Landlord to lose licence over rally

A PUB landlord who “worked against”police as they tried to control a potentially volatile demonstration is to lose his licence.

Licensing chiefs said they would revoke the licence of Simon Kirkpatrick, landlord of the Stags Head in Deane, after he was found guilty yesterday of serving outside his licensing hours and knowingly breaching the conditions of his licensing agreement.

During the two-day trial, Bolton magistrates heard that Kirkpatrick, aged 39, of Buckley Lane, Farnworth, allowed up to 150 supporters of the English Defence League into the pub and served them alcohol before 11am on March 20.

Later, more than 50 police officers had to cordon off the pub and arrange for coaches to transport the EDL protesters into the town so they did not walk through Deane.

The court heard the protesters were chanting “racist” songs.

Kirkpatrick said the back door of the pub was open at 9am because the cleaner was sweeping up outside. He said a group came in and demanded to be served alcohol or they would smash up the pub.

Susan Tonks, chairman of the bench, said: “Although it is accepted this was uncomfortable, we do not believe that evasive action could not have been taken.

“The offence was not committed under duress so we find you guilty of two of the counts.”

Magistrates cleared him of knowingly allowing disorderly conduct to take place.

Kirkpatrick was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £350 costs.

After the hearing, he said: “I am disappointed but I accept what has happened, I will just have to live with it.”

Bolton licensing officer Natalie Dolan said: “With a criminal conviction for licensing offences he will be unable to continue as a licensee.”

Insp Phil Spurgeon added: “99 per cent of the licensees in Bolton were hugely co-operative. But Kirkpatrick completely worked against us

Bolton News

West Yorkshire BNP prove they are still clueless

It comes as no surprise to BNP watchers like myself that the BNP nationally are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.
Here in West Yorkshire they manage to sink just that little bit lower when it comes to stupidity.

Today Chris Beverley uploaded a story to the BNP website regarding his hometown of Morley.

As a ex councillor for the town, and being married to a Morley town councillor you would expect him to have some familiarity for the place.
Not so apparently. Beverley's story was a rather dull affair, attempting to "big up" his wife Joanna. According to hubby Chris, she has a 100 percent attendance record since being elected in 2007.

Lets hope Joanna has been visiting the correct town hall then.

As the photograph accompanying the story is one of Dewsbury Town Hall in the neighboring district of Kirklees 5 miles away !

No Nazis in the EDL then ?

Photo was taken at the recent EDL/ENA march in Brighton

This one was taken at the recent EDL protest in Bradford

Pub landlord ‘flouted terms of his licence’

A PUB landlord “flouted the terms of his licence” by allowing a group of up to 150 English Defence League activists to drink alcohol from 9am on the morning of their town centre protest, a court heard.

Between 100 and 150 of the group’s members and supporters gathered at the Stag’s Head pub in Junction Road ahead of their Victoria Square protest on March 20, Bolton magistrates’ heard.

The court was told, against the rules of his licence and despite being explicitly advised to the contrary by police two days earlier, landlord Simon Kirkpatrick opened early, served alcohol, allowed people to have glass bottles and had no security staff on the pub’s door.

Later that morning, more than 50 police officers had to cordon off the pub and arrange for coaches to transport the EDL protesters into town so they would not march through Deane, where many Asian families live.

The court heard the EDL supporters, many of whom were wearing masks, hoods and scarves, were chanting “racist” songs.

Inspector Phil Spurgeon said Kirkpatrick “had a smile as big as the proverbial Cheshire Cat” as he served the men before 11am, the time permitted by his licence.

He said: “We asked him why he had opened up early and he said that he thought he could.”

Kirkpatrick told the court the back door of the pub was open at 9am because the cleaner was sweeping up outside, which allowed a group of about 30 to 40 men to take him by surprise by entering the pub.

He claimed the men demanded he served them alcohol and threatened to smash up the pub if he did not.

Kirkpatrick, appearing at Bolton Magistrates’ Court, said: “I haven’t got a clue why they came to my pub.

“Initially, I didn’t know who they were or what they wanted, apart from a drink.

“I thought serving them was the only option I had without harming the people who were with me, the pub and myself.”

He also said the police had advised him to stay open to prevent a public order problem developing.

Kirkpatrick, aged 39, of Buckley Lane, Farnworth, denies selling alcohol outside of his licensing hours, knowingly allowing disorderly conduct to take place and knowingly breaching the conditions of his licensing agreement.

More than 4,000 people from the EDL and United Against Fascism protested in Bolton town centre on March 20, and more than 100 people were arrested across the town throughout the day.

The trial continues.

The Bolton News

Roma backlash continues across Europe

The far-Right Jobbick party in Hungary raised tensions between Gipsies, also know as Roma by calling for the establishment of special camps, where communities would be detained, if necessary for life.

The moves follow high profile French efforts to expulsion of nearly 1,000 gipsies last month, a development that drew criticism from the Roman Catholic Church, human rights groups and even ministers within the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In Italy Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome said the city would demolish dozens of illegally-built shanty camps that have sprung up around the capital.

The first camp, at Quartaccio on the outskirts of the city, was razed to the ground on Wednesday, with bulldozers ripping through makeshift shelters of scrap wood and corrugated iron and trucks removing 400kg of debris and rubbish.

Local officials said that 20 gipsies found living in the camp had accepted the offer of voluntary repatriation to their home countries, although many others had fled before the demolition gang arrived.

In Hungary, the far-right Jobbik party, the third largest in parliament, proposed that gipsies considered a threat to public order should be transferred to secure camps outside cities, warning that "civil war" could erupt unless the issue was tackled.

The governing Fidesz party described it as "outrageous", adding that the solution was "not to set up ghettoes, but to have strict laws and a strong police force." A spokesman for the Hungarian Socialist Party said the call for camps was "reminiscent of the National Socialist agenda for concentration camps 65 years ago".

Italy has struggled to cope with the tens of thousands of gipsies who flooded into the country after Eastern European countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia joined the EU.

