West Midlands town:

We are going to Walsall,‭ ‬not to protest about Muslims or even Muslim violence,‭ ‬but to protest about Islam,‭ ‬an ideology that denigrates non-Muslims and places them lower than animals and sees non-Muslim women as targets for grooming and sexual exploitation.‭ ‬We are going to Walsall because the West Indian community is suffering even more attacks‭ ‬every day‭ ‬on their community than the white community of the town.‭ ‬The very same people who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Pakistani/Muslim community to fight down the far-right National Front and their racist attacks.‭

We are going to Walsall to show our support for the West Indian community,‭ ‬to protest the vile ideology of Islam that is splitting communities and breaking down social cohesion.‭ ‬Other ethnic communities,‭ ‬black,‭ ‬white,‭ ‬Afro-Caribbean,‭ ‬European all seem to get along together and have been doing so for many years.‭

Admittedly, this is only an excerpt, and there is far more on the EDL website here.

According to the Birmingham Mail, there have been confrontations between the police and demonstrators in Walsall today, but as is normal in the reporting of EDL demos, the identity of those clashing with the police is not made clear, for the report mentions "two rival groups" that the police were attempting to keep apart. Central News confirmed the customary presence of a counterdemonstration - this time held under the banner of 'We Are Walsall' (WAW) - which is in effect a front group for the SWP-dominated UAF. Many well-meaning individuals may well have been caught out by this strategy and lured into joining the counterdemonstration without being aware of the background agenda of the SWP. The local Labour Party also threw its backing behind the WAW initiative, with the police allotting them a spot to demonstrate some half a mile from the location of the EDL static protest. Whether or not WAW has attracted violent 'antifa' and anarchist elements as in Bristol this summer has not been confirmed, although one tweet by someone calling themselves ST3-walsall claimed that four Muslims got through the police lines and set off fireworks.

Information on numbers attending either of the demonstrations is currently lacking, but the police confirmed that a total of 28 arrests were made, some for throwing missiles which included bricks, bottles and planks. The affiliation of those arrested has not been divulged. The short video posted at the end of this piece appears to have been taken by an observer on his phone, with the EDL hoving into view in the ninth second. It is of rather poor quality, and does not allow for an estimate of the numbers to be made. However, a BBC report states that the EDL managed to draw about 1,000 supporters and the opposing demonstration circa 500. In the last couple of demonstrations held in Walthamstow and Bristol, the EDL contingent had only numbered in the low hundreds and had been significantly outnumbered by their opponents, so this turnout provides something of a fillip for the protest group. Unusually, the BBC refrained from dubbing the EDL "far-right" in its online report.

EDL in Walsall

'Vibrant' UAF counterdemonstrators (peaceful looking, aren't they?)

EDL Walthamstow Demo: 1 September 2012

This Saturday, the EDL will be holding a protest in Walthamstow which had originally been planned to take place in August. Although this will be a national demo, recent attendance figures at such events – such as in Bristol and Dewsbury – have been rather modest compared to those that took place earlier in the protest group’s history. An explanation of why the march will be taking place has been provided in an article by Esmerelda Weatherwax, focusing upon how the borough has become a hotbed for Islamists in recent years, some of the most notable being involved in Anjem Choudary’s numerous differently-named groups consisting for the greater part of the same members articulating the same backward Islamist ideology.

Contrary to the shrill and predictable denunciations of the EDL protest made by the latest Trotskyite front group to spring into existence – ‘We are Waltham Forest’ – as well as formulaic imprecations issued by UAF, the SWP and sundry soi-disant ‘antifascists’, the police adjudge that the EDL march poses no threat of violence. Whether or not they believe that the same can be said of the miscellaneous anti-democratic elements of the Trotskyite and anarchist Left has not been divulged, but judging by past experience, including the recent ‘antifa’ attack upon police in Bristol, violence could well be forthcoming from that quarter. These groups employ the language of ‘anti-racism’ and ‘anti-fascism’ as a means of camouflaging their true intent of subverting public order and fomenting violence, and yet although these facts can be ascertained by anyone who cares to look at the literature that they produce, observe the manner in which they act and listen to the words that they speak, the mass media seem to possess a perplexing blind spot in this regard. Why are their claims, given their serious nature and implications, never subjected to objective scrutiny? The failure of the press, television and radio to investigate the murky world of the violent fringe of the anti-democratic Left, and the willingness of broadcasters and journalists to accept all of its pronouncements at face value, constitutes a baffling mystery. 

Turning to what the opponents of the EDL Walthamstow Demo have written, their true colours are revealed. For example, one article entitled ‘We Are Waltham Forest: residents to confront EDL racists’ appears on a website called Counterfire. This organisation describes itself as follows:

Counterfire is an organisation of revolutionary socialists. We work in the trade unions, student movement, and protest campaigns to link together different struggles, push them forwards, and build resistance to the system.

Counterfire members have played a key role in the Coalition of Resistance, Stop the War, and the student revolt.

