Former neo-Nazi jailed for Auschwitz sign theft

A former Swedish neo-Nazi was yesterday jailed for more than two years for masterminding the theft of the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign from the entrance of memorial museum on the site of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. The 16ft wide sign, a lasting symbol of the Holocaust which states "Work Sets You Free", was removed from the gate of the former Auschwitz camp more than a year ago and found in woods in northern Poland three days later.

A gang of five Poles with a so-called "Swedish connection" was held responsible for the theft. They had planned to ship the sign to Sweden where it was to be sold. The theft provoked international outrage and protests from Israel and Jewish groups worldwide.

An estimated 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, were systematically murdered at Auschwitz. The camp site is now a museum and serves as one of the world's most chillingly powerful Holocaust memorials. It is partially funded by the German government and it attracts thousands of visitors annually.

Yesterday, a court in the southern Polish city of Krakow, sentenced Anders Hogstrom, 34 – a former Swedish neo-Nazi who is said to have turned his back on the far right a decade ago – to two years and eight months imprisonment for his role in the theft. Hogstrom, who helped set up a far right, anti-immigrant group called the National Socialist Front in Sweden in the 1990s, told the court calmly after he was sentenced: "Yes I accept the verdict."

A Polish court spokesman said Hogstrom had reached a deal with prosecutors which would allow him to be sent to Sweden to serve his sentence. The court also sentenced two Polish men identified as Marcin Auguscinski and Andrzej Strychalski to jails terms of 30 months and 28 months respectively for stealing the sign and cutting it into three pieces to get it into their getaway vehicle. Auguscinski apparently met Hogstrom more than two years ago while doing odd jobs on his family estate in southern Sweden.

Despite his sentencing, Hogstrom's exact role in the theft remained unclear. The former neo-Nazi, who lives in the southern Swedish city of Karlskrona, is said to have renounced the far right more than a decade ago. He now claims to be a member of a group which helps ex-Nazis to return to normal life. Poland convicted him of masterminding the theft after prosecutors failed to turn up any evidence which supported Hogstrom's claims that he was acting as a middle man in a plot to steal the sign for financial and possibly political gain.

Swedish police arrested him early in 2010. Hogstrom also claimed that rather than being arrested, he had turned himself into the Swedish authorities after he realised that proceeds from the sign's sale was meant for a political campaign to disrupt Swedish general election in September which saw huge gains by the right-wing Sweden Democrat party. No evidence has emerged to support his claim that there was a political element to the theft

Polish prosecutors said Hogstrom had admitted his guilt at the last minute. The most likely cause for Hogstrom's change of heart appears to have been the settlement reached with prosecutors which allows him to return to Sweden to serve his sentence.

But whether the motives behind the sign's theft were political or linked in any way to the election gains by Sweden's anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, remains a mystery. Robert Parys, the Polish prosecutor who headed the investigation, said he was convinced the main motive was financial. What is clear is that the gang, whose members were aged between 25 and 39, had clearly not bargained for the international outcry and nationwide manhunt the theft provoked.

Avner Shalev, chairman of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial was one of the many Jewish leaders who felt outraged. He said the incident had given "pain to Holocaust survivors and people of conscience everywhere."

Despite the rediscovery of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign soon after its theft, its place remained occupied yesterday by a copy. The original – under lock and key at the Auschwitz memorial museum – is being repaired and will eventually take its place.

Independent

BNP to be taken to court by creditors

The British National Party (BNP) is being taken to court by its creditors including a North- East printing firm which is owed thousands.

The far-right party’s central office owes the Newton Press, in County Durham, about £16,500 for printing its newspaper, Freedom. It is understood the firm is one of several UK firms taking the BNP to court in an action headed by an as yet unnamed solicitor. The £16,500 has been described as loose change compared to the overall figure being sought from the party, which is allegedly £500,000 in debt.

Party leader Nick Griffin is expected to meet North-East organisers in County Durham today, where he will face tough questions over the party’s finances.

As a political party the BNP is an unincorporated association which cannot technically be declared bankrupt. However, creditors could hold Mr Griffin personally liable along with party members who entered into contracts.

Freedom’s former editor, Martin Wingfield, said he enjoyed an excellent working relationship with the Newton Press for about two years until he stepped down, in July last year. But, when asked about the recent debt, he said: “I understand the case is going to court, so at present, I cannot comment further.”

The BNP’s money woes were highlighted recently when a letter purporting to be from the party’s head office offered creditors 20p for every pound of debt. It was dismissed by some members as a fake, but the BNP’s former North-East organiser, Ken Booth, said it was genuine. He said party members in the North-East were disgusted to learn of the 20p in a pound offer and he had fought for the Newton Press to be paid. In contrast to the national position, Mr Booth said the North- East office has always operated on a pay-as-you-go basis and as such had no debts.

Mr Booth, who was removed from his post by Mr Griffin when he threatened to raise the debts issue, said: “It goes against the BNP’s core principle of local jobs for local people. As far as I can see this is a decent North-East firm that has done a good job and deserves to be paid and I don’t know why it hasn’t been. Central party is £500,000 in debt but it’s on a record turnover of £2.3m. No one is accusing anyone of stealing money, it’s just mismanagement. The general consensus of the members in the North-East is that Nick Griffin should shoulder the responsibility and step down.”

The Newton Press, which publishes the community newsletter, Newton News, declined to comment.

BNP central office spokesman John Walker said: “We could not comment on matters which are internal to the party and the businesses we deal with.”

Northern Echo

War veterans' group who took money from BNP to be struck off as charity

Tommy Moffat

A war veterans' group who took money from the BNP are to be struck off the charity register.

A probe into Forward Edge of Battle Area (Feba) revealed problems with its management and finances. Feba, set up by former Queen's Own Highlander Tommy Moffat in 2006, had been backed by First Minister Alex Salmond and former defence secretary Des Browne. But it emerged last year that Moffat had taken £3000 from the BNP to pay rent on their HQ in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. The leader of the racist party, Nick Griffin, visited Moffat, claiming he wanted to show his support.

Feba were given charity status in March 2007. But now an inquiry by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has found they don't meet the watchdogs' "public benefit" test. The probe uncovered "significant weaknesses in governance and financial controls".

The OSCR said Moffat had run up large debts he couldn't repay and was running the charity while they were apparently insolvent. He had also been the sole trustee of Feba, despite an agreement to have at least four people at the helm.

The report said: "It appears Thomas Moffat has not acted in the best interests of the charity and with the care and diligence that is reasonable to expect. The lack of accounting records made it impossible to determine the extent of any financial mismanagement."

The report said Moffat repeatedly refused to provide information and did not act on recommendations for improvement. Moffat refused to comment. Feba have until November 7 to appeal the decision.

Daily Record

Corsham councillor quits BNP

Michael Simpkins

A longstanding British National Party activist in Corsham, Wiltshire, has quit the fascist party over its failure to pay its creditors, accusing it of committing a possibly criminal act.

Michael Simpkins, who was first elected unopposed to Corsham Town Council in 2007, is the third councillor the party has lost this month.

Announcing his resignation from the party, Simpkins, who works as a self-employed taxi driver, declared: “I am disappointed to hear that The British National Party is not paying its bills. I know from personal experience of two local printers who had to wait six months for payment and that was only after a lot of badgering to Head Office by myself and other officials to get them paid.”

Earlier this month Jim Dowson, who has himself just abandoned his role as the party’s fundraising and management consultant, wrote to the many businesses waiting for payment from the BNP, offering 20p in the pound “by way of debt compromise and in full and final payment of all your outstanding invoices relating to the supply of goods and services” to the party. If they did not accept the offer, explained Dowson, they would “inevitably … end up with nothing at all”.

An outraged Simpkins said: “These are businesses like the two mentioned before that risked all doing business with the BNP and supplied the goods or services on trust that they would be paid. More importantly they will undoubtedly be British businesses, the kind of business we claim to support and encourage.

“These businesses may well suffer financial hardship because the BNP has dried up their cash flow and their families will go without. They may even go out of business and certainly won’t do business with us again. It is not the way I do business.

“As an honourable businessman I cannot stay with any organisation that puts other businessmen out of business or their families in financial hardship. More importantly it is a breach of trust and may even be criminal if the intent to pay was never there in the first place.”

Simpkins, who remained loyal to the BNP leader Nick Griffin through the recent splits, says he will continue to serve on Corsham Town Council until the end of his current term in 2013 and reconsider his options then.

Last week it was reported that Meirion Bowen, a Llandybie community councillor, had left the party in the interests of his family, employment and personal safety. Yesterday it emerged that Paul Golding, a district councillor in Sevenoaks and the party’s communications officer, had quit after a fallout with other senior party staff.

Hope not Hate

BNP stand violent convicted criminal in Croxteth By-Election

The British National Party’s candidate in the upcoming Croxteth council By-Election has a conviction for violently assaulting a political opponent during the European elections two years ago.

The By-Election is being held due to the recent death of Councillor Rose Bailey and the resignation of Councillor Phil Moffatt. The BNP’s chosen candidate is Peter Tierney, who owns the Quiggins Attique antique shop on Aigburth Road, is considered a “super-activist” by the party.

