EDL march - Bolton 20th March 2010

[spindrift]

Support rose?

 

 

No. The bnp share of the vote fell. Sorry if this disappoints you.

[chem1st]

No. The bnp share of the vote fell. Sorry if this disappoints you.

 

Please provide proof or retract your claim.

[melthebell]

MPs expressed concern tonight after it emerged that far-right activists are planning to step up their provocative street campaign by targeting some of the UK's highest-profile Muslim communities, raising fears of widespread unrest this summer.

 

Undercover footage shot by the Guardian reveals the English Defence League, which has staged a number of violent protests in towns and cities across the country this year, is planning to "hit" Bradford and the London borough of Tower Hamlets as it intensifies its street protests.

 

Senior figures in the coalition government were briefed on the threat posed by EDL marches this week. Tomorrow up to 2,000 EDL supporters are expected to descend on Newcastle for its latest protest.

 

MPs said the group's decision to target some of the UK's most prominent Muslim communities was a blatant attempt to provoke mayhem and disorder. "This group has no positive agenda," said the Bradford South MP, Gerry Sutcliffe. "It is an agenda of hate that is designed to divide people and communities. We support legitimate protest but this is not legitimate, it is designed to stir up trouble. The people of Bradford will want no part of it."

 

The English Defence League, which started in Luton last year, has become the most significant far-right street movement in the UK since the National Front in the 1970s. A Guardian investigation has identified a number of known rightwing extremists who are taking an interest in the movement – from convicted football hooligans to members of violent rightwing splinter groups.

 

Thousands of people have attended its protests – many of which have descended into violence and racist and Islamophobic chanting. Supporters are split into "divisions" spread across the UK and as many as 3,000 people are attracted to its protests.

 

The group also appears to be drawing support from the armed forces. Its online armed forces division has 842 members and the EDL says many serving soldiers have attended its demonstrations. A spokeswoman for the EDL, whose husband is a serving soldier, said: "The soldiers are fighting Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and Iraq and the EDL are fighting it here … Not all the armed forces support the English Defence League but a majority do."

 

Following the British National party's poor showing in this month's local and national elections anti-racist campaigners say some far-right activists may be turning away from the ballot box and returning to violent street demonstrations for the first time in three decades.

 

Nick Lowles, from Searchlight, said: "What we are seeing now is the most serious, most dangerous, political phenomenon that we have had in Britain for a number of years. With EDL protests that are growing week in, week out there is a chance for major disorder and a major political shift to the right in this country."

 

In undercover footage shot by Guardian Films, EDL spokesman Guramit Singh says its Bradford demonstration "will be huge". He adds: "The problem with Bradford is the security threat, it is a highly populated Muslim area. They are very militant as well. Bradford is a place that has got to be hit."

 

Singh, who was speaking during an EDL demonstration in Dudley in April, said the organisation would also be targeting Tower Hamlets.

 

A spokesman for the EDL confirmed it would hold a demonstration in Bradford on 28 August because the city was "on course to be one of the first places to become a no-go area for non-Muslims". The EDL has already announced demonstrations in Cardiff and Dudley.

 

The former Home Office minister Phil Woolas said: "This is a deliberate attempt by the EDL at division and provocation, to try and push young Muslims into the hands of extremists, in order to perpetuate the divide. It is dangerous."

 

The EDL claims it is a peaceful and non-racist organisation only concerned with protesting against "militant Islam". However, over the last four months the Guardian has attended its demonstrations and witnessed racism, violence and virulent Islamophobia.

 

During the election campaign David Cameron described the EDL as "dreadful people" and said the organisation would "always be under review".

 

A spokesman for the Home Office said that although the government was committed to restoring the right to "non-violent protest … violence and intimidation are wholly unacceptable and the police have powers to deal with individuals who commit such acts. The government condemns those who seek to spread hatred."

 

He added: "Individual members of EDL – like all members of the public – are of course subject to the law, and all suspected criminal offences will be robustly investigated and dealt with by the police."

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/28/english-defence-league-guardian-investigation

 

indeed, utter toss that its all about radical islam, they just want to divide communities and cause a war on the streets

[spindrift]

Please provide proof or retract your claim.

 

Do you support the bnp?

 

What do you think of their idea to hand out free guns to the population?

 

If you compare the BNP votes from 2006 and today and the new seats, they all pretty much stood up or at best fell slightly.

 

 

 

In other words their support is stable or stagnating – and this despite the new money they’ve picked up from their European sinecures.

 

BNP voters come in two flavours: scum and idiots, which are you?