Authorities in Rome said they had recently noticed families of gipsies turning up in cars with French license plates – suggesting that the crackdown by the Sarkozy government is forcing some Roma to flee to neighbouring countries.

The Telegraph

Idiot Green Arrow reveals his identity

Paul Morris aka Green Arrow

Speaking at the pitifully attended "Indigenous Weekend" Paul Morris aka Green Arrow finally came out of the fascist closet and revealed himself (That isn't a nice thought is it)

Speeches taken from the fiasco have been uploaded to Youtube, including one by Morris.

We won't be providing the link on here, but if you go to Youtube and search for "Welsh fascist" I'm sure you will find what you are looking for.

EDL Fashion

Bradford pub and club boss loses £15,000 over weekend

Bradford city centre on Saturday

Businesses in Bradford were today still counting the cost of the English Defence League’s demonstration.

Many traders in the city centre took the tough decision to close for the day and others suffered a huge loss of trade as shoppers avoided the city centre because of the fear of violence on Saturday.

Andrew Longman, director of the Link pub company, which owns four pubs and nightclubs in the city centre, said he had lost £15,000 over the weekend.

Mr Longman, whose company owns bars including Bar Uber in Sackville Street and the Harp of Erin in Chain Street, said he had been forced to close early due to lack of trade, even after employing security staff.

“People were too scared to come out,” he said. “The clientele we mainly go for is the pensioners. We are in a minus in a bad way.”

Referring to the demonstration, which provoked a counter-protest by Unite Against Fascism, he said: “This should never happen again.

“We know the pub trade is not the best at the moment as so we live day to day. Somebody’s got to be liable for this. It’s absolutely mad.”

Arthur Rigby, owner of Jack Hodgson florists in Bridge Street, said he was glad he had closed during the demonstration in Bradford’s Urban Garden.

He said: “Even if the shop had stayed open, there was no-one in town anyway, so it would have been a quiet day.

“Everybody who did stay open would have suffered loss of trade.”

Val Summerscales, secretary of Bradford Chamber of Trade, said it was difficult to quantify exactly how much trade had been lost through shops closing.

But she said: “Anything like that is bound to have an impact, because, if businesses are shut, it reduces people’s willingness to come into the city centre.”

Some shops decided to close and some were boarded up for the day during the protests but trouble was kept to a minimum, due mainly to a huge police presence. Mrs Summerscales said: “It was policed very, very well and it does make a difference that there was a co-ordinated effort from everyone involved. It meant that disruption was kept to a minimum.”

It is estimated that the cost to West Yorkshire Police and Bradford Council to deal with the protests could be as much as £500,000.

West Yorkshire Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison said: “The containment of trouble comes at a cost, but has been money well spent.

“The consequences of the disorder in 2001 amounted to £11 million in damage and an awful lot of community heartache.”

As reported in Monday’s Telegraph & Argus, the way police handled the protests could be used in future as a national blueprint for dealing with similar events.

Telegraph and Argus

Ex-Darwen councillor branded ‘foolish’ over EDL rally

Michael Johnson

A FORMER councillor has been criticised for making an inflammatory speech at a controversial rally.

Michael Johnson, of Dean Street, Darwen, was a guest speaker at the English Defence League (EDL) demonstration in Bradford city centre on Saturday.

The former Blackburn with Darwen councillor and parliamentary candidate for Rossendale and Darwen made a speech saying he was ‘defending our identity from attack’.

But critics said the EDL’s actions were inciting hatred between communities.

More than 1,600 police from 13 forces were involved in the operation in Bradford at the weekend amid fears the demonstration would descend into violence.

Bricks, bottles and smoke bombs were thrown at anti-racism counter-protesters and police as around 700 EDL members gathered.

Fourteen people were arrested.

Former Blackburn with Darwen council leader Colin Rigby, who is a Darwen area councillor, said: “It doesn’t surprise me.

He was all over the place when he was a councillor.

“The majority of the people living in Blackburn and Darwen have a good relationship, regardless of where they come from.

“We do not have any problems at all and these rantings of his show he is a rather foolish individual.”

Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, Mr Johnson, who is of mixed race, said he was not against Muslims, but Islamists, who have ‘a rigid ideology, not a religion, which involves taking over the country and our people’.

He said he was not a member of the EDL but ‘the EDL are fighting for something I totally believe in’.

Mr Johnson was elected to the borough council in 2006 for the England First Party which called for a ban on mixed-race marriages, black footballers playing for England, aid to Africa and virtually all immigration to England.

Blackburn Citizen

EDL Nazi Wayne Baldwin EXPOSED

The company "EDL Abdul" keeps...

EDL Abdul should be more vigilant about the company he keeps.

Here is a photo of "EDL Abdul", one of the insignificantly tiny number of non-white EDL members, at the site of the EDLs "glorious triumph" in Bradford recently:

Presumably he is blathering about how his presence proves the EDL to be peace loving, fluffy pacifists committed to racial equality, as well as the only people engaged in serious drinking... sorry, "work" against the Islamic fundamentalist hordes (currently having their European conference in a cupboard somewhere). Notice the bloke in the red shirt? Well, here he is again, minus the shirt:

Oops! Perhaps they're shielding their eyes against the sun... in Wales?

Indymedia

Football hooligans to launch 'European Defence League' in Amsterdam

English Defence League protest in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK earlier this year (Photo: Gavin Lynn )

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The English Defence League (EDL), the anti-Muslim 'street army' composed largely of football hooligans that burst onto the front pages of British newspapers in the last year as a result of its often violent protests, is to hold a rally in Amsterdam in October, EUobserver has learnt.

The EDL is to demonstrate in support of Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-immigrant firebrand, with a recently launched French Defence League and Dutch Defence League, modelled on the English group, to join them along with other anti-Islamic militants from across Europe.

