December 02, 2011

EDL’s North East boss Spence jailed for attack on left meeting

The English Defence League’s North East regional organiser Alan Spence has been jailed for his part in an attack on a socialist meeting, along with several of his racist and fascist cohorts.

Spence is a leading figure in the EDL – and a key link between the EDL and the British National Party: he stood as a parliamentary candidate for the BNP at the general election (see election leaflet, below).

He was sent down for seven months today, following the attack at the Tyneside Irish Centre, where the Socialist Workers Party was holding a meeting last September. His son, Steven Spence, a former BNP local council candidate, was jailed for eight months for his part in the same attack.

In a post on Alan Spence’s Facebook page, his partner Tracy King said: “just letting u no alan got 7 month our son steven got 8 month other 5 lads got jailed aswell”.

Other sentences for the attackers reported on relatives’ Facebook pages include 10 months for Peter Duffy and eight for Barry Keddy. Duffy, part of the same band of EDL thugs, later left to become a well known member of the Infidels/NEI splinter group.

The attack on a socialist meeting shows the thugs are not just racists but fascists too – and that there are few serious differences between the EDL and the NEI, both of whose members were involved as one group at the time.

Spence’s record also shows how porous the dividing line between the BNP and the EDL is. He joined the EDL’s forum in September 2009, several months before he stood as BNP candidate in the Newcastle upon Tyne East constituence in May 2010. He has also been photographed with fascist BNP leader Nick Griffin.

We will have updates on the sentences for the rest of the gang as more details are confirmed.

Unite Against Fascism

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

This jailbird will be standing for the British Freedom Party when he gets out of the clink!

Watch my words!!!

Anonymous said...

Beware: Gary Tumulty uses facebook to steal personal details of anti-racists to put on Redwatch.

He calls himself Rebecca Johnson, so if anybody's got this "friend" on Facebook, and suspect they have stolen details and put them up on Redwatch, contact Greater Manchester Police!

NewsHound said...

KENTUCKY CHURCH EMBRACES WHITE SUPREMACISM AND BANS INTERRACIAL COUPLES: -

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/11/30/kentucky-church-no-interracial-couples-welcome/

HOW THE BNP AND THE EDL MUST ONLY WISH ......

Anonymous said...

Alan Spence recently trolled the Occupy LSX thread (posting under his own name) denying he was a nazi, and pretending he had black and Muslim friends.

Anonymous said...

Spence is C18.

This is well known in antiafscist circles.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Alan Spence one of the leaders of the fuel blockades that nearly brought down the Labour govt around 2000/2001? Was also a member of UKIP at one stage?

Anonymous said...

Wasn't this the same Alan Spence who got into a ruck with Collett at the so called Red White and Blue Festival and stormed off and then resigned from the BNP?

Anonymous said...

Where were the EDL outside the Iranian Embassy??

I imagined the attack on the uk embassy would have cried out for reciprical action, but no, nothing, though they can manage to get to Switzerland to protest about the "poppy ban".

Their controlers thought otherwise perhaps/

Anonymous said...

People like this - the people who really do want to attack trades unionists etc - are the reason we need to get behind the campaign to get Jeremy Clarkson fired

https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/