The Home Office has written to an umbrella group representing a range of Jewish communal and religious groups in response to statements distancing themselves from the methods and aims of the English Defence League.
Earlier this year the leaders of the United Synagogue, Reform, Liberal and Masorti communities, as well as the Board of Deputies and the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' congregation, highlighted their opposition to the EDL's tactics and called on the far right organisation to refrain from using Jewish and Israelis symbols in its campaigns.
Under the umbrella of the Council of Imams and Rabbis of the Joseph Interfaith Foundation, they rejected in particular the EDL's "efforts to incite hatred and antagonism in our society", its attempts to "foment violence" and "drive a wedge between the Jewish community and our Muslim neighbours".
They attempted to draw a line under the EDL's efforts to attract Jewish membership, which reached a peak with a rally "to oppose Islamic fascism" outside the Israeli embassy last year where EDL members waved Israeli flags. The EDL has a "Jewish Division", but it has been beset by infighting and is understood to have only a handful of Jewish members.
James Brokenshire, the Home Office Minister responsible for policy regarding the EDL, has now sent a letter of response to Mehri Niknam, director of the Council of Imams and Rabbis.
"We welcome your positive action to counter the divisive influence and minimise the impact of EDL activity," he said. "As a government our position is clear, we will not tolerate groups like the EDL who spread hate, seek to divide us and deliberately raise community fears and tensions."
He said the government would continue to condemn the EDL's views and actions when necessary and work with police and local agencies. Mr Brokenshire added that the government trusted local agencies to "put in place suitable local measures to counter the influence and minimise the impact of EDL activity.
"We stand ready to provide advice and support where it is requested."
January January got off to a slow start for the English Defence League. Their most notable achievement was to announce a demo in Luton, allegedly to protest against Asian heroin dealers in Luton. These same dealers may well also trade in cocaine, the Class A of choice among certain squat and ugly self appointed leaders.
The new year started badly when it emerged that one of their founding members, Richard Price was exposed as a massive paedophile and Tommy and Kev had tried to cover it up, whilst all the time, referring to him as a political prisoner after he got arrested and jailed for being an arse.
Whilst campaigning on an anti Muslim paedo platform, it came as a massive embarrassment when one of their own turned out to be one and the EDL try and avoid discussing it. Full story of the cover up here. Pricey turned up in the comments section of the article to try and clear his name but failed.
Members of the EDL's Blackburn Division spent thirty long cold nights demonstrating outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken in protest at them selling halal food. The event was largely considered unsuccessful when it turned out that the branch did not sell Halal. EFC – Epic Fail Chums.
Violent thug, Bernard Holmes, aka Mr B spent most of the month dressed as a chicken which we at EDL News thought quite appropriate. Mr B is currently on remand following an alleged incident in Lancashire after the EDL mobbed the home of Conservative MEP Sajjad Karim. (see July)
February
February started off with Tommy appearing on the BBC's Newsnight alongside Jeremy Paxman who conducted the interview. A twitchy Tommy sat before Paxman and Tommy getting eaten by Paxman on Newsnight pitched his pitch only to be shot down by a clearly feisty presenter who showed much disdain for the short arsed racist from Luton.
Tommy ranted for a bit about Sharia law, mosques, paedophiles etc to a disinterested Paxman who was waiting for his chance to pull out some quotes from the EDL's Facebook Wall. Tommy could not deny the posts which were a vitriolic combination of 'kill pakis', 'burn mosques' etc.
Here are a few that were on the EDL's Wall when the programme was broadcast.
Who’s up for petrol bombing the Mosques in the name of England we didn’t win the world war twice for nothing. 10 points for killing a Muslim, first to 1000 wins”
“Fuck off Habz ya smelly Muslim cunt. I’ll fuckin set fire to your Mosque and burn all you cunts inside”
“Make the dirty Paki eat fucking Mcdonalds, make him sit and watch as you burn the Quaran outside his fuckin house”
“Little Paki cunt we will find you and cut out your tongue”
“Some one pay for my train from Leeds and I’ll pop round and see our little rag head friend, I’ll burn his fucking house down with him and his family in it. Piece of shit. Ur going be byes. Ns!!!!!”
“Best get me some petrol and camera out, set fire to a Mosque while they’re praying, get some fantastic pics then!!”