Formed in 2009, the EDL has held over a dozen often rowdy marches and demonstrations in cities across Britain over the last year. Protests that attracted only a couple hundred militants at the end of last year are now bringing thousands out. On Saturday (28 August) a rally in Bradford, West Yorkshire, home to the second-largest community of south Asians in the UK, turned ugly when members clashed with police and pelted anti-racist activists with bricks, bottles and smoke bombs. Thirteen were arrested, according to media reports.

Anti-racist watchdogs call the EDL one of the most worrying developments on the far-right scene in the UK since the 1970s and the days of the National Front, an openly white supremacist and neo-Nazi political party. The group now appears to be meeting with some success in exporting its novel brand of nativism to the continent, a combination of anti-Muslim vitriol, agressive street marches and attempts to rope in football hooligan gangs by holding rallies around the same time as matches.

Graeme Atkinson, European editor of Searchlight magazine, a UK anti-fascist journal, says that the group is "tapping into a widespread and growing Islamophobia in society," in a way that other far-right groups, weighed down with explicitly fascist iconography and discourse, have not been able to.

He warns against panic regarding the new group, but says authorities should not be blind to the growth of such moevements, describing the new formation as "an utterly socially divisive, politically toxic ideology."

New kind of far-right outfit

Distinct from the traditional far right, the EDL, which originally grew out of the "football casual" subculture, claims to be multi-ethnic, to target "jihadism" rather than Muslims, and employs a rhetoric more in keeping with the fringes of neo-conservative anti-Islamism than the nostalgia for Nazism of other far-right formations.

The group's mission statement declares that anyone is welcome, so long as they are "integrated:" "We are non-racist/fascist and anyone is welcome if they want to live under English values and fully integrate into our way of life."

"English Defence League members recognise that this threat is one that must be stopped at all costs. Our Christian, Jewish, Sikh, and Hindu friends all have tales to tell with regard to Islamic Imperialism," the group's "Exposing the myths" page reads.

One of its leaders is Guramit Singh, a Sikh born in Britain, and it says it is, like Mr Wilders, strongly pro-Israel and maintains both Jewish and LGBT "divisions" while backing a ban on the building of mosques and seeking the burqa to be outlawed. Its LGBT wing was set up after the Dutchman visited the UK in March when he had been invited to show his short anti-Islam film, Fitna, in the House of Lords. At a demonstration in Bolton in March, a man held up a pink triangle alongside anti-Islam placards and banners. Its LGBT division has 107 members at the time of writing.

In what would normally be anathema to traditional, antisemitic far-right outfits, the group has taken to brandishing the Israeli flag at rallies and, according to the Jewish Chronicle, its Jewish division had signed up hundreds of members on its Facebook page until the page was recently deleted, though Jewish leaders in the UK actively discourage young people from joining, with the Board of Deputies of British Jews describing the organisation as "built on a foundation of Islamophobia and hatred which we reject entirely."

Links to BNP, Swedish Democrats

As with other formations in Europe that far-right monitoring organisations describe as "far-right-lite," notably Mr Wilders, Denmark's People's Party and the late Pim Fortuyn, some in the EDL try to distance themselves from, in the words of the group's website, the "Adolf-worhipping neanderthals."

But these same monitors say that while the EDL is not an outright "fascist" or neo-Nazi formation, links with the traditional far right remain, with many leaders being ex-members of the British National Party. Its leader, Tommy Robinson, is an ex-BNP activist. One of the organisation's main strategists is 45-year-old IT consultant Alan Lake, who has advised the far-right Swedish Democrats on tactics.

Meanwhile, at every demonstration but two in the last year, dozens have been arrested. The group's marches regularly involve anti-Muslim sloganeering and frequently descend into violence. At a rally in Dudley in July, a Hindu Temple was attacked as well as a number of shops, restaurants, cars and homes.

Figures for the size of the organisation and its supporters are hard to pin down and no figures have emerged for the new continental franchises. The group claims it has "thousands" of supporters and has spawned a Scottish Defence League and a Welsh Defence League, both of which have held rallies in their respective countries, as well as an Ulster Defence League. Police meanwhile reckoned that 1,500 to 2,000 EDL demonstrators marched in Newcastle upon Tyne in May this year, one of its bigger rallies.

Ground Zero 'Mosque'

The EDL has received endorsements from Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, two of the main agitators behind the right-wing movement opposed to a Muslim community centre being built two blocks away from the site of Al Qaeda's attacks on New York in 2001, the so-called Ground Zero Mosque. Geert Wilders, for his part, is scheduled to speak at a protest in Manhattan on 11 September this year by Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) against the building of the community centre.

Although Mr Wilders is not thought to have direct links with the EDL, SIOA is an affiliate organisation of Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), which has marched alongside the English hooligan movement. SIOE itself was founded in 2007 by Anders Gravers, previously the leader of a tiny Danish party called Stop the Islamisation of Denmark (Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark), in reaction to the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoon controversy. On 11 September 2007, the SIOE staged a demonstration in Brussels.

Other affiliate organisations have been created in 10 European countries including Denmark, Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Sweden and the United States of America. Mr Gravers is reportedly on friendly terms with Mr Wilders, is his "friend" on Facebook and will be speaking alongside him at the anti-Mosque rally in New York.

The demonstration in Amsterdam is due to take place on 30 October, according to the EDL website. Mr Wilders heads to court at the end of next month on charges of inciting racism. The case begins 5 October, with a verdict expected 2 November.

Joining them there will be members of the recently formed Dutch Defence League' and French Defence League, both modelled on the EDL. The latter draws its members from the ranks of far-right supporters of the Paris Saint Germain football club, known in France for long harbouring a far-right element among the club's supporters, although elsewhere on the continent, according to EDL spokesman Steve Simmons, not all the defence-league-linked groups have their origins in football hooliganism.

Paris Saint Germain supporters

The French Defence League, which employs both an anglophone version of its name and "Ligue Francaise de Defense," founded in May and more latterly takes the name Ligue 732, after a group of Paris Saint Germain supporters, that, according the outfit, "tries to unify all French Casuals, Ultras and French Fans to fight against Radical Islam."