In April 2008, Tierney used a camera tripod to whack a trade unionist and anti-fascist campaigner across the head from behind. The wound had to be glued together in hospital. He pleaded not guilty on the grounds of self-defence, but after viewing the CCTV footage, a jury unanimously found him guilty of assault and causing actual bodily harm.

A freeze-frame from the CCTV footage of the incident, as uploaded to YouTube by Liverpool BNP themselves

Commenting on his decision to stand, a spokesperson for Liverpool Antifascists said; “Peter Tierney is just the latest in a long line of high-profile BNP candidates with criminal records for violence.

“That he is so highly regarded by his party in Liverpool and nationally demonstrates that, despite token efforts to clean-up their image, violence and intimidation against political opponents remains part of their strategy. His brother, Andrew, has said that those who oppose the BNP are ‘fair game. Local organiser Mike Whitby has promised that anti-fascists’ identities will end up on ‘a website far worse than Red Watch,’ the hate site which has inspired attacks on activists’ homes and families.”

“In the 2010 General Election and in every local election they have contested, the BNP have been roundly rejected by the people of Liverpool. When they recently tried to campaign in the City Centre, they were chased off the streets – twice. Liverpool Antifascists hopes that the people of Croxteth show the same good sense and give this fascist thug the boot.”

The Croxteth By-Election will take place on Thursday 18th November.

Liverpool Antifascists

Departures leave BNP future in doubt

Paul Golding ex BNP communications officer

The British National Party’s communications officer has left the party, following the abrupt departure of its fundraising and management guru Jim Dowson. Paul Golding was the BNP’s sole district councillor in southeast England. His exit leaves the racist party with only 23 councillors compared with the 28 it had after the May elections.

The two walked out following a major fallout between them and senior party staff, in particular its moronic national organiser Clive Jefferson and Patrick Harrington, leader of the rival Third Way party, who has wormed himself into a position of growing influence in the party, upsetting several employees and members in the process.

Golding’s BNP membership had briefly been suspended in summer for writing a nasty blog attacking Eddy Butler, who unsuccessfully challenged Nick Griffin for the party leadership. The move was widely seen as an attempt by Griffin to appear “fair” between his own supporters and those of Butler. But later, when many of Butler’s suspended supporters were expelled, Golding was reinstated.

The departure of Dowson and Golding leaves the BNP with no one capable of writing the begging letters that have brought in large sums in donations during Dowson’s three years at Griffin’s side. The party will also be unable to exploit its “Bring Our Boys Home” recruitment campaign by turning the 25,000 names on petition forms into voters and members. People signed anti-war petitions at the BNP’s stalls in shopping centres around the country, not realising that they were sponsored by the BNP, but despite the party’s claims to use cutting-edge technology, Jefferson is incapable of transferring the information into a usable electronic format.

Butler reports that Dowson rang to tell him that his departure was complete and immediate. Dowson is known to have texted and phoned numerous other people.

Quite where this leaves the BNP’s Belfast call centre and administration centre is unclear. The office is run by Dowson and Griffin’s daughter Jennifer Matthys, who is also a director of Dowson’s main front company, Adlorries.com. Dowson is believed to have alternative Belfast premises for any new venture he undertakes.

Dowson was in charge of obtaining the secret four-star venue for the party’s annual conference to be held somewhere in Derbyshire over the weekend of 10-12 December. Stories are circulating that as he was about to dump the party Griffin offered him £10,000 to complete the arrangements, which he rejected. There must now be doubt over whether it will go ahead. If it is cancelled, members who have already paid the up to £299 cost of attending are likely to lose their money.

Dowson believes the party will not last beyond the end of the year, leaving those who have forked out £395 for life membership in its current special offer receiving very poor value for their money.

Hope not Hate

The English Defence League, the Jewish division and the useful idiots

Rabbi Nachum Shifren

An exasperated friend tells me his father, a fearsome Jewish anti-Fascist in his day, now spouts near-the-knuckle canards about “illegal immigrants” and “asylum seekers”. This phenomenon is known as “pulling up the ladder” – as each wave of migrants grows to feel at home “aboard” their new country they identify evermore with the host community, sharing in its resentment towards newcomers and not recognising any empathetic connection with their own historical experience.

But when I heard that there were Jews actively supporting the English Defence League (EDL), I thought: “pull the other one”. The EDL claims to stand up for Englishness against Islamic extremism, but in truth it is largely a hodgepodge of football hooligans, lumpen boot-boys and cast-offs from seedy neo-Nazi outfits, such as Combat 18.

Its demonstrations, the most recent in Leicester, have been crude exercises in baiting local Asian youth and their anti-racist supporters, with the local constabulary caught in the blood-spattered middle. Anglo-Jewry’s Community Security Trust concluded that: “EDL actions are violent and intimidatory, attacking police and random Asians. Any Jews thinking that they can shape such dangerous forces and find shelter there are utterly deluded.”

The Jewish-EDL connection first emerged when Israeli flags were seen at some of the early protest-punch-ups. Initially, it was believed to be a macho homage to Israel’s “kill or be killed” policy towards Hamas and Hezbollah terror. But then stories began to emerge in the Jewish press of an EDL “Jew division”. Based on anonymous sources, I dismissed it as a fantasist talking out the top of his yamulke. But I was wrong.

Mark Gardner, CST communications director, confirms that Jews are running with the EDL: “The Jewish branch is a tiny part of a far larger movement, dominated by white males who would previously have made up National Front marches and English football hooligan gangs.”

Indeed, these useful idiots now have a spokeswoman, Brazilian-born Jewish activist Roberta Moore. She told the Jewish Chronicle that that the Jewish division has around 100 members, “most of whom are Jewish”.

“Our members are not hooligans. We are educated people with jobs,” said Ms Moore. “If we defend ourselves is that hooliganism? The Jewish community sit in their houses and do nothing. They will enjoy the benefits of our actions.” Commonplace EDL “actions” include the frequent use of the Sieg Heil salute by members of the rag-tag mob.

So far, so incredible.

Worse still, on October 24 the EDL plan to hold a “solidarity demonstration” outside the Israeli embassy. The Israeli diplomats are horrified. Adding to the cringe factor, they have rustled-up a rabbi to embellish the cynical ploy aimed at cultivating hatred between Jews and Muslims. Not surprisingly, Rabbi Nachum Shifren, an ex-lifeguard known as “the surfing rabbi” and a long-shot Republican candidate, is a kooky Californian who is well known in the USA for making a fool of himself and is set to do the same at the proposed demo.

While many in the Jewish community have understandable concerns about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism – so often streaked through with virulent anti-Semitism – it is important to remember that the EDL are not our friends. They are part of the problem, not the solution.

PS: The EDL has also announced that it hopes to build links with the Tea Party Movement in the USA.

The Telegraph

Wilders denounces English Defence League demo

Geert Wilders

A scheduled demonstration in Amsterdam by the far right English Defence League in support of anti-Islam campaiger Geert Wilders should be cancelled if there is any threat of trouble, the MP says in Monday’s Telegraaf.

The EDL has applied to hold a demonstration in the city on October 30, as have a number of anti-racist organisations.

Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan and the police are currently discussing how to deal with the demonstrations because of fears they will deteriorate into violence.

‘This demonstration means nothing to me. It is nothing to do with me, nor is the EDL,’ Wilders said. ‘I only know the group from the newspapers and I have never had any contact with them.’

Dutch News.NL

Tell us more, say police as BNP chooses secret venue for conference

Police have asked for more details of a British National Party conference coming to Derbyshire so that they can plan the security operation. The party, which held its Red, White and Blue festival in Denby for three years, has announced that its annual conference will take place in South Derbyshire in December.

Anti-fascist groups are planning protests during the three-day event. Security at the Red, White and Blue festival cost police £500,000 a year but Superintendent Gary Parkin said he expected the conference bill to be lower.

He said: "We have had no confirmation of where the conference will take place or how many people are expected to attend. We are pressing the BNP for these details. We do not anticipate that the policing operation will be as large as the occasions when the Red, White and Blue Festival was held in the county."

The BNP said it would not reveal the exact location of the conference "because it is usually threatened by the left". But it confirmed that leader Nick Griffin would be the keynote speaker.

Last year's conference was held near Wigan and attracted protests from groups such as Unite Against Fascism. Protesters gathered outside the conference venue, chanting "Black and white unite and fight" and "Smash the BNP". Dozens of police were called to separate rival factions.

Graham Lewis, secretary of Derby Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, said: "We will definitely be holding a protest, although we do not expect to be facing large numbers of supporters, because of the current division in the BNP. We would aim to keep it peaceful. We have no intention of turning it into a fist fight."

He said he would be "trying everything possible" to discover where the conference was being held.

Mr Griffin has written to BNP supporters, urging them to book a place at the 2010 conference. He wrote: "We are pleased to announce the BNP's Annual Conference 2010, which will take place at a first-class venue in the South Derbyshire area on December 10 to 12. This year's conference, unlike previous events, is going to be a spectacular combination of political speeches, audio-visual displays, training, policy debates, stalls and entertainment."