“FUCK YOU UAF I HATE YOU ALL AND MUSLIM TWATS BURN PAKIS BURN CALL ME A RACIST IT ONLY MAKES ME STRONGER”
There was nowhere for Tommy to hide so he went on to claim anyone can like Facebook and post on their wall. This contradicted Tommy’s claim of EDL popularity which he had based on Facebook likes for the racist group’s page. Game set and match went to Paxman and Tommy slunk off with his tail between his legs. You can see the whole interview here.
The EDL were set for the 'big one', a demo where they were all to return ‘home’, back to Luton, where it all began with the United People’s Front of Luton or was it the People’s Front of United Luton. Tens of thousands of patriots were to turn up and take the streets back from the Muslamics. After the streets had been reclaimed, the EDL had vowed to gorge themselves on Stella Artois and bacon sandwiches and then get into fights with each other, which they are currently banned from doing under Sharia law.
To up the ante, Kev Carroll decided that the predicted tens of thousands would not be enough and the way forward was to up the ante. He decided it would be a great idea to fake an assassination attempt. This was apparently decided after several jars of Stella at Tommy’s local, the Patriotic Parrot, and a few lines of chang after last orders.
The plan was that Uncle Kev would take the fall to an imaginary fake assassin dressed in 'full Islamic garb'. Shots would be fired and rocks thrown at his window whilst he feared for his life and the lives of his family.
And so this legendary Facebook status was born and patriots up and down the country were outraged and called for the death of as many brown people as possible. Chests were thumped and every patriot in the country vowed to descend on Luton to take revenge.
Bedfordshire Police took it seriously and issued this statement:
“At 10.42 last night (Thur) we received a complaint from a man who said something had been thrown against his window.
“He ran out and said he saw a man with what appeared to be a shotgun. No shots were fired and no one was injuries.
“Police searched the area but nobody was found. Detectives are keen to speak to anyone who was in the area at the time.”
Kev managed to get himself on Three Counties Radio the next day and the smell of bullshit became stronger and stronger.
As more and more questions were asked and with no actual evidence of an assassination attempt, the events in Luton that night were quietly dropped by leadership, who no doubt hoped the whole embarrassing affair would go away.
A few days later the EDL Angels decided they need to ditch their image of being violent racists by announcing that they would be collecting at the Luton demonstration for 'Soldiers off the Streets'. This is not to be confused with the EDL's favourite chant of 'Muslim Bombers off are Streets'. Unfortunately SOTS turned out to be yet another BNP front.
Predictably, the Luton demo never turned into the big one, despite the alleged assassination attempt by a man with a potato and an umbrella. Many of those who vowed to exact revenge could not be bothered to journey themselves down to the mighty metropolis. Around 2,500 'patriots' turned up drunk and listened to a few speeches, got bored, got feisty with each other then got more drunk. Tommy was comprehensively destroyed by Sky News's Adam Boulton, were largely ignored by the mainstream press and went home disappointed whilst using the infamous EDL Mathematics Division’s formulas of multiplying by twelvty.
Mid February saw the arrest of Plymouth Division's vodka soaked Tony Davis aka Arthur Disbury. The EDL's geriatric ranter, was nicked for publishing racially inflammatory material on YouTube. He had threatened to put on a suicide vest and blow up a mosque which Plymouth Division and thought was a perfectly acceptable and so an impassioned plea was made to Tommy for support. Tommy stated he would be supporting him but went a bit quiet after seeing the video in question and he was a massive embarrassment. More here courtesy of Expose.
February also saw their much lauded 'Jewish Division' turn more hard core and become a complete embarrassment to the movement. JD leader Roberta Moore, known colloquially as “Batty Berta”, publicly aligned the English Defence League with a banned terrorist organisation, the Jewish Task Force, headed by Victor Vancier who had served prison terms for multiple bombings in the United States. This caused much unrest amongst the ranks with several pointing out, they were supposed to be fighting terrorists. With Tommy already under pressure from his unwieldy movement, he whined: "It’s destroying my family, do you know what I mean? My missus is crying, it’s a big stress. I don’t want to be leader of this organization but I want something to change". More here from Expose.