The 732 figure references the year that the French king Charles the Hammer, the grandfather of Charlemagne, won a victory at the Battle of Tours halting Islamic expansion in western Europe.

Mr Simmons told EUobserver that militants from the "anti-Jihad movement" in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and "other European states" will join them in Amsterdam for the launch of what is termed the "European Defence League" or, alternately, the much cuddlier "European Friendship Initiative."

"I would also like to take this opportunity to announce a new demonstration that is to take the English Defence League global," Tommy Robinson, the pseudonym of the group's leader, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a former member of the BNP, wrote on the EDL website in a missive in July.

"You may be aware that the great man Geert Wilders is in court for race hate charges," he continued. "The EDL has been in contact with our European brothers and sisters and we have decided that on Saturday, 30 October the European Defence League will be demonstrating in Amsterdam in support of Geert. We hope that all of you will be able to join us for this, what promises to be a landmark demonstration for the future of the defence leagues."

"We feel that freedom of speech is being eroded and a lot of appeasing of radical muslims and Islam in general. Geert has the courage to take this on and we want to support him," the group's spokesman, Steve Simmons, told EUobserver.

Counter-Jihad conferences

In June this year, the EDL sent two representatives to Counter-Jihad 2010 - a conference in Zurich held by the International Civil Liberties Alliance, which does not focus on civil liberties at all but is instead an anti-Muslim movement. It was the fourth such pan-European conference in as many years.

The Zurich conference may have been where the idea for a European Defence League originated. According to an EDL report back from the meeting, which attracted "counter-Jihad" activists from Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, the UK and the US, the conference "built on the important work that had already been done as well as doing the groundwork for new initiatives and the inclusion of new organisations and activists in the work of the global counter jihad."

Mr Simmons for his part in a slight detour from the announcement of Mr Robinson, told EUobserver that the Amsterdam rally will see the launch of the "European Friendship Initiative," and that a "European Defence League" will be just part of this broader alliance of "Defence-League"-branded movements.

He said that talks are ongoing with in particular German, Dutch, Belgian and French groups ahead of the Amsterdam demonstration. Already, in April this year, the EDL took part in a small pro-Wilders rally of 100 people in Berlin outside the Dutch embassy, organised by the Burger Bewegung Pax Europa (Pax Europa Citizens' Movement).

He also explained why the EDL and allied groups are heading to the Netherlands: "We feel that freedom of speech is being eroded and there is a lot of appeasing of radical muslims and Islam in general. Geert has the courage to take this on and we want to support him."

He downplayed the group's rowdy reputation: "We want to turn it into a sort of celebration rather than a protest, with food, drink and entertainment."

He claimed that off-duty serving UK, Dutch and German soldiers which had joined "Armed Forces Unite," (which grew out of "Armed Forces Defence League," a Facebook group for EDL-supporting soldiers and sailors) have offered to help Dutch police to steward the event.

The city of Amsterdam government for its part is aware of the plans for a demonstration and is tracking developments, but will not discuss details of preparations due to "security considerations."

In Bradford over the weekend, in what was a massive police operation, some 1,600 officers from 13 forces took part.

EUobserver

EDL Bradford - Far-right Protesters Clash with Police

Far-right protesters hurled missiles at riot police and anti-racism demonstrators on Saturday in Bradford city centre.
Bricks, bottles and smoke bombs were thrown by around 1,000 members of the English Defence League (EDL) who were staging an anti-Islam protest.
Trouble flared at the city's Urban Gardens where a large crowd of EDL supporters had gathered chanting "Allah is a pedo" and other anti-Muslim slogans.
EDL supporters arrived on buses from cities around the north of England. They were kept away from groups of anti-racism demonstrators by a large force of riot police.

Three injured at anti-fascist demo in Brighton

Two officers and a protester were injured when violence broke out at an anti-fascist demonstration in Brighton, police said.

The protest organised by the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) group took place at the same time as a demonstration by the English Nationalists Alliance.

A Sussex Police spokesman said members of the UAF march clashed with police.

Fourteen arrests were made for public order offences, assault and to prevent a breach of the peace.

Two police officers and a protester were treated for minor injuries.

The force spokesman said: "Police attempted to ensure that both protests took place in a safe location, but close enough to one another to enable them to make their points peacefully.

"Unfortunately a small group from the counter-demonstration resisted this and threw missiles at the police.

"At no time did either group have the opportunity to physically confront one another, the only disorder being directed towards the police."

Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett said: "It is our aim to allow protesters the freedom of speech to express their views safely, without causing disruption and disorder to residents, visitors and businesses in the city."

BBC

EDL Abdul is a Vicious Bigot

EDL poster-boy Abdul Hussain is a Glasgow Rangers fan, filmed here at an EDL demo, singing sectarian hate songs which celebrate knee-capping and beating Taigs (meaning Catholics). Just as Islamophobic bigotry assumes all Muslims are terrorists, sectarian bigotry assumes all Catholics are Fenians and Provos (pro-IRA), and both are as stupid as black-power bigots who assume all white people must be racist because a few nutters join groups like the BNP and KKK. I despise the IRA, but sectarian hatred is disgusting, no matter where or who it comes from.

The EDL has over 25,000 supporters on Facebook, but only THREE non-white people regularly attend EDL protests. The 1st (Guramit Singh) is a proven racist. The 2nd (Joel Titus) says he's anti-BNP but has been filmed travelling to EDL demos with BNP activist Chris Renton (let's just say Joel seems VERY confused). The 3rd (Abdul Hussain) is a vicious bigot. In contrast, hundreds of EDL supporters show themselves on You Tube and Facebook to be BNP supporters and/or either Nazis or friends of Nazis.