It would be at a "four-star venue complete with restaurant, bar and a whole range of suitable accommodation to fit your needs", he said.

This is Derbyshire

Blackburn KFC demo ‘chicken’ is attack thug

Bernard Holmes

A ‘DANGEROUS’ man who left his victim with a permanent brain injury has been released from jail early and is taking part in English Defence League protests.

Bernard Holmes, 25, formerly of Coleridge Street, Blackburn, was jailed for two years and four months, in February for causing grievous bodily harm to Shaun Baxendale.

Mr Baxendale was left with ‘catastrophic’ injuries and a change in personality in the unprovoked May 2009 attack.

He had to have a piece of his skull removed.

However, because Holmes spent more than seven months in custody before his trial, he is now out on licence after technically serving half his term.

Under the nickname ‘Mr B’, he has been central to the Blackburn EDL’s recent demonstrations outside the KFC in Haslingden Road, Blackburn, dressed as a yellow chicken.

Pictures on his Facebook site also show him and fellow members of the right-wing group, who call themselves the ‘Knuckledraggers’, at last weekend’s heavily-policed rally in Leicester.

When Holmes was jailed, Maggie Garth, 44, Mr Baxendale’s sister criticised the sentence and spoke out in favour of the Lancashire Telegraph’s Consequences campaign, which aims to steer people away from drunken, spontaneous town centre violence.

She reacted to his release and activities with the EDL by saying: “The chicken suit is very apt for him. e’s a coward.

“I was physically sick when I heard he was out of prison.

“I don’t think the sentences handed out for these types of offences frighten the offenders.

“Shaun is still forgetting things and going through terrible mood swings.

"Yet Holmes can go out and protest over the very things that make us a free country.”

Lancashire Probation Trust confirmed Holmes was out on early release.

Lancashire Telegraph

Can’t pay, won’t pay, but the BNP carries on spending

Jim Dowson BNP owner with Nick Griffin

The British National Party has told its creditors that they will not be paid while continuing to appeal for donations to pay for the next phase of it “Bring Our Boys Home” campaign and to fund its fight against the Equality Commission over the party’s racist constitution.

Jim Dowson, officially the BNP’s fundraising and management consultant but in reality the party’s owner, wrote to the party’s creditors on 6 October giving them until 14 October to accept an offer of 20p in the pound “by way of debt compromise and in full and final payment of all your outstanding invoices relating to the supply of goods and services” to the party.

Citing the “increasingly difficult commercial climate” and the “massive and still ongoing wave of hugely expensive politically motivated High Court actions by the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights [sic]”, Dowson made it clear that if creditors did not accept the offer they would “inevitably … end up with nothing at all”.

His bracketing of the two reasons for the BNP’s lack of money is intended to conceal the fact that, while the general economic downturn is not the party’s fault, the huge cost to the party of the Equality Commission case is entirely due to its leader Nick Griffin’s constant delays and refusal to face up to reality, and that the true reason for the party’s insolvency is financial mismanagement by Griffin and Dowson over a long period.

The creditors are believed to include printers who have been waiting for payment since before the general election. Under electoral law, political parties should pay for all their election campaign expenses within six weeks of polling day and can only do so after that date with the permission of the High Court.

A limited company that continued to trade, knowing it was unable to pay its debts, would be acting illegally and its directors could be disbarred and face prison. The BNP is an unincorporated association, which makes the legal position less clear, though Griffin as chairman and individuals who entered into the various contracts could be personally liable. Certainly continuing to incur new costs while unable to pay past bills is morally wrong and dishonest, not that Griffin and the self-styled “reverend” Dowson would care about that.

Dowson tries to warn off creditors from taking legal proceedings to enforce payment, claiming that “the lawyers who have reviewed the underlying contracts to most of the outstanding invoices have advised that most are not enforceable”. Legally it is not necessary to have a written document to create a legally binding contract; it is enough that the goods and services were offered and accepted for consideration.

Dowson’s words may be bluff, as some commentators have suggested. However the difficulty for many creditors may be that their “contracts” are not with clearly specified individuals. Payment cannot be enforced against the party itself because it is an unincorporated association.

He also points out that legal action will achieve nothing other than “to throw good money after bad in the shape of futile lawyers’ costs”. Obtaining judgement against a debtor is pointless where the debtor has no assets.

If the contracts are unenforceable, one might wonder why Dowson offers even 20p in the pound. The reason may be that many of the goods and services were actually purchased by his own company, Adlorries.com Ltd, on behalf of the party. Adlorries.com is a limited company which could be sued for the full sums outstanding. Creditors who accept the 20p offer would have to enter into “a short written compromise agreement”, under which they would give up their right to the rest of the debt. Dowson is probably hoping to confuse creditors into overlooking this potential alternative course of action.

Dowson’s action was approved by the party’s new Finance Scrutiny Committee, which like successive party treasurers is a tame poodle of Griffin and Dowson. Meanwhile the party’s national Advisory Committee is understood to have approved salary cuts for some party staff. Griffin will of course be unaffected as he draws a substantially salary as an MEP, and Dowson is not a staff member but is paid a substantial fixed fee and commission.

Meanwhile the party continues apparently to raise money towards the cost of Griffin’s next appearance before the court on 8 November to answer claims that he failed to comply with the court’s ruling in the case brought by the Equality Commission. A thermometer graphic on the party’s website currently shows £15,000 raised towards a target of £50,000.

That target is unlikely to be reached as the party has now turned its attention to raising £22,000 for the second phase of its “Bring Our Boys Home” campaign, the unabashed purpose of which is to recruit new members to the failing party.

The first phase was to collect signatures on a “petition” and, above all, contact details. This seems to have achieved some success by dint of activists who set up stalls in shopping centres disguising the fact that the petition was organised by the BNP. People have commented that they would not have signed had they known that fact.

The second phase will, according to a “begging letter” emailed late last week, require £5,000 to be spent on software and online packages for the party’s Communications Department to launch a campaign of online targeting of various organisations and £6,000 for a direct mail shot by post to “MPs, councillors, journalists and other ‘opinion formers’, with our special ‘Bring Our Boys Home’ brochure”, a tactic the party has used in at least two previous campaigns. Another £3,500 will go on “a whirlwind tour of the United Kingdom using our own bought and paid for advertising lorry, the ‘Truth Truck’”. That money will no doubt mostly go to Dowson, who is the real owner of what everyone else calls the “lie lorry”.

Then in an implied admission that the campaign is no more than a scam, Griffin wants £7,500 to write to everyone who has signed the petition in the party’s target seats to invite them to local social evenings and persuade them to vote BNP. “This voter targeting … is the key to building the party and winning seats,” he explains.

No doubt Griffin hopes that the party’s creditors still waiting for payment of their several-months-old invoices will remain blissfully unaware of the party’s current plans.

Curiously, Dowson, who purports to be an expert in management, fundraising and all sorts of other industries, signed the letter to creditors “James Dowson B.T.h. M.A.”. The qualification BTh stands for Bachelor of Theology so there is no justification for a full stop between the “T” and the “h”. Is he trying to give the impression that this is some sort of business qualification?

Hope not Hate

Glentoran fan is target for BNP

A Glentoran fan who stood up to the BNP is now being targeted by the far-right party.

Graeme Moore — treasurer of Castlereagh Glentoran Supporters’ Club — said last week that Glentoran fans did not want to be associated with the BNP after members canvassed for support outside the Oval last weekend.

Now senior members of Nick Griffin’s BNP have launched an online campaign urging their followers to contact Graeme.

The BNP’s new Northern Ireland organiser Steve Moore from Larne posted a photo of Graeme on his Facebook page.

Above the picture he’s written: “This is Graeme Moore, the guy who thinks he represents the views of all Glentoran supporters about the BNP presence at the Oval.

“Perhaps you would like to make your views felt to him!”

Steve Moore also included a link to Graeme’s Facebook page so BNP supporters can contact him.

Another BNP follower, Jim White, has posted the number of Glentoran Supporters’ Club on Steve Moore’s Facebook profile.

Last week Sunday Life revealed how Steve Moore masterminded a BNP leaflet drop in his home town of Larne.

Graeme did not want to talk about how he felt about being targeted — and would only comment: “I’m disappointed at this latest development.”

After BNP supporters turned up at the Oval last week Graeme told a reporter: “I noticed the BNP presence and I have to say that I was a little puzzled. In the run up to elections we sometimes get mainstream parties outside the ground but this was very unusual.

“I wasn’t interested in what they were doing so I didn't go any closer to see what exactly they were doing.

“They were outside the ground so there is nothing the club can do but it’s not something the supporters want to have to see.”

A small group of BNP supporters gathered outside the Glentoran versus Glenavon football game with placards demanding the withdrawal of British soldiers from the Middle East as well as handing out flyers and a petition.

East Belfast DUP MLA Robin Newton described the presence of the BNP at the football game as uninvited and unwelcome.

Belfast Telegraph

BNP Fraudster Peter Mailer forged signature to help sell hotel

Peter Mailer

A FRAUDSTER is being held in custody after he was convicted of forging a signature to push through the sale of a Northumberland hotel.