Note the term “revolutionary socialists” and how the organisation freely owns that it infiltrates trade unions, student groups and protests to “build resistance to the system”. We live in a democracy where any “socialist” candidate is free to stand for office via the ballot box, and yet these people – “revolutionary socialists” – reject this route, preferring instead the tactics of infiltration and destabilisation, for they realise that in the cold light of day only a tiny minority of people would ever vote for them, so unappealing are their policies and the dystopian vision that they hold dear. They make clear their contempt for democracy and pluralistic thought and declare that their intent is to gradually curtail the compass of what passes for legitimate political debate so that eventually only those adhering to their own “revolutionary socialist” agenda are allowed to articulate their views. Still, history is unfortunately replete with examples where such “revolutionary socialists” have taken power and then violently turned on each other, such is the nature of their chiliastic urge to power in the name of an abstract humanity, the concrete reality of which they despise.

Such a tendency as outlined is clearly at play in the article written by Counterfire writer Charles Brown after he has written off the EDL as a dying force:

But this does not mean that we should downplay the threat posed by the EDL and fascist groups like the BNP and National Front. The scapegoating and scaremongering favoured by these organisations can often be found, in only marginally less virulent form in the right-wing press, and we have seen a ratcheting up of rhetoric against multiculturalism from Cameron and other Tory leaders.

Here we see the tactics of the “revolutionary socialist” Left laid bare: turn on any organisation or anybody who questions their ideological position. Thus, the first focus of their opposition was the National Front followed by the BNP then the EDL. Now that they think that the EDL are on the ropes, attention shifts to the Conservative Party and the “right-wing press” (presumably anything not falling under the control of the “revolutionary socialist” Left?). What are their weapons of choice? Smear, slur and insinuation. “Racist”, “fascist”, “far-right” and “Islamophobe” are just a few of the pejorative labels that they favour and employ with wild abandon, enjoying great success owing to the uncritical receptivity of the mass media, who help them to implement their strategy of: stigmatise, isolate and destroy. The SWP is also happy to whip up an atmosphere of fear with a view to inciting confrontation, hence its recent direction of propaganda towards Walthamstow's Muslim population. This, unfortunately, is one story that you will not see covered in mainstream reporting of the EDL protest in Walthamstow this Saturday.

UPDATE: Click here for demo coverage.

Welcome to Walthamstow: 'friends' of the revolutionary socialist Left

EDL Chelmsford Demo

Members of the EDL have been demonstrating in Chelmsford today. The demo is said to have been occasioned by the granting of permission to rebuild a mosque in the city named the Shia Ithna Asheri Jamaat. According to Chelmsford Weekly News, an earlier EDL protest on 21^st July resulted in three of the 30 protesters being arrested “on suspicion of committing a racially aggravated public order offence” and bailed until 9^th September.

Like clockwork, the announcement that the EDL were to protest today spawned a decision by the local TUC to stage a counter-protest under the UAF banner. Looking at the list of signatories endorsing the protest against the EDL, it is interesting to see not only the usual suspects such as local members of the Labour Party and leading trades unionists, but also UKIP! How strange for UKIP to align themselves with a Trotskyist front group! The city’s Conservative MP Simon Burns also backed the UAF protest.

The weather in Chelmsford, as in many parts of the country today, looks to have been fine and hot as can be seen from the videos of the EDL and UAF marchers below, and unlike in Bristol last month, it seems that there has been no trouble in the city today which must be a matter of relief for all concerned. A tweet from the EDL Support Group made at about 1pm claimed that local people were clapping the EDL. According to the Casuals United blog several hundred EDL supporters had turned up, outnumbering their opposing numbers characterised as “30 grannies, union types and scruffy hippies”. However, the second of the videos below would seem to indicate that this is a considerable underestimate of the latter. As for the EDL themselves, numbers are hard to estimate owing to not all of the protest being pictured in the frame, but it looks to be a few dozen strong, perhaps a hundred or a little over.

As the demo coincided with the V Festival today, this unsurprisingly seemed to attract more interest from the locals. Both the EDL protest and the counter-demonstration finished at around 3pm. Essex Police were happy to report that owing to their successful liaison with organisers of both protests there had been "minimal disruption to normal weekend activities in the centre of Chelmsford." An interesting eyewitness report from Chelmsford can be read on Hidden British News. A different account, more sympathetic to UAF but with some good pictures, has been produced by photographer Peter Marshall, who estimates that there were approximately 80 EDL and 200 UAF/Chelmsford Against Fascism present. He also reveals that Weyman Bennett, a man previously arrested for conspiracy to commit violent disorder at an anti-EDL demo in Bolton in 2010, led the UAF protest.

Postscript
Casuals United reports that a contingent of EDL turned up in Totnes today of all places. Why? That's hard to say. Reports of hummus in local cafés thought to relate to Hamas perhaps? Still, it's a nice place to sup a pint on a summer's day. Some EDL also paid a visit to Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire's equivalent of Totnes.

EDL in Chelmsford

Chelmsford UAF

EDL Bristol Bill? Shouldn't that be 'We are Bristol' Bill?