Bradford: Smoke bombs thrown at English Defence League protest

EDL supporters and police clash in Bradford

More than 1,600 officers on horseback and in riot gear pen in 700 activists, including BNP members and soccer thugs

Far-right activists threw smoke bombs and missiles and fought with the police as trouble flared in a protest organised by the English Defence League.

Bricks and bottles and smoke bombs were thrown at anti-racist supporters and police as around 700 EDL activists – including known football hooligans and BNP members – held a "static protest" in Bradford city centre. Mounted officers and others in riot gear were attacked as they pushed the EDL into a penned area. Skirmishes continued as EDL speakers addressed the crowd and there was more violence as its supporters were put back on coaches.

More than 1,600 officers from 13 forces were involved in the police operation amid fears the demonstration would descend into violence. Police said there had been five arrests.

The EDL, which has held demonstrations in towns and cities across the country over the past 12 months, had predicted that thousands of its supporters would turn out in Bradford for what was dubbed "the big one", but police said there were around 700 people.

Earlier in the afternoon coachloads of EDL activists had chanted "Allah, Allah who the fuck is Allah?" and "Muslim bombers off our streets". One of the coach drivers said: "I didn't expect a job like this when I came to work this morning. We're a five-star firm. We don't usually take scumbags like these."

Thousands of anti-racists and local residents joined counter-protests and events organised around the city. Mohammed Khan, 29, said: "We want to show the people of the UK that Bradford is a united and peaceful place, where Asians, white people – everyone – gets along. Nobody here wants these people. They are just trying to divide this city and provoke trouble."

Several hundred people gathered at a community celebration at Infirmary Fields near Manningham, where running battles between youths and police took place in 2001. "Everyone wanted to join in to tell people how good this city is," said Surhra Bibi from Bradford's Fairbank Road. Hundreds of other demonstrators joined an event organised by Unite Against Fascism in the city centre.

Earlier this month Theresa May, the home secretary, authorised a ban on the march but police and politicians claimed that they were powerless to prevent the far-right group holding a "static protest".

Yesterday, as the demonstration came to an end, fights broke out among rival gangs within the EDL and local teenagers and anti racist campaigners were kept back by mounted police. A West Yorkshire police spokesman said: "Missiles have been thrown in the area around the Bradford Urban Gardens; however, this has been contained and the police are utilising their resources to manage the current situation."

The decision by Bradford council to seek a marching ban followed a formal request by West Yorkshire chief constable Sir Norman Bettison, made after his force carried out a risk assessment of the proposed event. Bettison said he was taking the action after considering the "understandable concerns of the community".

David Ward the local Liberal Democrat MP, who attended the event in Infirmary Fields, said the city had moved on in the past nine years.

"This is a celebration of all that is good about Bradford. We're not so much a big city as a collection of villages – communities which get along and today have got along. I want no part of the hatred some people are showing in our city centre. We have moved on from 2001. I hope today is the day that is made clear."

The EDL, formed last year, has become the most significant far-right street movement in the UK since the National Front in the 1970s. It claims to be a peaceful, non-racist organisation opposed only to "militant Islam". But many of its demonstrations have ended in confrontations with the police after supporters became involved in violence and racist and Islamophobic chanting.

In May, the Guardian revealed that the EDL was planning to step up its Islamophobic street campaign, targeting Bradford and Tower Hamlets in London.

Guardian

Make Bradford proud by standing TOGETHER

There is a defiant mood in Bradford today as the city braces itself for the English Defence League protest tomorrow afternoon. The local newspaper, the Telegraph and Argus, has run a front page editorial calling on the people of Bradford to shun both the EDL and opposing UAF protests tomorrow. Entitled, Let’s make it a day to be proud of, the editorial goes on to explain why Bradfordians should turn a deaf ear to both protests.

It concludes: “Tomorrow Bradford can show the world how little these people know about Bradford and about decency and respect for others and their beliefs and cultures.

“The best thing we citizens can do is leave the EDL and UAF to it. Leave them to let off steam, shout their slogans, exercise their freedom of speech and have the say they are entitled to in a democratic society.

“However unpleasant the EDL’s words may be, their message will only have an impact if it is listened to.

“So Bradford can do itself – and this country – a big favour by turning a deaf ear.

“And if we all do that, we can make tomorrow a day that Bradford can be proud of forever.”

This approach is also being adopted by all the political parties, faith leaders and the trade union movement. In a letter to affiliate unions, Yorkshire & Humber TUC Regional Secretary Bill Adams wrote: “The TUC anti-fascist committee decided to persuade the authorities to have the march banned and to advise our members to avoid the area on the grounds of public safety.

“This decision was not taken lightly, it was taken, taking into account many factors including the history of the City including previous riots sparked off by a fascist presence in the city.

“The main reason however, was that local activists, trade unionists, and the people of Bradford were against any confrontations.”

The EDL had intended to march down Manchester Road, through the streets of West Bowling, a part of Bradford with a large Asian population. The chances of disorder would have been considerable so the fact that the EDL was stopped was a real triumph.

This march was banned after HOPE not hate launched a huge campaign in the city which saw 10,700 Bradfordians sign our petition in just three weeks. When West Yorkshire police asked the council to apply for a ban they cited the strength of feeling in the city. When the Home Secretary signed the ban she too made reference to the views of Bradfordians.

The HOPE not hate campaign, and myself in particular, have been attacked from some quarters for our approach but I would like to think we have been vindicated. The memory of the 2001 riots still hangs over the city and there is palpable fear of a repeat of the trouble. Everywhere you go people are talking about the weekend and the threat of trouble. There was simply no appetite for anything that could have led to further disorder and it is for this reason we opposed a counter demonstration. Almost everyone calling for a protest has no connection to Bradford or understanding of the place. Mobilising on the streets is a tactic not a dogma and on this occasion the risks of disorder and subsequent consequences were such that we did not consider it wise. It is a position that we hold even more strongly now than we did at the outset of the campaign.