Peter Mailer, who stood as a BNP candidate in Berwick in this year’s General Election, was remanded in custody and warned a prison sentence is likely after jurors found him guilty of forgery offences.

Mailer, 53, had used his former manager’s signature to push through the £245,000 sale of the Hen and Chickens Hotel, in Berwick.

Mailer had already been ordered to pay Trudy Waugh compensation after she won a tribunal case against him for unfair dismissal.

A county court “charge” was later put on the hotel Mailer owned when he failed to pay up in the years that followed, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

That meant the business in Berwick could not be sold while the “charge” was still in place. But Mailer, from Bricksheds, Belford, passed the hotel to his brother in August 2006 for £245,000, the court heard.

And when an accountant began to investigate the still outstanding compensation, it was discovered two key documents had been forged with Ms Waugh’s signature.

After he was convicted of forgery and using a false instrument by a majority verdict, Mailer bowed his head and appeared upset.

Judge Roger Thorn warned him: “This is a serious matter and there will almost certainly be a custodial sentence. I order pre-sentence reports and they will go to the length of the sentence.”

Mailer, 53, had denied charges of forgery and using a false instrument within intent between November 2004 and November 2006.

The first offence involves an allegation he produced a bogus written agreement between himself and Ms Waugh. The second relates to an official Land Registry form saying the county court “charge” had been removed, the court heard.

Mailer was arrested last November after the documents were passed to police. He will now face a proceeds-of-crime hearing in an effort to claw back some of his ill-gotten gains. He was remanded in custody until November 8.

That meant the business in Berwick could not be sold while the “charge” was still in place

Journal Live

EDL rally woman attacked police officer, court told

AN English Defence League supporter kicked out at a police dog and attacked a police officer during the organisation’s mass rally in Bolton town centre earlier this year, a court heard.

Amanda Rutland, aged 36, of Bates Lane, West Turville, Aylesbury, appeared before Bolton Magistrates accused of a public order offence and assaulting a police officer.

The hearing was told that Rutland, who denies the charges, kicked out at a police officer and his dog on March 20 while officers were trying to disperse the crowds gathered in Le Mans crescent.

Rutland was described as behaving aggressively towards the officer.

She was bit by the dog, but it was told to release her as she was being sucked into the crowd. Before she could be arrested she had disappeared amongst the demonstrators.

Her defence counsel argued that the dog bit her for no reason and that Rutland had done nothing wrong.

But Rutland was later spotted at Breightmet Street where police officers told the court she became aggressive and resisted arrest.

The trial continues.

Bolton News

Far-right behind' football clashes

Ivan Bogdanov, arrested by Italian police, is considered to be the ringleader of the riots in Genoa [AFP]

Serbia has blamed far-right groups for hooliganism that marred an Italy-Serbia football match a day earlier.

Tuesday's match being played in the Italian city of Genoa was abandoned within seven minutes after visiting Serbian fans threw flares and fireworks onto the pitch and at Italian fans during the European championship qualifier.

Clashes with police continued into the night and 16 people were hospitalised.

Ivica Dacic, the Serbian interior minister, said on Wednesday that the institgators were part of the same far-right group responsible for anti-gay riots in Belgrade on the weekend.

He said neo-Nazis have infiltrated fan groups to spread their staunch anti-European Union agenda and to undermine the national government.

"Generally, those are extremist groups that existed for years and are registered in police files and their members have been arrested in the past,'' Dacic said.

"They have various goals and are looking for various reasons for violence."

The Serbian football association said that the violence was premeditated and probably organised from Belgrade.

Investigation

The Union of European Football Associations, or UEFA, opened its investigation into the violence on Wednesday. Possible sanctions against Serbia range from a large fine to exclusion from the Euro 2012 qualifiers.

Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, and Michel Platini, president of UEFA, both condemned the violence.

"I was shocked by the images of yesterday's Italy-Serbia match," Platini said in a statement.

The UEFA hearing is scheduled for October 28.

Ivan Bogdanov, the alleged ringleader was arrested after being found hiding in a bus to Serbia. Although he had his face covered by a mask during the rioting in Genoa, he was identified by tattoos on his arms.

The rioting in Genoa is the most recent of a series of incidents involving Serbian fans. Last September, a French fan was killed after he was attacked in Belgrade.

Serbian football has been marred by violence for two decades, but the violence has only recently begun to spread beyond the country’s boarders on a large scale.

"This is one of the darkest days in the history of Serbia's football," Savo Milosevic, the renowned former Serbia striker, said.

"The government has been completely disinterested in sports and its problems over the last 20 years, hence Serbia is now paying a heavy price for the failure to tackle hooliganism swiftly and decisively," he said.

Llandybie councillor quits BNP

Meirion Bowen

A LLANDYBIE community councillor has resigned from the British National party just 18 months after becoming the second member of the authority to join the far right organisation.

Meirion Bowen, a former Plaid Cymru county council candidate, joined the BNP in April 2009 claiming that locals were "disillusioned" with the mainstream parties.

Cllr Bowen, who sat alongside fellow BNP member Kevin Edwards at council meetings, also maintained that the party had "more in common with the man in the street".

But when pressed by the Guardian last week, Cllr Bowen disclosed that his BNP days were behind him.

"When I joined the British National Party it was the right decision for me at that time," he said. "It is now time for me to move forward.

"I am disillusioned by all of the political parties; however, my time with the BNP was productive and in the best interests of the people of Llandybie."

Cllr Bowen said he had made his decision in the interests of his family, employment and his own personal safety.

"I will continue to act in the best interest of the people of Llandybie without affiliation to any party politics," he added.

Cllr Edwards insisted Cllr Bowen’s departure was not a blow for the BNP. "Meirion has a lot of issues that he feels he should deal with outside party politics," he said. "We remain good friends and still think along the same lines.

"When I lived in Penygroes I received four death threats and was the subject of a string of false rumours which broke up my marriage – Meirion has also been threatened and persecuted."

South Wales Guardian

The EDL in Leicester

Meet Tommy Robinson leader of the English Defence League. Here he is being questioned by police after he and his friends jumped off a coach to during a confrontation with locals. He claims to lead a peaceful organisation but as you can see here the EDL is nothing of the sort.

The EDL in Leicester from HOPE not hate on Vimeo.

The day the EDL emptied Leicester

EDL protest in Leicester

SHUTTERED stores, boarded-up windows, padlocked pubs, deserted streets, coppers on almost every corner. Leicester in lock-down, nailed shut, its familiar features carved up by high metal fences and massed ranks of police at every turn.

An elderly lady, crying tears of frustration because her way home has been blocked off, has never seen anything like it, not even in the war.

At 10.30am in Humberstone Gate the tension is palpable. It feels like the city is bracing itself for a hurricane.

What it will get is an ugly, isolated little shower.

The ironies are splinter sharp and there's symbolism everywhere you look on this strange, strange Saturday.

The English Defence League: a protest movement whose destination is a prefabricated cul-de-sac of police and metal at the unlovely end of town. Caught up in their very own persecution complex; isolated, impotent, unseen by most of Leicester and, by the finish, flaring up at one another.

By 3.15pm the EDL is beginning to turn on itself as singer Citizen Steve barks an altered Sham 69 lyric: "England united will never be divided."

"If any ex-soldiers are here, get over here and deal with these idiots," orders the singer, stopping his set to sort out the thugs who try to kick down the fence separating them from the Unite Against Fascism brigade.

The EDL's self-appointed leader, Tommy Robinson, delivers his speech to the backs of hundreds of heads.

Less than half listen to his clarion calls as rumours spread that Muslims are attacking their buses down the road – another fiendish Islamic plot that proves to be totally untrue.

If the devil ever decides to run a day trip from hell it will look a lot like this one.

The EDL's Plymouth division has brought the biggest flag. They've spent five-and-a-half hours in a car to be here today and, oh dear, they've forgotten where they parked it.

They're here to take a stand, says one, clutching a can of Stella, full of beer-blown indignation.

If it wasn't for the EDL, he argues, the Muslims would be blowing up our shopping centres.

Who's going to stop them? The Government? Don't make him laugh.

"Granted, we've got a few idiots with us, but we've got to show the people of Leicester what's frickin' going on in their city."

He's a bit reluctant to give his name. Understandable in the circumstances. Not everyone wants to out themselves as EDL.

"No, it's not that," he insists. "It's just that my name's a bit, um, well, embarrassing."

Embarrassing?

"If I tell you, promise you won't laugh," he says.

Promise.

"My dad was a massive, massive Star Wars fan, so he named me... Anakin, after Luke Skywalker's dad.

"See, I knew you'd laugh. Everyone laughs. It's not easy being called Anakin Allcock."

A man dressed as a chicken is down from Blackburn. He's protesting against the KFC in his home town allegedly starting to cook halal meat.

"It tastes the same, but I don't like the snidey way they did it without giving anyone a choice," he says. "The Muslims are taking over everything.

"I didn't come down dressed like this – I wouldn't have got off my estate dressed like this."

Police with riot shields briefly move in when a shop door is kicked open.