The manner in which reporting of the EDL is systematically skewed by the mainstream media was revealed once again in this week in Bristol's online news source Bristol 24/7 which ran with the headline "EDL in Bristol: £495k bill revealed for police operation." As regular readers of this blog well know, there are almost invariably two sets of protesters present at any EDL demo, with self-styled 'anti-fascists', usually under the UAF banner or under another Socialist Workers Party front group with a title beginning "We are . . .", in this case "We are Bristol", attempting to violently confront the EDL. The statistics relating to arrests since the EDL's inception speak for themselves, for the numbers of anti-EDL protesters arrested greatly outnumber those from the EDL side. However, perhaps I should rephrase that, for the statistics are not permitted to "speak for themselves", but are instead compelled to speak through the mouth of the mass media which once again does a fine job of deliberately misrepresenting them to create the desired, and totally false, impression. How is this done? Take a look below at the manner in which Bristol 24/7 reported the Bristol arrests:

There were just 16 arrests on the day: for offences of going equipped, going equipped for damage, found on enclosed premises, affray, racially aggravated section 5 public order, Breach of Sec 60 Refused to remove face covering, assault police (x2), violent disorder (x2), section 3 public order (x2), drunk and disorderly (x2), theft and common assault.

What strikes the reader immediately is that an article that adopts a critical stance and hostile tone towards the EDL does not mention the identities of those who were arrested, conveying the impression that they were EDL protesters and that the crimes enumerated were committed by the EDL. However, within 24 hours of the demo, when a total of 14 arrests were reported as having been made, it was said that only two of these were from the EDL side, the rest being drawn from the ranks of the counter-demonstrators, particularly from members of the violent 'Antifa' anarchist contingent who set fire to the content of wheelie bins and attacked the police.

If you are a reader of Bristol 24/7, can you honestly say, taking the above into consideration, that you can trust its reporting as being factual and impartial? Could it not equally have run with the headline "We are Bristol: £495k bill revealed for police operation"? Clearly, it should have employed a headline less partisan in orientation.

  

 

'Antifa' Violence erupts in Bristol

In an earlier article outlining the background to the opposition campaign to today's EDL protest in Bristol, it was shown that elements of the anarchist and Trotskyist fringe were intent upon whipping up an atmosphere of hatred in Bristol today and instigating violence. Tweets from This is Bristol's Emily Koch suggest that at the time of writing the police were still seeking to contain violence seemingly emanating from the self-styled 'anti-fascist' opponents of the EDL.

Avon and Somerset Police did their best today to keep the EDL and anti-EDL protesters apart, but the latter appear to have violated the instruction not to assemble at 'The Fountains', resulting in the arrest of previously convicted violent anti-democratic agitator Martin Smith of UAF.

As of 16:10, Temple Way was blocked, and police had closed the Temple Circus Gyratory and groups of protesters were running down Victoria Street. Wheelie bins had been overturned and their contents set alight in the street by 'antifa' elements. Earlier, supporters of Trotyskyist front groups UAF and 'We are Bristol' had traded insults with the EDL, with the two sides throwing stones at each other. Although EDL supporters had been boarding their coaches to return home since 15:30, significant elements within the 'antifa' appear to have been intent upon violent confrontation and sought to prevent EDL coaches from leaving the city. The stone-throwing led to the deployment of riot police in Redcliffe at around 15:45. Once the evening had arrived, a small number of EDL remained in the city drinking, and came under attack as described below:

Ricky Howell it went right off in old market a hour ago, everyone outside long bar got attacked by a load of scruffy fuckers with bricks, bottles and lumps of wood...... loads of edl just stayed in the pub and watched while a hand full of us fought with them and just about held our own!!!!!! not on we should of all stood together, some people got all the gob but no bottle when the shit hits the fan..... you know who you are!! 18 hours ago · 2

It is the anarchist contingent within the anti-EDL coalition that had been most intent upon violence, and which was unwilling to move the location of the counter-protest to the place specified by the police. At this stage, it still has not been revealed who issued the death threats against two members of the EDL in advance of today's protest, which resulted in the issuing of Osman warnings this week, so the threat could have emanated from an element within the violent 'antifa' fringe, rather than from Islamists. Although thankfully there have been no deaths today, there have been a number of injuries. The video below shows mounted police dispersing 'antifa' demonstrators. Such tactics were not required against the EDL. All in all 11 arrests, including Martin Smith of UAF, were made.

The mass media's systematic distortion and manipulation of public perception of the EDL is encapsulated perfectly in The Guardian's report on the Bristol demo from which the following extract is taken:

Riot police made the arrests as up to 300 English Defence League (EDL) demonstrators marched through the city. Some of the demonstrators threw objects and wheelie bins were set on fire.

What impression is conveyed by these two sentences? Who does it imply committed these acts? EDL demonstrators, or their opponents? In all, the BBC reports that 14 arrests were made, but as is standard in reporting on the EDL, no reference was made to who had been arrested, with the implication being that the majority, if not all of those arrested, were EDL supporters. Why did it not mention that Martin Smith of UAF was the first to be arrested? Given his high profile in UAF, surely this was worthy of comment? One claim has circulated that only two of the 14 arrested hailed from the EDL, with the remainder coming from the ranks of their opponents, which given the violence of the latter, seems credible. This claim will either be corroborated or proven false when the identities of those arrested are released, but the experience of previous demonstrations indicates that the bulk of those arrested are likely to be counter-demonstrators.

Further information relating to the essentially peaceful conduct of the EDL demonstrators, in contrast to the unprovoked violent attack upon the police by the self-styled 'anti-fascists', was published in a report by This is Bristol on Monday 16 July. This underscores the point that it is not the EDL - the so-called 'far-right' - that constitute a threat to our liberties and freedom of expression, but the Trotskyist and anarchist hard Left who do not believe in pluralism, and who are eager to resort to violence to close down debate. People need to understand that behind the words calling for alleged 'tolerance' and 'respect' employed by the hard Left, there lurks a nasty and violent totalitarian impulse, and you don't have to scratch too hard for it to reveal itself.