The EDL will still be coming to Bradford but, we believe, in much smaller numbers. Having been in Bradford for almost a week I have seen the measures being put in place to prevent the EDL causing trouble. They will be gathering on a piece of land almost totally surrounded by an eight-foot wooden fence, so largely isolating them from the general public. Coaches will be escorted in by police and parked immediately to the side of the meeting point. Those arriving by train into Forster Square, although only 100 metres away, will be put on buses, with police officers on board, and driven the short distance. Any groups of EDL seen wandering around town will immediately be picked up by the police and all pubs in the city centre will be closed. In total, there will 1,600 police officers on duty.

The UAF, meanwhile, have been equally isolated from the general public, having been given a car park out of sight of the EDL protest and surrounded on all sides by tall buildings. When the claim is made that a counter-protest is needed to defend the streets or protect the Muslim community it might be useful for people to recognise just how out of the way the counter-protest is being held.

There is always the chance of trouble but given the official interpretation of the law we believe the council and the police have done everything possible to prevent disorder from EDL thugs.

As we count down to the EDL protest it is worth remembering what has been achieved over the past few weeks. In mid-July we were told by virtually everyone that a ban was impossible. On the day we handed our petition into the Home Office word reached us that the Government was totally opposed to a ban for fear of the precedent it might set. But the strength of feeling of the people of Bradford proved the doubters wrong and the authorities were forced to act.

And the ban really did mean something. The EDL is now unable to march through a heavily Asian neighbourhood and instead has been boxed in, out of sight, in the city centre. More importantly, however, the networks of locals and community groups the Bradford Together initiative has developed put us in a good position to continue the fight against racism and hatred in the city beyond this weekend. This afternoon we shall be beginning this new phase of our campaign by holding a peace vigil in the city centre.

Let us hope, for the sake of Bradford, that this weekend passes off peacefully and the city can move forward TOGETHER.

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Watch our English Defence League video

Watch the Bradford Together video

Hope not Hate

Ellie Walker: 'Joining the BNP was misguided and it's a racist party'

Ellie Walker: 'misguided' to have ever been a member of the racist BNP

The wife of the city's former BNP leader has launched a scathing attack on the "racist" organisation after joining another political party.

Councillor Ellie Walker has become a member of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's new Community Voice group after several months spent as a non-aligned councillor. Mrs Walker quit the British National Party in March, along with husband, and former group leader, Alby Walker. But Community Voice leaders told Mrs Walker they would only accept her if she issued a public statement distancing herself from the far-right party.

And the Abbey Green ward member, who was elected as a BNP councillor in May 2007, has now said: "I was misguided to have ever been a member of the BNP and admit that I was part of an organisation that held racist views and that my association with the BNP reflected badly on me personally. During my time as a councillor, working closely with the community and all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, I have come to realise that the views of the BNP are wrong."

Mrs Walker also revealed her daughter-in-law is Sri Lankan, and that her grandchildren are of mixed race. She added: "While a member of the BNP, I realised that it was not what I thought it was, with many individuals only interested in hate and lies. Stoke-on-Trent is a fantastic, diverse and tolerant place to live and represent [and], if it is to move forward, it must continue to be so."

Community Voice's lead spokesman, Councillor Mick Salih, said he had no problem accepting Mrs Walker's application to become the party's sixth member. He added: "Community Voice despise and is totally opposed to the BNP and everything it stands for. Racism, indeed any discrimination, has no place in a modern, tolerant city like Stoke-on-Trent. Ellie has put all that behind her and earned admiration from all political parties across the city council when she not only left the BNP but exposed the hidden extremism."

The addition of Mrs Walker to the fledgling party makes it the fourth largest group on the council. It is behind 26-member Labour, the nine-strong City Independent Group and the eight-member Conservative and Independent Alliance. It is also now one place ahead of the five-member BNP group and the four-strong Liberal Democrats.

Current BNP group leader Councillor Michael Coleman said he was aware of Mrs Walker's move to Community Voice, but was sceptical about her denunciation of her former far-right connections. He said: "This has to be the biggest political conversion in the history of Stoke-on-Trent – to go from hard right to hard left. I have known Ellie a long time and all I can say is that her views fitted in well with the BNP and she was an outstanding councillor for us. I wish her well in her new group, but I don't accept any of her accusations about our party. She was elected on a BNP ticket, and I do wonder whether voters in her ward will accept her conversion or feel betrayed by it. I suppose this shows that we are gradually gaining political acceptance, as until now no other party would have accepted a former BNP member."

This is Staffordshire

NEVER SO MUCH OWED BY SO MANY TO SO FEW

In September 1940 the Battle of Britain against Nazi Germany was at its height in the skies above southern England.

Aircrew who had escaped occupied Europe joined the RAF with many others from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and all parts of what was then the British Empire, In India ordinary people collected much needed funds to finance the building of Spitfires to join the battle, in tribute many RAF squadrons were named after Indian cities.

But of all the nations that joined the RAF it was Polish pilots who in particular distinguished themselves, losing more lives proportionate to their numbers than any single other nationality in the Battle.

United for freedom, against fascism. Philosophy Football have produced a commemorative shirt to honour the Polish contribution, listing the Poles who gave their lives to join the 'few' with the Polish roundel they carried on theor Spitfires and Hurricanes and their cause 'For Freedom'

Available from www.philosophyfootball.com.

Ex-councillor arrested in firearms raid

David Lucas

A BNP activist and former parish councillor has been arrested by police on suspicion of a firearms offence.

Tactical firearms officers were involved in the arrest earlier this week of 50-year-old David Lucas, of Lakenheath – just two months after he admitted possessing ammunition and gunpowder at Ipswich Crown Court.

Mr Lucas was arrested on Wednesday after police officers executed warrants at properties in the Mildenhall and Thetford areas.

A police spokeswoman said the arrest was made on “suspicion of possession of firearms without a licence”.

She said he had since been released on police bail until September 28.

Speaking about the involvement of firearms officers, she said: “Officers from the tactical firearms unit were involved, but for their skills in gaining entry to properties and searching rather than firearms deployment.”