A few stones and cans are thrown. Most hit the EDL's stewards. A smoke bomb hurled in the direction of the cops comes down on their own side.

You couldn't make it up.

If the English Defence League really are all that stands between this country becoming hardline Islamic state, then God help us.

They come here with their extremism, taking over, making nuisances of themselves, driving people away. And yes, perhaps we are prejudiced, but they should bugger off back to where they came from.

That seems to be general mood among the locals as the build-up to all this begins few hours earlier.

The English Defence League will do many things today, but they won't win many new friends.

No one likes being told where they can and can't go in their own home. The police face a bit of flak, but most of the anger is directed at the EDL.

"It's absolutely ridiculous is this," seethes a Syston lady who's turned up at Nottingham Oddfellows Club to find it closed.

"Disgusting," complains her friend. "I don't really understand what any of this is all about, but I know it means we can't play bingo."

And that, as they both say, really isn't on.

Nicola Turner is out walking her dogs at 11am with her daughter, Holly. They live above a nearby pub.

"It's like a ghost town. I can't ever remember it this quiet," says Nicola. "We're getting out before the idiots arrive.

"Then we're battening down the hatches until they've all gone. It's so unfair. The EDL say they're here to keep things on an even keel. They're not doing that, they're just creating animosity.

"I'm old enough to remember the riots of the 1980s. I'd have liked to think we would have all learned our lessons from that."

Ian Stephenson is the first smiley face to be seen.

He's come down from Bradford with his wife and young son, and is a "police vehicle enthusiast".

You've heard of trainspotters, well Stephen has the hots for cars and vans that go nee-na.

"It's brilliant this," he beams, taking photographs of anything with a siren. There are 12 to 15 police forces here today and they've all brought their vehicles.

"You might think I'm mad, but I've been called a lot worse. "We'll be long gone before the protesters arrive."

Eric Mackness stands outside Primark watching the police get organised.

"My missus normally comes with me into town on Saturday. Not today," says the 76-year-old from Braunstone. "She's scared stiff about what might happen.

"We were by the Clock Tower yesterday for the peace thing. That was real nice, brilliant, full of people having a nice time. It's the National Front's turn today, isn't it? That's what they are, you know, really. And it's all wrong."

Eric knew what he would be walking into today. Quite a few didn't, it seems.

A policeman in High Street is explaining the situation, yet again, to the latest bemused face.

"Unbelievable," sighs the cop, shaking his helmeted head. "Do these people not read the papers or watch the news?"

It's eerily quiet in Leicester Market at 11.30am. Most of the stall-holders have stayed at home.

Fruit and veg traders Simon and Jane Wilkes are among the few who've decided to to work.

"It's a funny old day," says Jane. "We've had old dears come up who've said they couldn't remember this much disruption in World War Two."

For Jane and Simon it comes down to simple economics. They can't afford to shut up the stall for a day.

Kate Chamberlain, who sells pet supplies, is taking her stand on a point of principle.

"We live here all year round with all these different people," says the 59-year-old. "We know them and we know they're good people.

"I'm not a brave person, I cry at any sadness, but I'm not going to be bullied or scare-mongered into closing. This is England, right here."

Another member of the protest group in Hotel Street is pouring lager down his neck like there's no tomorrow. It's early afternoon and the EDL are out in force.

Pint glasses are hoisted high and chants of "E-E-EDL" and "Ing-er-land, Ing-er-land" fill the air as the police at either end of the street edge ever closer behind their Plexiglass shields.

Things will get uglier and the chants will get nastier, but for now, things are relatively good humoured.

"Eighty nine per cent of the people here aren't out to cause trouble," says an ex-serviceman from Nottingham. "We just want to be heard."

"You are being heard," laughs a copper. "I've not been able to hear myself think for the last hour."

Wendy "Woo", of Earl Shilton, cutting quite a dash in her England cowboy hat and England top, is on her first EDL protest.

"I believe in what they stand for and what they stand for is England, at the end of the day," she says. "Instead of building all these mosques why don't they build houses and schools? "I can't get on the council housing list, so I believe in what the EDL have to say."

"Slug" and "Snail", a couple of builders from Leicester, are on their first protest, too.

They're called Slug and Snail, says Slug with a wink, because they like to take their time on a job.

Slug shows a picture on his mobile phone of the two of them dressed up as Osama bin Laden by an extension they built for a Muslim customer. Both seem to think that's pretty funny.

"We're all for multi-culturalism, but it's gone too far," says Snail. "When it gets dark at night, I want my family to feel safe. We're on the front line today."

On the front line and well dug in. When it comes to boarding the buses to Humberstone Gate, both decide to stay in the pub and have a few more beers.

"To be honest with you, mate," admits Slug, "I just want to get bellied up."

Back in Humberstone Gate, the atmosphere is decidedly more congenial on the UAF side of the iron curtain.

Well, mainly.

Davinder Singh is not looking for a fight, but he won't be backing down if trouble does come over the barricade.

"I'm a Sikh and I live in an area that's 95 per cent Muslim," says the 43-year-old from Highfields. "Leicester is an all right place to live.

"It p***** me off that the EDL are here trying to create a rift between people."

Martin Lynch and his friend, Ursula Walker, are here from the West Midlands.

"It's time the EDL was seen off," says Martin.

"If all these people like us weren't here, they would have had free rein through the city. Telling us to stay away was, in my opinion, badly misguided.

"It's not true that the UAF are looking for a scrap. This is a peaceful, but determined gathering."

Those walls will keep any maniacs from either side well apart. They can't even hear one another above the ever-present chudder of the police helicopter, let alone get the chance to fight.

It's a success, certainly from a policing point of view. The city won't tear itself apart. If anything, Leicester feels more together. So why does it seem like a hollow victory?

After all the hype and hullaballoo, it all feels strangely pointless, an expensive exercise in futility.

"Tell me about it," says one man who got himself accidentally penned in with EDL.

"I've been stuck here about an hour and I only came out to buy a pint of milk."

The Leicester Mercury

Updated arrest information from protests on 9th October 2010

Police can now confirm that during yesterday’s demonstration 17 people were arrested, 6 from the Leicestershire area. 10 people have been charged.

• 30-year-old man from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer. He has been charged and released on bail to appear in court on Wednesday 10th November 2010.
• 37-year-old man from Leicester arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and public order offences. He has been bailed until Wednesday 17th November 2010.
• 39-year-old man from Leicester arrested on suspicion of public order offences. He has been charged and released on bail to appear in court on Wednesday 10th November 2010.
• 27-year-old man from Stoke on Trent arrested on suspicion of public order offences. He has been charged and released on bail to appear in court on Friday 19th November 2010.
• 23-year-old man from Halifax arrested on suspicion of public order offences and given street bail to return to a Leicester police sation on Tuesday 16th November.
• 37-year-old man of no fixed abode arrested for possession of a controlled substance and possession of an offensive weapon. He has been charged and remanded into custody and is due to appear in court on Monday 11th October 2010.
• 30-year-old man from Wales arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and public order offences. He has been charged and bailed until Friday 19th November 2010.
• 39-year-old man from Boston, Lincolnshire arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. He was given a conditional discharge.
• 42-year-old man from Holland arrested on suspicion of public order offences. He was charged and released on bail to appear in court on Friday 19th November 2010.
• 21-year-old man from Alvaston, Derby arrested on suspicion of public order offences. He was charged and released on bail to appear in court on Friday 19th November 2010.
• 38-year-old man from Gateshead arrested on suspicion of public order offences. He was charged and released on bail to appear in court on Friday 19th November 2010.
• 27-year-old man from Long Eaton, Notts arrested on suspicion of public order offences. He was charged and released on bail to appear in court on Wednesday 10th November 2010.
• 23-year-old man from Wigston arrested on suspicion of public order offences and assaulting a police officer. He has been charged and released on bail to appear in court on Friday 19th November 2010.
• 29-year-old man from Leicester has been arrested on suspicion of public order offences and bailed until Wednesday 17th November 2010.
• 44-year-old man from Leicester has been arrested on suspicion of actual bodily harm and released on police bail until Thursday 25th November.
• 19-year-old woman from Leicester arrested on suspicion on suspicion of public order offences and bailed until Wednesday 17th November 2010.
• 44-year-old man from Wigan in Lancashire arrested on suspicion of public order offences and given street bail to return to a Leicester police station at a future date

Leicestershire Constabulary

BNP pamphlets 'not welcomed' at Oval

Glentoran Football Club says it is saddened that BNP members handed out pamphlets at the Oval before their home game with Glenavon on Saturday.

Supporters of the party were seen carrying placards and handing out pamphlets as part of a protest campaign against the war in Afghanistan. The east Belfast club said it did not welcome "these types of groups" outside the Oval.

"Glentoran Football Club has a strong tradition of being an inclusive football club that appeals to a broad range of supporters and players from across all communities in Northern Ireland", the club said in a statement.

"Our strong cross community ethos does not align itself with any political party and we are saddened that such an incident has happened. We do not welcome these types of groups outside of our football club as we continue to provide an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere at the Oval for local football supporters."