 

The Labour leadership is not composed of convicted criminals. Nor the Tory leadership, not the Liberal leadership, nor the Green leadership, nor for that matter the UKIP leadership.

 

Only the BNP leadership has a string of convictions for anything and everything.

 

A number of labour councillors have been convicted of sex offences.

 

But what happened to them afterwards?

 

Did they continue to hold office under the Labour whip?

 

No.

 

 

Do convicted Tories continue to hold positions of influence in their party once convicted of serios crimes?

 

No.

 

Not even the Liberals sink so low as to keep convicted criminals in places of party influence once convicted.

 

No - only the BNP does that.

 

 

One assumes that the typical BNP member has no regard for law, character, reputation or decency when voting for party officials.

 

No chemist, you'll vote for any old scum, providing he hates the people you like to hate.

[chem1st]

Do you support the bnp?

 

No, but I know many who do and I can understand why.

 

What do you think of their idea to hand out free guns to the population?

 

Only just heard of it, I doubt they would give me one anyhow, although it would be nice to own one again.

 

If you compare the BNP votes from 2006 and today and the new seats, they all pretty much stood up or at best fell slightly.

 

In other words their support is stable or stagnating – and this despite the new money they’ve picked up from their European sinecures.

 

I'd quite like you to give the links for this. In the general election, they had the largest percentage swing in favour after the Conservatives. Support increased in every part of South Yorkshire except Hallam.

 

BNP voters come in two flavours: scum and idiots, which are you?

Neither, I support the green party, and I don't have to resort to childish name calling like yourself after making unfounded allegations.

 

The Labour leadership is not composed of convicted criminals. Nor the Tory leadership, not the Liberal leadership, nor the Green leadership, nor for that matter the UKIP leadership.

 

Only the BNP leadership has a string of convictions for anything and everything.

 

A number of labour councillors have been convicted of sex offences.

 

But what happened to them afterwards?

 

Did they continue to hold office under the Labour whip?

 

No.

 

 

Do convicted Tories continue to hold positions of influence in their party once convicted of serios crimes?

 

No.

 

Not even the Liberals sink so low as to keep convicted criminals in places of party influence once convicted.

 

No - only the BNP does that.

 

 

One assumes that the typical BNP member has no regard for law, character, reputation or decency when voting for party officials.

 

No chemist, you'll vote for any old scum, providing he hates the people you like to hate.

 

I fail to see the relevance of any of that, I asked you, "Please provide proof or retract your claim.".

 

You've posted lies and made false allegations, then got abusive and done it again. Along with hosting a whole host of relevant information.

 

If you oppose the BNP, acknowledge the truth, figure out why people have turned to them, both by voting and protesting and try and work out a sensible strategy to reduce support.

 

Going off like an idiot only makes you look stupid. When you oppose them and look stupid by going of like an idiot, you do no favours for the anti bnp movement, by lying you do even more damage.

 

So once again I ask you, "Please provide proof or retract your claim."

[wednesday1]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8580205.stm

 

Of those arrested, 54 were affiliated to Unite Against Fascism and 17 were affiliated to the English Defence League, police said.

 

I thought EDL were supposed to be the violent thugs!

 

 

Have a look at the video clip in the Guardian article in Spindrift's post and tell me they aren't violent thugs.

[chem1st]

Have a look at the video clip in the Guardian article in Spindrift's post and tell me they aren't violent thugs.

 

Them and the UAF both, ruining town centre's for everyone. Much like football hooligans ruin matches for the majority of supporters.

 

Surely its better to let them meet up on waste ground and have the idiots fight it out between each other.

[wednesday1]

Them and the UAF both, ruining town centre's for everyone. Much like football hooligans ruin matches for the majority of supporters.

 

Surely its better to let them meet up on waste ground and have the idiots fight it out between each other.

 

 

Yes but the UAF only exist to counter scum like the EDL.

No BNP / EDL / NF = no need for UAF

[azazel666]

A 'demo against radical Islam' ? ... uh, is it just me or does anyone else think the extremists will still wanna blow stuff up, just as much, after this demo as they did before it?

 

Yeah that's true....but it is a march about them being within these shores and to send a message that they are not welcome in the United Kingdom.

[Amaranthus]

Yeah that's true....but it is a march about them being within these shores and to send a message that they are not welcome in the United Kingdom.

 

I don't think they'll all tuck their bombs up and run home because they aren't wanted here though, do you? I think they must know people don't like being blown up but they do it anyway. The only people these demo's affect are the innocent moderates. Man, people are dumb (not aimed at you ).