Last month, Mr Lucas quit his role as a member of Lakenheath Parish Council.

Marilyn Banks, clerk to the council, confirmed a letter of thanks had been sent to Mr Lucas, who last year stood as a candidate for the BNP in the European elections.

No by-election for his parish council seat will be held.

Mr Lucas was given a 12-month prison 
sentence suspended for 12 months in June in connection with an incident in April 2009, when police visited a static caravan at Black Dyke Farm, near Lakenheath.

Police found a plastic tub containing a small amount of gunpowder and 2,500 rounds of ammunition that Mr Lucas was not authorised to possess, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Mr Lucas, of South Road in Lakenheath, admitted possessing gunpowder without an explosives licence, two offences of possessing prohibited ammunition and one offence of possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate.

Sentencing Lucas, Judge David Goodin said the offences crossed the custody threshold but agreed to pass a 12-month sentence suspended for 12 months after coming to the conclusion that Lucas was eccentric rather than a danger to the public.

He ordered Lucas to pay £250 towards prosecution costs and ordered him to reside for 13 weeks at his mother’s house.

At the time, Jonathan Davies, for Mr Lucas, said his client’s attitude had been “negligent and indifferent” rather than a flagrant disregard for the law.

EADT24

BNP leader interferes in independent’s work

Chris Roberts

The leader of the British National Party is trying to interfere in the work of an independent member of the London Assembly.

Nick Griffin, who recently appointed himself acting London regional organiser for the racist party, visited Chris Roberts at his City Hall office on Friday to discuss “GLA work” according to a report on the BNP’s London Patriot website. Roberts is employed by the Greater London Authority as an assistant to Richard Barnbrook, who earlier this month resigned the BNP whip until “allegations of serious wrong doing concerning senior British National Party officials” are investigated.

Griffin’s attempt to influence Roberts to work in the interests of the BNP rather than for the member he is paid to assist is highly irregular. The previous night Griffin told a party meeting in Barking and Dagenham, from which many dissident longstanding activists had been excluded, that he himself would be taking charge of the party’s campaign for the London Assembly and mayoral elections in 2012.

“To be successful, the BNP need a high profile candidate who can generate the publicity needed to mobilise the capital’s remaining demoralised traditional British population to come out and vote,” wrote Martin Wingfield, Griffin’s communications officer following the meeting.

“But that’s not all, once elected the BNP representative must be influential within the Assembly chamber and make sure that the patriotic voice of British Nationalism is heard at every opportunity,” an implied criticism of Barnbrook’s failure to do so.

London Patriot also reports that Griffin had a long meeting on Friday with solicitors to prepare for the next round of the Equality and Human Rights Commission court case over the party’s racist constitution.

“Mr Griffin will be representing himself in court against a renewed attack from the EHRC which has included a request to have the BNP leader imprisoned,” according to London Patriot. Whether this is because the impecunious BNP cannot afford a barrister or because no barrister is prepared to act for the dictatorial BNP leader is not stated.

The Barking and Dagenham meeting was treated to more of Griffin’s lies in response to questions about serious irregularities in the party that have emerged during the course of Eddy Butler’s unsuccessful leadership challenge.

The raising of the nominations threshold for a leadership challenge – to 20% of members of at least two years’ standing – was, he claimed, not his decision but that of the members at a party general meeting on 14 February this year, which adopted the new party constitution.

In fact members were only shown those parts of the constitution that had been amended in response to the Equality Commission legal action. Griffin slipped in the new rules on leadership challenges without even showing those clauses to members expected to vote for them and the amended constitution could only be accepted or rejected as a whole.

He said he would now ask for changes to the constitution to give the party leader a longer term of office, in other words abolishing the right to challenge him each year.

Griffin was cagey in response to questions about the party’s contract with Jim Dowson, the fundraising consultant with a string of criminal convictions whom Griffin brought in at great expense at the start of 2008. One questioner pointed out that the contract Dowson produced at an employment tribunal hearing over the sacked BNP employee Michaela Mackenzie had ended at December 2009. Griffin said that was not true. He claimed that Dowson’s help had been “invaluable” and said he would extend the contract with him if he felt it was in the party’s interests to do so.

Many in the BNP believe that Griffin will extend Dowson’s contract if it is in Griffin’s and Dowson’s personal financial interests to do so, but those who might say that openly had been kept out of the meeting.

Griffin also blamed the BNP’s current dire financial state on those who had called for members to stop giving money to the party until there was greater financial transparency, claiming this had cost the party around £300,000, an unlikely figure, and an attempt to divert attention from the fact that it is Griffin’s reckless pursuit of hopeless legal actions and Dowson’s huge salary and commission that are the largest contributing factors to the BNP’s debt mountain, now believed to be around £600,000.

Hope not Hate

RACIST THUGS URGED TO HURL PORK AT MUSLIMS

RACIST thugs are threatening to attack Muslims with pork in an attempt to “de-Islamise” the UK.

The yobs have drawn up a detailed guide on how to taunt Muslims – including using water pistols to spray them with ham soup.

The hatemongers also advise people to “throw raw strips of bacon” and “cat and dog crap” at followers of Islam, believing it will force them out of Britain.

They suggest touching shop door handles, bus seats and taxis with pork and announcing on Facebook where this has been done.

And they advise fellow sickos to hand Muslims cards that say: “You have just been tainted with a FILTH product. See you in HELL!”

The vile “How To” guide has been posted on a host of right-wing websites and blogs, including those of the English Defence League (EDL) and the English Nationalist Alliance (ENA).

The thugs reckon this tactic will push many Muslims to leave the UK, believing they go to hell if they make contact with pork. But a spokesman for anti-fascist group One Million United said their plan is as flawed as it is sick. He said: “Muslims do not go to hell if they touch pork products. We can only suspect this bizarre idea came from EDL assumptions and guesswork.