Are anarchists 'green'? Not when it comes to wheelie bins

EDL Bristol Demo 14 July 2012: Live Coverage

Today’s EDL demo in Bristol has generated a great deal of advance publicity, almost all of it negative given the wide variety of the protest movement’s opponents, and the backing that the latter receive from the mass media, owing to NUJ diktat that makes it obligatory for journalists to report the EDL in a negative light. Whereas the EDL declares itself to oppose Islamist terror, Islamism and Islamisation, its detractors assert that these declared aims are based upon a paranoiac mindset lacking a solid basis in contemporary reality, and are little more than a pretext for giving vent to a form of crude ‘racism’. Recent events however, should help the reader to disentangle claim from counterclaim, and to identify which of the perspectives is more rooted in reality.

This week, two members of the EDL involved in the planning of the Bristol demo have been issued with Osman warnings by Avon and Somerset Police, which means that intelligence has been received relating to credible death threats against them, but the police do not have sufficient evidence to arrest the suspect(s). The background of those who have issued the threats is unclear, but taking into account the violent language and imagery employed by some of the EDL’s Trotskyist and anarchist (the self-styled ‘anti-fascist’) opponents, they rather than Islamists could well be the source. Besides these threats, there have been the recent arrests of six Muslim suspects relating to the alleged Dewsbury Bomb Plot, the object of which was said to be the EDL’s last demonstration in that town on Saturday 30 June. Clearly therefore, for all the mass media’s talk of the EDL being ‘hatemongers’ and violent yobs, these death threats and this intercepted bomb plot highlight a rather different reality, and underscore the validity of the EDL’s stance.

Avon and Somerset Police have taken the rational decision of ensuring that the counter-protest mounted by Trotskyist front group 'We are Bristol' will now be held in a different location and at a different time to the EDL demo, presumably having taken into account the experience of previous such protests when the violent intent and proclivities of many of the counter-demonstrators led to attacks upon the police as well as upon the EDL. 'We are Bristol' will now have to assemble in Castle Park instead. Unsurprisingly, now that the police have wisely removed their opportunity to seek violent confrontation, 'We are Bristol' yesterday released a disgruntled press statement voicing their dissatisfaction with this decision.

It is noteworthy that a statement was yesterday issued by Zaheer Shabir on behalf of Bristol's 'Muslim community' in which he made it clear that despite their dislike of the EDL they did not support the call for a ban on the EDL march and wished to have no involvement with the coounter-protest. Interestingly, he also reveals that he and others had met with both the EDL and UAF/We are Bristol, and that whereas contact with the EDL had opened up "a pathway for further dialogue", the meeting with the latter was not judged to be so constructive:

We . . . [requested] them not to confuse and entice Muslim youth to join their counter protest. They have not proactively engaged with the Muslim community leadership so we are not assured on any matters whatsoever.

At the last couple of EDL demos there has been a notable absence of Muslim counter-protesters, and the number of self-styled 'anti-fascists' has been small. Clearly, Muslims in general have awoken to the fact that the Trotskyist Left has been attempting to manipulate them for their own 'revolutionary' political ends, and have decided that they are no longer going to be duped.

The question that many will be asking today, is what impact will these recent revelations have upon turnout at the EDL’s Bristol demo? Will they serve to galvanise its supporters and increase their numbers, or to deter people from attending? The answer will become apparent as the day progresses, and will unfold below as news becomes available, drawn from a variety of sources including both pro- and anti-EDL sites and comments, as well as official releases by the Avon and Somerset Police. Please return for ‘live’ updates throughout the day. It is likely that the first available video footage will be posted by early evening. 

Updates
Despite the police moving the counter-demonstration to Castle Park, according to a tweet it appears that at least some within the anarchist contingent of 'We are Bristol' are intent upon meeting at 'The Fountains' in Bristol City Centre at 11.00am. 

As the EDL demo is not due to start until 1.00pm and the opposition officially-sanctioned protest started at 11.00am, it is not yet (as of 12.07) clear as to the likely turnout for the EDL. According to some of their opponents, the estimates of the total number of counter-protesters varies wildly, being 30, 150 or 300 according to your taste. As with all demos, it is safe to discount the highest figure given that it is not from a neutral source.

This is Bristol reports that circa 250 counter-demonstrators had gathered in the centre of Bristol, and that a number of them appeared to be heading off to Redcliffe Bridge in an effort to block the EDL march.One tweet reports that Martin Smith of UAF has been arrested.The counter-protesters are claiming some rather high figures for their demo - up to 2,000 people - whilst asserting that the EDL turnout has been very low. As yet, there are no neutral or sympathetic sources providing estimates of the number of EDL supporters, with one hostile tweet claiming that there were 150. From the first of the pictures below, EDL numbers are not currently looking healthy. As of 12:56, one tweet stated that the EDL were claiming that 500 supporters had turned up, whereas in the opinion of the tweeter, the figure was closer to 300. This is Bristol opts for a figure of 500, BBC Points West for 250. If this does prove to be the case, the size of the demo appears to be very much in line with that witnessed in Dewsbury a fortnight ago. Posters welcoming the EDL to Bristol are said to have been seen going up in the city centre.