After a week of umming and ahhing about what to do with his renegade division, Tommy released the following statement distancing himself from the JTF whilst at the same time not taking responsibility for one of his own divisions:
Towards the end of the month, Roberta Moore was found to be the co chairperson and political liaison for the Muslim hating English National Alliance, headed by comedy Nazi Bill Baker who had famously stated "the sooner we start killing Muslims, the better".
Beleaguered Tommy decided that enough was enough and tried to distance himself from the Jewish Division, who responded by saying that they were going nowhere. Tommy then decided to drop distancing himself from them, favouring the approach of pretending they did not exist.
March
March started badly publicity wise for the EDL, nothing much happened in the middle and the end was a disaster. A fairly quiet month still saw Tommy caught cavorting with UVF types. Two EDL members were charged with arson for an attack on a mosque in Hanley, Stoke on Trent. Simon Beech and Gareth Foster went on to receive 10 years in prison each.
The EDL finished March with a local rally in Rochdale and ended up in the papers for all the wrong reasons. They managed to upload a video of themselves being drunk and racist on a train and it ended up in all the local newspapers. The end result was various EDL members being lifted by plod. More here from Expose.
This was also the month the EDL discovered you can go viral without casually passing your neo-Nazi sexual partners around. EDL Warrington Division member Ryan McGarvey became an overnight internet sensation when he was interviewed by Press TV and promptly forgot why he was on a march. The famous Muslamic ray guns video can been seen here. McGarvey has been quiet on the 'patriot' scene since so we have no idea if he is still part of the movement or if he is working on a double act with Fenton.
To date, the YouTube video and it's various spin offs have a combined total of over a million views. Many EDL members were embarrassed by Mr McGarvey's press statement which led to leadership instructing members not to speak to the press, especially if they were drunk and had no idea why they were there.
To add further insult to injury, comedian Russell Howard took the piss out of them on his BBC show 'Good News'. Much anger and many death threats to Mr Howard later, the Chorley Division decided that they were going to demonstrate outside one of his shows in town. None of them actually bothered to turn up. Anti fash took the piss further. No surrender indeed.
April
April started badly with even the Daily Mail turning on them with the following headline:
Shaming the St Georges Cross: Vile EDL Thugs in 2,000-strong Hate Protest wear flag coloured burkas to confront Muslims
This referred to the infamous Blackburn demo on the 1st April. Billed as another 'big one' around 2,000 members turned up in Blackburn drunk, were kettled by plod and fought with each other.
After weeks of online bickering between various factions of the leadership, tensions spilled over when Tommy took to the stage after seemingly having indulged in large quantities of Sniff 'n' Stella. He accused a group of those assembled of being Nazis, grasses and traitors and made the call to “Just kill the bastards” and “beat em up”.
One accused member turned out to be someone completely different but not to let false accusations get in the way, a lynch mob was formed. A mass brawl ensued which ended up with Tommy Head butting an ex service man, this latest in a line of convictions earning him 12 months suspended.
One member commented
“Worst fucking demo ever. We all waited like 2 hours for the event to begin and the inbred half wits wouldn’t SHUT THE FUCK UP with the shit we’d been chanting since 9:25 that morning. Couldn’t hear a fucking word, and the bit with that cunt throwing a can at that poor woman sums up the type of people the EDL attract.
Whilst EDL stewards were trying to do what they do best, fail to keep things under control, a separate brawl broke out in the coach park and an EDL Angel was bottled.
Amongst the speakers was Bernard Holmes aka Mr B who had just been released from prison for a violent assault on a man outside a bar, leaving him with brain damage. Holmes is currently in prison awaiting trial for the alleged Lancashire offence as mentioned earlier.
Online recriminations went on for days and saw the split between the EDL and the north west/north east divisions giving birth to the Infidels. A match report of the whole debacle can be seen here. Any resemblance to scenes in Life of Brian are purely coincidental.
Later on in the month the EDL decided that enough is enough and they were going to have a jolly old St Georges Day. Unbeknown to them, there was a surprise planned for them and Team Poison and Z Hacking Company removed their 100,000-strong Facebook page on the holiest of holy days for all 'patriots'. After two weeks of confusion and not knowing which new page was fake and which was the real deal, they finally manage to wrestle it back. Shortly afterwards their website was hacked and the names and addresses of many of their members were posted online. As well as hundreds of member's email addresses and passwords, it also covered court details from a past drug conviction of Tommy and details of his girlfriends convictions for cocaine dealing. The internet was fast becoming the EDL's biggest downfall.