“There is nothing stated anywhere that they will face Allah’s wrath if they touch pork products. If the EDL are expecting Muslims to scuttle off, panicking the second a trotter lands near them, they will be disappointed.”

It is not the first time right-wing extremists have used pork in a bid to taunt Muslims. Pigs’ heads were recently placed on the gates of several UK mosques. Billy Baker, spokesman for the ENA – which marched on Westminster on August 1 against Sharia Law – said his group does not condone such threats.

He said: “We do not advocate racism or violence. Our site is visited by extremists who post inflammatory comments.

“Our site moderators do our best to get rid of them as soon as we can.”

Daily Star

Home Office bans Bradford marches

A 10,000-signature petition opposing the EDL march was handed in to the Home Office

Home Secretary Theresa May has authorised a blanket ban on marches in Bradford on the day of a planned protest by a right-wing campaign group.

The English Defence League (EDL) had intended to demonstrate in Bradford on Saturday 28 August.

Unite Against Fascism has planned a protest in the city on the same day.

Despite the ban, groups could still hold static demonstrations. The move follows a high-profile campaign to stop the EDL march in Bradford.

A 10,000-signature petition opposing the EDL march was handed in to the Home Office earlier this month.

'Balanced rights'

The Home Secretary was asked to authorise the ban by Bradford Council which submitted a written application.

It came after West Yorkshire Police's chief constable Sir Norman Bettison wrote to the council requesting an order to prohibit any public processions over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Having carefully balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected, the Home Secretary gave her consent to a Bradford Council order banning any marches in the city over the bank holiday weekend.

"West Yorkshire Police are committed to using their powers to ensure communities and property are protected and we encourage all local people to work with the police to ensure community cohesion is not undermined by public disorder."

BBC

Jobless teen stuck BNP stickers on takeaway window and assaulted worker

A jobless teenager stuck British National Party (BNP) stickers on a pizza shop window before verbally and physically abusing its staff, a court heard.

Stephen Gary Paul Elstob admitted racially aggravated assault and criminal damage following the incident in Darlington on May 5.

Jonathan Bambro, prosecuting, told magistrates that Hakim Kadir was at work at Godfather's, in Cockerton, when he noticed a drunken Elstob at the window.

Mr Bambro said Elstob then shouted a string of racial abuse and as he did so he began to stick BNP stickers on the window.

Mr Kadir, who works as a delivery driver was later confronted by Elstob after he got in his car.

The 18-year-old opened the door of the Nissan Micra and punched Mr Kadir and then kicked and punched the car, causing £500 worth of damage.

He was later arrested and in interview gave no reply until he admitted to officers he had a problem with black and Asian people working in the UK. Elstob, of Eggleston View, Darlington, also admitted being in breach of a 12 month conditional discharge for possession of cannabis.

Mike Clarke, mitigating, said Elstob claimed there had been an injustice when his stepbrother was hit with a rolling pin by one of the take-away workers.

He said Elstob was also having difficulty after his mother had been given a "substantial" prison sentence for drugs offences.

Elstob was given 26 weeks in custody, suspended for two years, with a 12 month supervision order and 150 hours unpaid work.

He was also handed a restraining order stopping him from approaching or entering the shop, or molesting its staff.

He was also ordered to pay Mr Kadir £250 compensation.

The Northern Echo

BNP activist banned from party meeting

Bob Gertner

A veteran British National Party activist has been ordered not to attend a party meeting in Barking and Dagenham on Thursday at which new arrangements for running London BNP and future plans will be announced.

Bob Gertner, a former Croydon BNP organiser, received an email from Mark Walker of the BNP’s “political admin office” telling him that the special organisational meeting was “open only to members and supporters who wish to put recent disputes behind us and move on in a wholly positive fashion”.

Writing on behalf of Nick Griffin, who recently appointed himself the party’s acting London regional organiser, Walker continues: “You are one of a small number of individuals whose behaviour or alleged behaviour in recent weeks has led to a large number of people at present viewing you with suspicion. Whether or not this is justified, I therefore judge that your presence at this meeting would not be conducive either to its smooth running or to the moves for the private addressing of genuine concerns and to work towards reconciliation which will be made separately.”

Walker’s explanation is bizarre in that it bans a longstanding activist even if “suspicion” is unjustified and that it appears to suggest that Gertner’s concerns, which led to him supporting Eddy Butler’s challenge to Griffin’s dictatorial leadership of the fascist party and are shared by many, are not to be discussed in a members’ meeting.

Griffin took over as acting London organiser from Chris Roberts, another activist who fell out of favour after voicing concerns about the financial mismanagement in the party, the way Griffin constantly falls out with “hard working dedicated nationalists” and the influence in the party of non-members such as Patrick Harrington, a leader of the tiny Third Way party and a former comrade of Griffin in his National Front “political soldier” days. Roberts too supported Butler’s challenge.

Griffin’s only connection with London is that: “I pass by while on the way to Europe”, as he said on Twitter announcing that he was putting together “a great new London management team” and would be acting as their organiser “while they find their feet”.

Clearly Griffin was unable to identify a single Griffin loyalist in London willing and capable of organising the region, following several suspensions of activists and widespread disillusionment.

“Vital we organise now to maximise chances in 2012 gla election,” Griffin’s tweet continued, hoping party members would forget his statement after the BNP’s defeat in Barking and Dagenham in May, when he wrote off fighting elections in the capital saying that by the next general election London would be “completely unassailable” and “no longer part of Britain”.

Elsewhere the three BNP councillors who have turned independent have left the party with only 24 council seats compared with nearly 60 a year ago. Deidre Gates, who was the organiser of the party’s West Hertfordshire group, had actively supported Butler but resigned from the party on 17 August, not heeding Butler’s call to continue the fight from the inside. She was elected to Hertfordshire County Council last year, one of just three BNP county councillors, of whom only one now remains. Seamus Dunne, who sits on Three Rivers council in Hertfordshire, has resigned the BNP whip but remains in the party.

Hope not Hate