DUP East Belfast MLA Robin Newton said he received calls from members of the public complaining about the presence of BNP members outside the football ground last weekend. Mr Newton described their presence at the match as "uninvited and unwelcome".

"A number of constituents have contacted me to express their disgust at the presence of the BNP outside their local club," he said. "They go to the Oval to support the Glens and enjoy a game of football; they don't want to be faced with BNP messages of hate. I presume this BNP presence is some sort of campaign to raise their nauseous profile, and I appeal for everyone to stand as one to reject their message.

"The BNP should pack up their messages of hate and disappear. They have been rejected time and time again, they represent no-one, and we don't want them in our midst."

Alliance councillor Mervyn Jones says the group "has no place" at the sports ground.

"I am disgusted that the BNP would try to take advantage of a football match to try and canvass support for their sickening views," Mr Jones said. "I am glad that Glentoran fans have given this group the red card as this type of activity has no place anywhere near our sports grounds. As a Glentoran supporter, I strongly resent any attempt to link Glentoran Football Club to the BNP.

"Inside the ground I spoke to a number of people and everyone I spoke to was opposed the presence of the BNP, which might be considered the only positive thing to come from this disgusting episode."

In a statement, the BNP said it was seeking "an end to the illegal and immoral war in Afghanistan."

The party said it took to "the streets of Belfast in a peaceful and democratic manner to collect signatures for a petition to be handed in to the government calling for the immediate withdrawal of all British troops from that conflict."

"For the DUP, and Robin Newton in particular, to attack the BNP for this pro-peace message is an example of the most extreme hypocrisy yet seen in Northern Ireland", the statement added.

UTV News

Former Legionnaire leads BNP in Northern Ireland

Steven Moore

When the BNP quietly announced it had appointed a new regional organiser for Northern Ireland it was clearly looking forward to an upsurge in its embarrassingly low membership in the province.

The previous organiser, Kieran Devlin, who used the alias Kieran Dinsmore, was a painfully camera-shy club doorman who organised party meetings in such secrecy that few of the region’s 50-odd members were told of them. Terrified of being caught up in the continuing media exposure of the BNP’s activities in the province, Devlin earned the nickname “Twitcher” from staff at the party’s Belfast call centre after the panicked telephone calls he made to them from behind the curtains of his Clandeboye Road, Bangor home, complaining that journalists were stalking him at his front gate.

One of the main reasons for the BNP’s recruitment problems is its lack of understanding of the political and religious geography of Northern Ireland. One of Devlin’s biggest stumbling blocks was his apparently Irish Catholic name, despite his English parents and military background.

Devlin is said to have complained about the lack of support for the local party from call centre staff. Very few of the people entrusted with running the party office in the six counties are local and those who are refuse to be associated with the party publicly. The staff who moved to Northern Ireland to work behind the now notorious steel shutters in Dundonald seem unwilling to leave the seclusion of the villages of Ballygowan or Comber, let alone venture into downtown Belfast, for fear of bumping into Republicans.

Devlin’s replacement is Steven Moore (pictured), an all-things-military-obsessed former French Legionnaire with a penchant for red wine and Liverpool football club. Moore was appointed after the party held an internal enquiry into how, in an area so wracked with racist violence and paramilitary history and tensions, it has failed to convert complimentary support into membership. Moore put himself forward for the job as some kind of “super-Prod”, claiming he could reach into loyalist communities and organisations and even stop the constant Searchlight exposés of the BNP in Northern Ireland by speaking to a “number of community groups”. This is common vernacular for paramilitaries.

Devlin’s departure was welcomed by local BNP members, not least because of his Catholic-sounding name. When the Sunday World with the help of Searchlight exposed Moore as the new leader of “Ulster BNP” and wrote a rather derisory epitaph for Devlin/Dinsmore in June, even the local BNP’s own blog joined in. “His [the Sunday World’s journalist] attack centred on the outgoing Organiser and to a certain extent i [sic] agreed with him,” wrote the blogger responsible for promoting the BNP in Northern Ireland.

Moore may claim to have all the Protestant credentials needed to run the BNP in Northern Ireland, but he also comes with the usual embarrassment of sectarian hatreds and relaxed attitude towards rape and violence.

In April, Moore joked how he had been arrested after raping a female work colleague for an April Fool’s joke and made unsavoury comments about the blind.

Moore gets a nod of approval from Devlin for his description of the pogrom against Roma families in south Belfast two years ago as an act against people who are “inherently criminal” and “Stinking Gypsy bastards”.

When Moore isn’t posting videos by white power bands such as Skrewdriver on Facebook, he reveals his fancy for all things “Third Reich” by sharing videos of Adolf Hitler with his online friends. One apparent favourite is entitled: “Why the world cannot forget Adolf Hitler”. He also has a penchant for songs and videos of the German Wehrmacht.

Elsewhere, Moore has thrown his energies into trying to stop a mosque allegedly being built in Ballymena, the heartland of Paisleyism. Like most BNP members, Moore calls Muslims “ragheads” and Catholics “taigs”.

What with BNP leader Nick Griffin’s daughter Jenny now beating the drum for hardline Protestants, perhaps “super-Prod” Moore will win the sort of support that eluded Devlin.

Searchlight

English Defence League forges links with America's Tea Party

As the far-right group marches in Leicester, details are emerging of growing contacts with extremist US groups in a 'war on Islamification"

Members of the English Defence League during a march in London against Islamic fundamentalism. Photograph: Rex

The English Defence League, a far-right grouping aimed at combating the "Islamification" of British cities, has developed strong links with the American Tea Party movement.

An Observer investigation has established that the EDL has made contact with anti-jihad groups within the Tea Party organisation and has invited a senior US rabbi and Tea Party activist to London this month. Rabbi Nachum Shifren, a regular speaker at Tea Party conventions, will speak about Sharia law and also discuss funding issues.

The league has also developed links with Pamela Geller, who was influential in the protests against plans to build an Islamic cultural centre near Ground Zero. Geller, darling of the Tea Party's growing anti-Islamic wing, is advocating an alliance with the EDL. The executive director of the Stop Islamisation of America organisation, she recently met EDL leaders in New York and has defended the group's actions, despite a recent violent march in Bradford.

Geller, who denies being anti-Muslim, said in one of her blogs: "I share the EDL's goals… We need to encourage rational, reasonable groups that oppose the Islamisation of the west."

Devin Burghart, vice-president of the Kansas-based Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, said: "Geller is acting as the bridge between the EDL and the Tea Party. She plays an important role in bringing Islamophobia into the Tea Party. Her stature has increased substantially inside the Tea Party ranks after the Ground Zero mosque controversy. She has gained a lot of credibility with that stuff."

Details of the EDL's broadening aspirations came as about 1,000 supporters yesterday gathered to demonstrate in Leicester, which has a significant Muslim population. Home secretary Theresa May banned marches in the city last week but the EDL said its protest would proceed, raising fears of violence. Parts of Leicester were cordoned off to separate a counter-protest from Unite Against Fascism. Officers from 13 forces were on hand to maintain order.

The Tea Party is expected to be an influential force in America's mid-term elections. Last month their candidate Christine O'Donnell romped to the Republican nomination in Delaware, following a stream of populist rightwing candidates who carry the movement's endorsement. Burghart says anti-Islamic tendencies have become far more marked in the grassroots organisation: "As we move farther and farther away from the Tea Party origins, that were ostensibly around debt and bail-outs, social issues like Islamophobia are replacing that anger, that vigour. The idea that there is a war between Islam and the west is becoming commonplace."

Another Tea Party-associated grouping, the International Civil Liberties Alliance, which campaigns against Sharia law, confirmed that EDL leaders have made "contacts with members of important organisations within the American counter-jihad movement". A statement said: "It seems now that America and Europe are acting as one, and united we can never fail."

With the Tea Party said to benefit from millions of dollars of funding from conservative foundations, experts warn an alliance between the EDL and extremist elements within the US movement could allow the English group to invest in wider recruitment and activism.

Shifren, a Californian senate candidate, said Britain's Jewish community should rally behind the EDL: "The Jewish community is paralysed with fear, exactly what most radical Muslim agitators want. The people of England are in the forefront of this war – and it is a war. One of the purposes of this visit is to put the kibosh on the notion in the Jewish community that they cannot co-operate with the EDL, which is rubbish."

The EDL's website relaunched briefly last week with new US links. Currently shut down for "maintenance", the site featured prominent links to a site called Atlas Shrugs, which is run by Geller, and another US-based site, Jihad Watch, which compiles negative news coverage of Islamic militancy.

In addition, two members of the EDL leadership, a British businessman called Alan Lake who is believed to fund the group and a man known by the alias Kinana, are regular contributors to web forum 4Freedoms. The forum claims to be "organising US activities" and has links to the anti-jihad group, American Congress for Truth, which in turn has supporters within the Tea Party.

Lake is also believed to have been in touch with a number of anti-Islamic Christian evangelical groups in the US. One posting by Lake on 4Freedoms warns that the UK of the future will start to fragment into Islamic enclaves. Lake, believed to be a principal bankroller of the EDL, which claims to be a peaceful, non-racist organisation, is understood to be keen on the possibility of setting up the UK equivalent of the Tea Party. At an event organised by the Taxpayers' Allliance last month, US Tea Party organisers outlined how the movement emerged last year, partly in protest at the US bank bail-out.