By 3.30 the protesters were boarding their coaches to head home. However, at 3.35 Emily Koch of This is Bristol posted a tweet stating that rival protesters were not only yelling abuse at each other, but also throwing rocks. A very ugly scene indeed. Riot police had been deployed in Redcliffe by 3.48. A tweet posted at 4.03 claimed that UAF protesters had blocked routes in Bristol in an attempt to stop EDL coaches from leaving the city. It seems that some 'antifa' protesters have clashed with police, upturned wheelie bins and set light to rubbish in the road. More on the unrest can be accessed here.  

Avon and Somerset Police issued a statement in which they expressed satisfaction that the majority of demonstrators "were well behaved, in good spirits and caused no problems to the local community." According to their estimates, the EDL attracted some 300 protesters, whereas the counter-protest numbered approximately 500.


A video of the EDL march can be seen here.

EDL Protesters gather in a dank car park near St Mary Redcliffe

SWP-directed counter-demonstration: 2,000 people?

Dewsbury Bomb Plot?

Normally, the fact that a significant swathe of the resident Pakistani population evades car insurance rankles with me, given that this results in the rest of us having to pay higher premiums. However, today this selfish and anti-social practice has proven to be a blessing in disguise, for according to articles in today’s editions of the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror, a chance traffic check that led to a car being impounded because the driver was not insured, could have saved Dewsbury, or possibly somewhere else, from an Islamist terror attack.

The car was stopped and impounded as it was heading southbound on the M1 between Junctions 34 and 33 last Saturday near Sheffield’s Meadowhall Shopping Centre. The driver and his passenger were released, and the incriminating contents of the car are not said to have been discovered until last Monday, when someone in the pound raised the alarm regarding something suspicious in the car. Without this alarm, the improvised explosive device (IED), two firearms, ammunition and anti-British leaflets would not have been discovered. The leaflets, claims the Mirror, made specific negative references to ‘the EDL, David Cameron and the Queen.’

It was this discovery that precipitated this week’s second national police swoop to arrest Islamist militants, with three men from Sparkhill in Birmingham being seized on Tuesday, and three others from Moseley, Alum Rock and Sandwell on Wednesday. A seventh man, from Dewsbury, was arrested on Thursday. With such a gap between the seizure of the car and the arrests, the Telegraph notes that this meant that:

the suspects were at large for three days after the police had seized the vehicle, which could have allowed time to destroy or hide other weapons or incriminating evidence.

Evidently, the suspects and their accomplices will have done their best to cover their tracks during the intervening period, which could unfortunately hinder the prosecution of all involved, and potentially mask the identities of other individuals linked to the plot.

A 'notorious far-right group' and a 'wonderful family' man: a view from a distorting mirror
It is striking that the Daily Mirror chose to open its story on this foiled plot with a sentence that sought to blacken the name of the bombers’ potential target rather than the bombers themselves:

One theory is the occupants were planning to bomb a march by the notorious far-right group taking place just hours later.

Later in the article the EDL is described as ‘the notorious anti-Islamic group’. Note how this stigmatising linguistic usage contrasts to the Mirror’s attempt to normalise and humanise the Dewsbury terror suspect, whom it described as a:

dad-of-three [who had] set up a boxing club in 2009 to get youngsters off the streets. One neighbour said: “They are a wonderful family and this must be one huge mistake.”

How very interesting to see another member of this ethno-confessional ‘community’ not condemning the fact that this man was plotting terroristic violence, and instead describing his actions as “one huge mistake”. Why did the interviewee regard it as a “huge mistake”? Because he had been caught, rather than being able to see through whatever act of mass murder and maiming he was planning?

In the Telegraph the reader encounters yet more apologia for one of the terror suspects arrested in Sparkhill: 

We’ve grown up with them. They’re all lovely. They’re fine. They had a bit of a family issue with the mum and the dad separating, but there’s never been any problem with them as neighbours. They’ve never given any impression of being radicalised. They’re British Pakistanis. We’ve known them since they were babies and they’ve always seemed pretty westernised.

The Dewsbury terror suspect was part of a “wonderful family” and his alleged Sparkhill accomplice was “lovely” and “fine”. Such descriptions could seem to express a deep-rooted unwillingness on the part of Pakistani British residents to condemn Islamism and Islamist-related violence, which may ultimately rest upon the fact that they share and approve of the goals of violent Islamists: the Islamisation of Britain. Although not perhaps willing to use violence to achieve this themselves, are they particularly bothered when others do so in their name? The evidence would seem to suggest not. 

Bomb, Assassination or 'Mumbai-style attack'?
According to the Telegraph, a number of the suspects were already known to MI5, and the seizure of materials ‘raised the suspicion that a group were planning an assassination attempt or a Mumbai-style shooting atrocity that day or imminently.’ Dewsbury of course lies to the north of Sheffield, so it is odd that the men were stopped as they were travelling south on the day of the EDL march in Dewsbury if they were attempting to attack it. Perhaps they were on their way to pick up co-conspirators? Then again, their intended target may have been something else altogether.

Over at the Casuals United blog which supports the EDL and other ‘infidel’ groups across the UK, two of its contributors speculate that there is something fishy about this alleged plot. Both of the posts below take a conspiratorial stance, although each with a distinct slant:

7 07 2012

We are supposed to believe that police pulled over a car that had no insurance and they impounded it. We are supposed to believe that there were guns and a bomb in the car, but police let the men go and didn’t bother searching the car till the next day? We all know that this would never happen. Police stop you for something like that, they always search your car. If it does turn out to be true then it validates everything we[’]ve said about this country being full of dangerous scum who need to be deported in large numbers.

This story stinks and I reckon its been manufacture[d] to cause fear and put people off going to EDL demos. What do you think? If they ever did bomb a demo Britain would turn into Northern Ireland overnight and that is a fact.

NFSE

Suzy

7 07 2012

Someone[‘]s just pointed out that its funny that at the last two demos there have been no Muslims on the streets at all, no gangs of Jihadis and bad boys as there usually are, and they catch a car full of them supposedly on their way to plant a bomb at our demo. Prior warning via the Mosques? Makes you wonder.

Zoe

The strange death of Muslim 'anti-fascism'
It is true that the so-called ‘anti-fascist’ counter-demo in Dewsbury attracted startlingly low numbers of supporters despite heavy backing and publicity, and there was a notable absence of local Muslims amongst the small crowd that turned out. Hitherto, the SWP-dominated ‘Unite Against Fascism’ and its various Trotskyist-led front groups have found ‘anti-fascist’ mobilisation against the EDL useful from their perspective, drawing in hot-headed young Muslims as an aggressive shock-force, designed both to intimidate and to manufacture the perception in the national media that there exists a genuine ‘fascist threat’ in this country, which is just grist to their mill of Marxist revolutionary radicalisation. However, it seems that many Muslims have cottoned on to the opportunistic nature of the Trotskyist far-left and the fact that they have been used as a catspaw to further a Marxist agenda with which they fundamentally disagree. Moreover, highly politicised groups with a specifically Muslim identity have emerged that appear to have been attracting many younger Muslims who might previously have been siphoned off into the ranks of the SWP and other leftist organisations. Thus, the absence of Muslim ‘anti-fascist’ mobilisation at the last couple of EDL demos could be more indicative of both of these trends, than of any ‘warning’ from mosques to stay away because of potential violence.

Seven years ago today 58 people died in London in the 7/7 bombings and hundreds were maimed and mentally scarred. These latest arrests, together with the London arrests on Thursday, illustrate the ever-present threat of violent Islamism within our shores. We must remain vigilant and ensure that all forms of Islamism are rooted out of our country, and its proponents removed.  

7/7 Mass Murder Victims

EDL Bristol Demo 14 July 2012: the Background

Bristol, to the best of my knowledge, has not previously hosted an EDL demonstration. In years gone by, the idea that Bristol would come to host a large Muslim population was unthinkable, but today that situation has sadly changed. In Totterdown a mosque has appeared, its minaret dominating the local skyline like a missile aimed at the heart of the city. The largest resident Muslim population is Somali. Estimates that have frequently appeared in the media claim that the Somalis could number some 30,000, whereas a Bristol City Council document published in November 2010 was of the opinion that the range was more likely to be between 6,600 and 10,000. Whichever figure is selected, it is too high a number. What benefit accrues from their presence in Bristol? Why are they there, rather than in Somalia? If current trends continue, the Somali share of the population will grow rapidly, for in 2009 it was reported that 3.8% of Bristol schoolchildren were Somali, or one out of every 25. In 2001, the equivalent figure was only one in every 500. This growth has been fed both by immigration and high Somali fertility.

Totterdown Mosque (courtesy of Nicksarebi)

It comes as a surprise that there is a Council of Bristol Mosques, to which five mosques are affiliated, which nonetheless seems rather modest given estimated Muslim numbers. The first data from the 2011 Census will not be published until 16 July, but strangely, this will not contain any information on religion or ethnicity. It is therefore difficult to provide an accurate estimate of the size of Bristol's resident Muslim population, but one site propagandising Islam with the assistance of the BBC, using public funds provided by the local authority and Government Office South West, claims that there are 35,000 Muslims in the city. For those of us who knew Bristol 20 or 30 years ago, the emergence of such a population is staggering, as it has seemingly sprung out of nowhere.

What is the protest about?

Whereas elsewhere the EDL has generally used specific events that have occurred within a given locality as grounds for a demonstration, this does not seem to be the case in Bristol. The EDL explain their decision to hold a protest in the city on 14 July 2012 as follows:

The EDL are going to Bristol.  We are going to Bristol because we wish to draw public attention to Islamic grooming, the refusal of Muslims to integrate into British society and the increasing attacks by Muslims on non-Muslim Britons.

We are coming to Bristol to raise awareness of these problems and to call for a unified country under one democratic government, one law and one society grounded in British culture and traditions.

We want to call attention to the creeping Islamisation of Britain, with the increased use of halal meat whether non-Muslims want it or not.

We want to make people aware that our way of life and our culture are under threat from people who don’t care for our culture, country or humanity. They don’t care for our religions, politics, way of life, culture or traditions. They want to recreate 7th Century Arabia in Britain and they will lie, subvert and even kill to do it.