Those present included Freedom Works and the Cato Institute, one of the Tea Party's main backers. However, Simon Richards, director of the Gloucestershire-based Freedom Association, which is looking at developing a pseudo-Tea Party movement in the UK, said he was concerned the project could be hijacked by elements such as the EDL. Nick Lowles of anti-fascist organisation Searchlight said: "The EDL is an integral part of an international campaign against Islam. While some are fighting in a cultural and political arena, the EDL are taking it to the streets. The images of the EDL allegedly taking on Muslim fundamentalists on the streets of Britain is also delighting right wing religious organisations in US."

The Observer

English Defence League is a bigger threat than the BNP

Jon Cruddas

The right has become organised; those of us who believe in a decent progressive society must make a response

A thousand English Defence League supporters protested in Leicester yesterday, the latest in a wave of anti-Muslim activity across the country.

Last week, 40 EDL followers protested for three days outside a KFC restaurant in Blackburn which was trialling halal meat. A fortnight before, 30 EDL followers in Gateshead held an impromptu demonstration outside a police station after six of their friends were arrested for burning the Qur'an; a similar number attacked a leftwing meeting in Newcastle. On the anniversary of 9/11, there were EDL actions in London, Nuneaton, Leeds and Oldham.

The EDL is a much bigger threat than the BNP, consumed by infighting and debt since its crushing defeat in May's local elections. It also poses the biggest danger to community cohesion in Britain today. Its provocative marches, "flash demos" and pickets are designed to whip up divisions between communities and provoke a violent reaction from young British Muslims.

The group has regional organisers and units emerging in most towns and cities. They bring together a dangerous cocktail of football hooligans, far-right activists and pub racists. Yet there is no national strategy to deal with this group and little understanding of what the EDL is about, its appeal and how it is just one component, albeit a violent one, of a growing cultural, religious and political battle that is emerging across western Europe and is supported by rightwing religious groups in the US.

For those taking to the streets of Leicester, the EDL is providing a new white nationalist identity through which they can understand an increasingly complex and alienating world. In a similar way to how football hooligans once coalesced around support for Ulster loyalism and hatred of the IRA, the followers of the EDL genuinely believe they are "defending" their Britain against the threat of Islam. What makes the EDL much more dangerous is how it reflects a wider political and cultural war. Across western Europe rightwing populist parties are achieving huge electoral success on the same anti-Islam platform. This is being mirrored by the emergence of the Tea Party movement in the US and a religious right that is pouring money into western Europe to fight secular liberalism, which they blame for allowing Islam in through the back door.

There is now increasing chatter among many on the right, including Alan Lake, who is giving guidance to the EDL, of the need to establish a UK version of the Tea Party, which could occupy the space between the Conservatives and the BNP. Only last month a £200-a-head event in London was addressed by some of the organisations backing the Tea Party.

The threat of the EDL and the wider cultural war must be taken seriously. That is why we will soon be establishing a broad-based group to formulate a response. The right has become very organised; it is time for those of us who believe in a decent progressive society to do the same.

Jon Cruddas is the Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham

The Observer

Violence flares at English Defence League protest in Leicester

Officers wearing riot gear and dog handlers worked to keep a crowd of EDL supporters under control as bricks and coins were thrown at police. The EDL held a static demonstration and Unite Against Fascism (UAF) staged a counter-protest in the Humberstone Gate East area of the city.

At least 1,400 officers were drafted in from 12 other forces to deal with the demonstrations, the city's largest policing operation in 25 years.

EDL supporters arrived from across the country in coaches throughout the morning. They were permitted to gather ahead of the protests in Hotel Street, Leicester, with police monitoring the groups in four different pubs.

With many wearing EDL branded hoodies and carrying banners, they met in and around the pubs, monitored by officers and police evidence gatherers. Some chanted ''EDL, EDL" while others carried banners reading slogans including "Sharia laws will destroy Britain and all our British values''.

Before the protests started, police said one person was arrested for drugs offences and another three people were also arrested.

Earlier this week, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, authorised a blanket ban on marches in Leicester, but the groups were still permitted to hold static demonstrations in Humberstone Gate East in the city from 2pm to 3.30pm. The area was shut down by police today, with rival groups placed either side of metal barriers.

Much of the city centre appeared quiet and some shops were boarded up near to the protest site.

Police were using Section 14 of the Public Order Act which meant officers could take action against anyone who protests outside that place and time. They were also using stop and search powers, and were supported by the dog unit, mounted unit and East Midlands Air Support Unit.

At one point a policeman was put into a buggy-style ambulance on a stretcher. Some EDL protesters were also treated by police medics, it is unclear what their injuries were.

Police said around 1,000 EDL supporters had turned up and approximately 700 UAF demonstrators.

Telegraph

'Defence leagues' plan Amsterdam show of support for Geert Wilders

Dutch politician Geert Wilders sitting in court in Amsterdam with his lawyer Bram Moszkowicz on a charge of inciting racism. Photograph: Marcel Antonisse/Pool/Reuters

Far right groups modelled on the English Defence League have been set up across Europe and are planning to demonstrate in Amsterdam in support of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

French and Dutch "defence leagues" will join the EDL and several other anti-Islamic organisations on 30 October to coincide with the end of Wilders's trial for hate speech and inciting racism.

About 2,000 EDL supporters are expected to demonstrate in Leicester tomorrow. Home secretary Theresa May banned marches in the city this week but the EDL said its protest would go ahead, raising fears of unrest.

The EDL, formed in Luton last year, has become the most significant far-right street movement in the UK since the National Front. It claims to be a peaceful, non-racist organisation protesting against "militant Islam". Many of its demonstrations have descended into violence and Islamophobic and racist chanting, attracting known football hooligans and far right extremists. At its most recent demonstration in Bradford, in August, 1,600 police officers tried to contain EDL supporters as bricks, bottles and smoke bombs were thrown. There were 13 arrests.

Critics say the demonstration in Amsterdam is a sign of the EDL's growing influence among far right and anti-Islamic groups in Europe and the US, and part of its self-proclaimed "international outreach work and networking".

The EDL refused to answer the Guardian's questions today but its leader, who uses the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, wrote on the group's website that the Amsterdam demonstration would "take the English Defence League global".

"The EDL has been in contact with our European brothers and sisters and we have decided that on Saturday 30th October the European defence league will be demonstrating in Amsterdam in support of Geert," Robinson wrote. "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."

The Amsterdam protest will see EDL supporters join other activists from countries including Germany, Belgium and Switzerland for the launch of what is being called the "European Defence League".

One group planning to attend is the French Defence League, or Ligue de Defense Française. It was formed in July and one of its co-founders confirmed it was modelled on the EDL. "We were indeed inspired by their [EDL's] statutes and by the spirit of openness which enlivens them," a spokesman wrote in an email to the Guardian.

Like the EDL, the French group denies it is racist or violent and says it aims to fight the "threat" Islam poses to France's values and customs. "We who wish to keep our values and our liberties must unite and fight those who are willing to sell the nation and our country for a politician's sash," the spokesman said.

The growth of the EDL and similar groups is of growing concern, says the Labour MEP for London, Claude Moraes, who chairs the all-party European parliament group on anti-racism.

"The EDL's racist and Islamophobic message is resonating across Europe as we can see from the formation of these groups," he said. "This is particularly dangerous because they are using this virulent Islamophobia as an excuse to promote what is a dangerous agenda of hate and division."

The European connections are part of a number of international links forged by the EDL in the past year. In August it emerged that the EDL had received endorsements from Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, opponents of a Muslim community centre being built near the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York. In one of her blogs Geller wrote: "I share the EDL's goals ... We need to encourage rational, reasonable groups that oppose the Islamisation of the west and not leave it solely to fringe groups like the BNP."

Last month Robinson and at least seven other EDL supporters flew to New York to attend a protest against the community centre near "ground zero".

In April EDL supporters attended a demonstration in support of Wilders in Berlin, and in June EDL delegates spoke at a "counter-jihad" conference organised by the International Civil Liberties Alliance in Zurich, where they gave a presentation entitled The Anatomy of an EDL Demo.

Nick Lowles of anti-fascist organisation Searchlight said: "The EDL is operating on two levels. There are the violent street demonstrations that have brought fear and division to towns and cities across the country, then there is the political wing of the organisation that is partly inspired by Christian fundamentalism and is making links and inspiring other groups in Europe and elsewhere."

The Guardian

So, who are the English Defence League exactly?

You have probably read all about the planned EDL protest in Leicester on Saturday, but do you know what the group really stands for? Adam Wakelin reports on their short but stormy history

If the cause was different, you might be tempted to call it a rainbow coalition. Football hooligans, neo-Nazis, gay rights activists, disillusioned BNP supporters who think the nasty party's gone soft and more besides: protest movements have seen some rum old alliances down the years, but nothing quite like the disparate bunch who gather under the English Defence League banner.