Given the experience of many other English towns and cities, as well as the general process of demographic Islamisation unfolding across the country, drawing attention to what has happened elsewhere and this general phenomenon could be adjudged to be worthwhile. However, it would perhaps be more effective were the EDL to highlight the deficits of multiculturalism and immigration policy, for without multiculturalist policies combined with mass immigration there would be no problem with Islamisation in this country, because the conditions that allow it would be removed at a stroke. Certainly, Stephen Lennon’s own statements regarding multiculturalism have been unclear, for on a number of occasions he has described the EDL as “multicultural”, whilst at other times criticising “multiculturalism”. It seems that he sometimes conflates “multiculturalism” and “multiracialism”, for the EDL is certainly multiracial, although predominantly English. The two are related, yet distinct.

The EDL's Opponents in Bristol

Although the EDL gives expression to many of the general public’s officially repressed suspicions and concerns relating to Islamic issues in England today, the EDL has no friends in high places, and has to confront three primary sources of opposition emanating from: 1) mainstream politicians and the mass media; 2) the self-styled ‘anti-fascist’ movement encompassing the trades unions and a range of far-left fringe groups and campaigns: UAF, Hope Not Hate, Searchlight, Love Music Hate Racism, various ‘unity’ front groups for the SWP and sundry independent anarchist groups; 3) Islamists and the wider Muslim population. All three forms of opposition intersect, with each attempting to make parasitic political capital out of the EDL. None of the EDL’s opponents are interested in portraying what the EDL really is, and the ‘anti-fascist’ propagandists of the second group enjoy the uncritical attention of the media. All however are united in their mutually profitable desire to manufacture the sense of a ‘far-right’ threat, whilst ignoring and facilitating the spread of the real ultra-reactionary ‘far-right’ in the form of Islamism.

Returning to the specifics of the Bristol demo on 14 July, the opposition from the first group enumerated has already been not-so-subtly voiced by the BBC, which stated in a story run on 14 June:

A security operation costing up to £1m and involving 700 police officers is being organised ahead of an English Defence League (EDL) march in Bristol.

Why did it open this story referring to the cost of the demo? How many BBC reports about forthcoming demonstrations, involving trades unions for example, are prefaced with such information, particularly citing such large figures? Although the article makes reference to the counterdemonstrators who oppose the EDL, it does not make clear that police concerns over public disorder arise largely from likely attempts by the Trotskyist SWP and anarchist-related self-styled ‘antifascist’ groups to provoke a violent clash with the EDL. Why did it choose to omit this information? Of course, there have been violent incidents at previous EDL demonstrations involving their supporters, and these cannot be justified, but a far larger number of their opponents have been arrested for public disorder and assault. Although the BBC did on this occasion refrain from describing the EDL as ‘far-right’ (a very rare honour for the broadcaster to withhold this slur), its reporting of the forthcoming march has in no way been balanced.

However, in the video below taken from an episode of the BBC’s Sunday Politics West, the EDL is repeatedly described as ‘far-right’, although the additional policing costs are cited as £500,000 rather than the £1 million stated on the website.

The opposition of the second group, which can be subsumed under the heading of ‘antifascists’, has manifested itself in a number of ways. An online petition has been set up, calling for the EDL demo to be banned. As of the evening of 25 June, this had attracted 1,970 signatures. The SWP-dominated UAF has also set up a front campaign named We are Bristol which is supported by leading members of a number of trades unions including: the CWU, FBU, NUJ, NUT, PCS, RMT and Unison. Other supporting bodies include the Bristol Labour Party; Bristol Anarchist Federation, Bristol Antifascists and Bristol Queercafe. Representatives from this SWP front group met on 11 June to discuss tactics for opposing the EDL’s demonstration. In support of this, they have produced various pieces of inflammatory campaign literature that I have reproduced below to give the reader a flavour of the far-from-peaceful mindset of these so-called ‘antifascists’.

The first below displays a very ugly and angry figure wielding a baton of some sort, smashing a swastika which presumably is supposed to represent the EDL. Hardly, you would think, an image produced to encourage peaceful counter-protest. The second image once again employs the hackneyed and inappropriate image of a swastika, this time being smashed by a rather beefy fist. Peaceful? If you believe that black is white and that white is black then I suppose you could construe it as ‘peaceful’, yes. Unintentionally amusing? Well, perhaps, given that it states “This is a no go area for all fascists, racists, sexists and homophobes”. In that case, why do they wish to demonstrate against the EDL? Surely their statement is far more applicable to Islamists? Still, there’s no reasoning to be had with these antifa types. The last two images below are of an antifa leaflet produced in the city. Although not as crude in style as the first two, they contain misinformation and the absurd insinuation that the EDL is some sort of “street army” being used by big business to distract the public’s attention from the evils of the capitalist crash. Utterly fantastical, there is about as much substance to these antifa allegations as there is to David Icke’s humanoid lizard conspiracy theory. 

UPDATE 9 July: The SWP front group 'We are Bristol' has been very successful in spreading its message, as although the city's council leader - Simon Cook - has declined to participate in the anti-EDL demonstration, he has stated: "We have made absolutely clear that we do not agree with their extremist views and do not want them in Bristol." However, unlike the SWP and UAF he added: "They are not a proscribed organisation and have a right to march." The 'This is Bristol' website which ran the story once again quoted the alleged £500,000 price tag for policing the EDL demo. Cook's even-handed position has upset both Islamophobia Watch and MPACUK.

Bristol's Antifa Propaganda Gallery

Spiteful attempt to blight the prospects of a young band: Tennysons made to recant

Starting up a band and securing gigs on the circuit can be a tough business, and many obstacles present themselves to aspirant musicians without the interposition of individuals or groups of people who take a perverse delight in stymieing creativity in the name of cant of one form or another. A young indie group from Leicester named The Tennysons appears to have fallen foul of the self-appointed ‘moral’ guardians of our post-national era – UAF – specifically its Leicester branch, for its scowling arbiters of what may and may not be said or thought have pronounced an anathema upon the group, designating it as possessing dubious and implicitly ‘racist’ sympathies. Why? Quite simply because one of the group’s members once attended an EDL event some 16 months ago. For the UAF inquisitors of course, this constitutes grounds enough to damn someone for eternity.

The band has not been accused of employing ‘racist’ lyrics; no members of the band have been accused of making ‘racist’ statements either verbally or in print, and yet members of Leicester UAF have taken it upon themselves to try and humiliate members of this band and force them to make a public recantation of any sympathies with the EDL or the latter’s position. In order to do so, Leicester UAF have not employed reason, but a dirty underhand campaign, alleging that its members are ‘racist’ and spreading rumours around Leicester’s music scene thereby ensuring that venues have cancelled Tennysons gigs and thereby threatening to ruin the band. The Leicester Mercury states that ‘A number of the band's shows have been cancelled in the past few weeks as venues became aware of the allegations against the band.’ Moreover, it quoted Joel Lavender of the Soundhouse as saying "All of the venues are pulling them from their bills because of these allegations.”

Quite clearly, the members of Leicester UAF have some explaining to do and some apologies to issue. By making defamatory allegations about The Tennysons, they have after all inflicted significant damage upon the band, and the latter would be justified in seeking financial redress for the snide and baseless insinuations of Leicester UAF, whose spokesman Tom Mycroft told the Leicester Mercury: 

"Everyone is entitled to make mistakes when they're young and they have made a statement against the EDL. I hope they are sincere about it."

Mycroft’s statement suggests that he is no longer of such tender years, and given this fact, he must know that the tactics that he and his confederates have employed against this young band were dirty and underhand. The manner in which members of Leicester UAF have behaved has proven to be far more revealing about them than the targets of their smear campaign, for the former have displayed a totalitarian mindset that is willing to brook no dissent, and to crush any who seek to display a different perspective or take on social questions. What this story proves beyond any doubt is that Leicester UAF does not support the concept of a free and open society where we may enjoy the right of free speech and artistic expression, whereas it proves nothing about the moral integrity of The Tennysons or any one of their members. Evidently, UAF will not approve of Tennysons song titles such as ‘England belongs to me’ as all members of the band are English. For UAF to give its approval to such a song, those singing it would have to be non-indigenous, preferably of non-European and Muslim stock.

Malign Gnomes spotted in Hyde

Whilst the EDL held their protest in Hyde yesterday, creatures resembling bad-tempered overgrown garden gnomes were spotted brandishing posters juxtaposing images of Anders Breivik and Tommy Robinson. It is possible that they had mistaken Robinson for a mass murderer from Norway because UAF told them that the two men were essentially the same and, of course, they’re both white and thus easily confused. We do all look the same you know. If it weren’t for the redbrick buildings in the photograph below, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were looking at a picture taken in Lahore, but this was not the case, despite the fact that the men depicted do believe that they live in a territorial extension of Bangladesh, or possibly Pakistan. 

A handful of UAF activists turned up yesterday to distribute misleading propaganda to Muslims in Hyde before promptly departing. Their presence after all, was not required, for it is stated that some 800 “local people” (i.e. ex-residents of the Indian subcontinent and their descendents, so perhaps “local” is not the most appropriate of terms) “turned out to protect the local mosque in Hyde”. Protect it from what? The EDL don’t target mosques and had no intention of going near it, so were not UAF activists guilty of creating an unwarranted climate of fear amongst the Muslim residents of Hyde?

Meanwhile, in London UAF held their annual conference to fulminate against the “fascists” of the EDL and BFP. It was such a dull affair that one of their delegates was moved to write:

So bored was I during some of the eight speakers who addressed us for almost two hours in the opening plenary that I counted the number of people in the hall several times. Including people outside and in the balcony it came to about 250 on a generous count, so let’s say 350 during the day – smaller than previous years and remarkably few for the conference of a campaign backed handsomely by all the major unions. (According to NUT Deputy General Secretary Kevin Courtney, the NUT alone gave UAF £55,000 this year!) Of these perhaps twenty were members of Socialist Action and a hundred members of the SWP - the two left groups which in reality dominate the leadership of the campaign.

How very revealing. For all of its funding, official backing and media opportunities, UAF even bores its own delegates and appears to be losing momentum. The above report also provides confirmation of the SWP’s hold over UAF. Perhaps someone should notify Chris Grayling?

Returning to matters of a more positive nature, take a look at the two following speeches made by EDL supporters yesterday. The first, from a local lad named Jamie, and the second from Tony Curtis (naturally, not his deceased namesake).