You could equally call it an unholy alliance, if it weren't for the fact that the EDL has Christian and Jewish supporters and has been trying to encourage Hindu and Sikh youths to join the group's protest in Leicester this weekend.

What binds them all together? A common enemy. Islamic fundamentalism.

"We are fighting an extreme interpretation of Islam, people who have no qualms about killing themselves and other people in the process," says Guramit Singh, event organiser and EDL spokesman.

"It's a grass roots social movement."

Prime Minister David Cameron has a rather different view. "Dreadful people," was his verdict on the EDL during the election campaign.

Journalist Matthew Taylor, who followed activists earlier this year for an exposé in the Guardian, said the group acts as a "lightning rod for people with a range of grievances who appear to be coalescing around a rampant Islamophobia."

"At each demonstration I attended, I was confronted by casual – often brutal – racism, a widespread hatred of Muslims and often the threat of violence," he wrote.

And on Saturday, they're coming to Leicester.

So what is the real driving force behind this group that will descend on our city in a couple of days, provoking a counter Unite Against Fascism protest, and costing hundreds of thousands of pounds to police? Who are the EDL?

The English Defence League was born in the aftermath of an ugly demonstration by a small extremist Muslim group in March last year against homecoming troops parading through Luton. Its growth since then has been rapid. The EDL now has between 200 and 300 divisions across England, claims Guramit, and is affiliated to similar defence leagues in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Links have also been forged with groups in Europe and the USA. Luton was the "spark that ignited the fire," he says.

People were sick of the creeping Islamification of Britain and the failure of mainstream politicians to protect our "democratic freedoms" from the medieval dogma of militant Muslims and their Sharia law, reckons Guramit, who got involved with the EDL when it marched through his home town of Nottingham last year.

"There are more than 100 Sharia courts practising on a daily basis," he claims.

Sharia law is a "racist, fascist, paedophilic law", he insists; a law which condones child marriage, imprisons women behind burkhas, legitimises female circumcision and wants to take over the world.

Actually, it doesn't. Sharia courts in the UK don't trample over the laws of the land. They're mainly a forum for resolving matrimonial disputes. In truth, they're the Islamic equivalent of Relate.

The idea that the EDL arrived out of nowhere is wrong, reckons Simon Cressy, a journalist for the anti-fascist monitoring organisation Searchlight. Simon, not his real name, has been keeping a watchful eye on the EDL since day one.

The rump of the EDL, he claims, is a shotgun marriage of football hooligans and extreme right-wingers who have been lurking in the shadows for years. Its self-proclaimed leader is a man who is said to have taken the name of a notorious Luton Town FC football hooligan, Tommy Robinson, as his pseudonym.

Searchlight claim the man behind the pseudonym has a BNP past and a conviction for assaulting an off-duty police officer. "The EDL has quite a lot of unsavoury characters, not the sort of people you want to congregate around," says Simon.

Football hooligan firms are the foundation of the EDL, claims Simon. They use Facebook and established hooligan networks to organise.

The EDL, which has no formal membership structure, has also been a magnet for neo-Nazis and older National Front thugs who've found themselves marginalised by the BNP's desire to present themselves as more respectable.

But it would be wrong to dismiss them as a simple replay of the far-right street movements of the past.

"Black and white unite in Leicester," says the EDL poster for this weekend's protest. The group has launched a Jewish section, with its own Facebook page. There is also a "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender division," says Simon, but their presence has noticeably thinned at recent marches.

"The EDL has made a number of representations to Hindu and Sikh youths in Leicester to come out and march," he says.

Taking a stand against Islamic extremism might be the rallying cry, but Simon claims it's just a front. "The majority of the EDL will be in Leicester for one reason," he says. "They will be there to get drunk and have a fight. They are not serious people with a political agenda."

Surprisingly, Guramit makes no attempt to play down the football hooligan element of the EDL. If anything, he's rather proud of them.

"Most of the main football firms in the country are involved," he says. "It's the only time football hooligans have come together. One Saturday they are kicking the s*** out of one another, the next weekend they are buying one another a drink.

"At the end of the day, we need our army," says Guramit. "We don't need counsellors and school teachers against militant Muslim youth, we need our army, so I don't have a problem with them. It's nothing to me if they want to have a fight on a weekend basis. Some of them are friends and brothers to me."

Guramit has visited Leicester "four or five times".

He says he's seen three to five-year-olds in burkhas and talks of no-go areas that have been "ethnically cleansed" by Muslims. Which is a bit odd because anyone who lives here and strolled through those "no-go areas" won't have seen that.

"In some areas of Leicester there are more burkhas than baseball hats and that shouldn't be allowed," he says. "I'm not really a PC sort of person" says Guramit. "I may say things that other people might find offensive."

Proof of that can be found on a video of him posted You Tube.

Guramit, brandishing a megaphone at an EDL rally, can be heard bellowing: "God bless the Muslims. They'll need it for when they're burning in ****ing hell".

And he's their official spokesman, someone who addressed that braying crowd as "one of the 12 leaders of the English Defence League".

It was a slip of the tongue, says Guramit. He missed a word out. He meant to say "Muslim extremists... burning in ****king hell".

It's interesting that Guramit sees extremists everywhere. Could it be that it takes one to know one? "I say an eye for an eye," he says. "If people want to behead me and take my mum and my grandma as war booty then I'm going to fight them."

Take your mum and grandma as war booty? What? In Nottingham?

It could happen, believes Guramit. If people don't take a stand, he claims, Britain will become an Islamic state.

"As a British-born Sikh I've learned about the 10 Gurus that sacrificed themselves to save India from militant Islam. Everything they fought for is being washed away by the third Jihad. I'm against any fascist ideology that wants to take over my life and my family's life."

The EDL's core support "appears to be young white men who are often fuelled by drink and sometimes drugs", according to Matthew Taylor's report in the Guardian.

Simon, from Searchlight, says most are working-class, male and aged 16 to 40. Strongholds are Yorkshire, Lancashire, Birmingham and London. That's where the vast majority will be coming from on Saturday.

Professor Colin Copus, director of De Montfort University's local governance research unit, has interviewed 25 EDL supporters for a research project. Only half could be described bellicose nationalists on the fringes of the far-right, he says. Others were ordinary people who had voted for all of the major parties in the past.

For many the EDL was an outlet for their dissatisfaction with the "privileges" given to minorities by governments and public sector organisations. There was also a strong sense that such groups were almost above criticism.

They might not be the angry brigade who go on marches, says Prof Copus, but it showed how the league had tapped into growing resentment felt by a relatively broad base of followers.

"In some respects it's a sign of how fractured and frightened some elements of society are," he says. "They will associate themselves with groups they wouldn't normally associate with because they are worried about what they see as a greater problem."

The EDL's Leicester division usually brings 30 to 40 supporters to a demonstration, claims Guramit. He expects up to 200 local activists in a crowd of about 3,000 when it mobilises in the city.

Simon believes the EDL will be "lucky" to get 1,000 out on to Leicester's streets.

The EDL is already struggling to carry the weight of its contradictions and conflicting agendas, some observers claim, with friction between the hooligans and the right-wing elements.

At a recent rally in Bradford, dubbed 'the big one', only 700 turned up. Marches and demos might have seen the EDL commandeer acres of newsprint, but the tactic already seems to be running out of steam.

The idea of spending two hours on a bus and being corralled into a corner of a city centre for another two hours, before getting back on the bus is rapidly losing its appeal for a lot of EDL activists, says Simon.

That doesn't mean Leicester can afford to be complacent.

"The number of arrests (on an EDL rally) doesn't really tally with the amount of disorder," he claims. "I was in Bradford and I saw what the EDL was like and what the locals were like. The police momentarily lost control. They just wanted to get the EDL in and out with the least amount of fuss possible.

"The BNP has had to adapt and portray a more moderate image. The EDL don't have to answer to anybody. They can get away with doing what they want – they don't want respectability."

In total, Matthew spent four months filming the EDL for his Guardian report, The English Defence League Uncovered. He said it had only been possible to record some of "the most alarming scenes" with a hidden camera.

He joined EDL supporters at a pub in Stoke in January for their first demonstration of the year.

"They had spent the past four hours drinking," he wrote. "The balcony around the top of the cavernous pub was draped in flags bearing the names of different football clubs – Wolves, Newcastle , Aston Villa – and the chants 'we all hate Muslims' and 'Muslim bombers off our streets' filled the air.

"The atmosphere was tense, and not just because of the growing anti-Islamic rhetoric. The pub was packed with rival football gangs from across the Midlands and the north of England. Twice, fighting broke out as old rivalries failed to be subdued by the new enemy – Islam."

It will get ugly if the EDL an United Against Fascism are within shouting distance of one another, believes Simon.

"I feel sorry for the people of Leicester that they've got to put up with this in their multi-cultural city," he says. "I'd appeal for locals to stay indoors. Don't attend the counter-demonstration. Don't get involved."

If you doubt the wisdom of that then Guramit makes it crystal clear.

"We're here for peace," he says. "But we're ready for war."

See Matthew Taylor's film for the Guardian here.

Leicester Mercury