If the loss of their Facebook page (and their means to claim 100,000 members) wasn't enough to send Tommy over the edge, Jewish Division leader, Roberta Moore decided to endorse some Nazis when she posted that she was not bothered about the EDL being full of Nazis as long as they kept a bit quiet about being Nazis. Here is her statement:
“And as I said, I do not mind their racist or Nazi views, as long as they don’t say them IN PUBLIC!! It’s as simple as that”
~ Roberta Moore. Leader of the EDL Jewish Division.
Tommy disappeared off the face of the earth for the next two weeks, and the only person claiming to have heard from him was prolific light bulb thief, Derek Fender. Fender previously claimed that he had served 14 years in the nick for holding a shot gun to an Asian man's head so no one was taking his sighting of Tommy very seriously at all.
Tommy emerged from his hole in the ground on the 10th May to dispel rumours that there has been rather a lot of financial naughtiness concerning lucre raised through the Snowy legal fund and sales of EDL merchandise. He released a video where he looked shifty and hard done by which did little to quell the suspicions.
A week later Tommy appeared in court charged with kicking off on Armistice day last year and was found guilty and received a fine of 350 shekels under the country's current two tier system. One EDL member famously tried to claim that Tommy had been convicted under Sharia law.
They ended up kicking off outside the court when the following Facebook status update was made;
Muslims are turning up and they now have the advantage can you all put a shout out for help to go to the Court thanks
Shortly after the court case, many threats of racist violence were posted on their Facebook page with many members aggrieved that Tommy had been fined for a public order offence committed on Armistice day. Full story here. A large group of EDL members were attacked by a couple of teenagers on bikes outside the court and came off worse.
Just days after the court case, photos appeared in the Times showing EDL members in Afghanistan standing next to a tank holding EDL flags and a scandal broke out when the EDL were exposed for selling wristbands for the troops whilst all the time the money was going towards sound systems for demos, hi vis vests and , who knows, maybe some Colombian Marching Powder (for all that marching they weren’t going to do). They then claimed 50p for each one went to a children's charity but were unable to disclose which one it was.
Tommy decided to take a break from his blunders and take a nice relaxing trip to France and managed to drop another glitterball sized bollock. He was arrested by French plod after getting bored with his break and joining up for a merry shindig with some French neo-Nazis on an anti-Muslim demonstration in Lyon. The chaps he was marching with were Block Identiaire who run soup kitchens for the homeless. All very nice you might think, until it turned out that they lace their soups with pork so Jewish and Muslims homeless people cannot eat it.
Restaurant chairs where thrown, windows smashed and Tommy and Cardiff City football hooligan, Joe Marsh got themselves nicked. French plod got bored with the pair after a bit and released them under the terms of their country's two tier system. To date, Tommy's European trips have not been overly successful after his last soujourn to Amsterdam ended with him getting chased out of town by local Ajax supporters who stole his EDL flag from him.
Much of April was taken up with foaming and frothing about the Charlene Downs case in Blackpool. Charlene is a missing teenager and the EDL had convinced each EDL sport Green Mankinis and pig masks at the Blackpool Charlene Downes Memorial other that she was minced up by some 'pakis' and served as a kebab. The case against the accused was dropped after some shoddy work by plod and it emerged Downes parents allegedly allowed a known white paedophile to move into their house.
Not to be deterred by that fact, they organised a poorly attended memorial demo where members turned up drunk, with one member, Paul Nelson, showing his respect by wearing a green mankini and pig mask. The Scottish Defence League showed their respect to the alleged cause by bragging about being pissed and partying in Blackpool.
After their disastrous visit to France, the EDL decided they would kick off June by hanging out with some Swedish fascists. The main organiser was a tiny fringe organisation called Försvarskåren Sveriges Självförsvar (literal translation; Defence Corps Sweden’s Self Defence). The Swedish Defence League were initially involved, but were dropped at an early stage for having “too much Jewish influence”. So they decided to accept an offer of help from National demokraterna (The National Democrats). There were no arrests but the tie up went largely unnoticed.
Tommy's campaign against Asian drug dealers spectacularly fell off the rails mid June when a picture of him emerged looking completely off his face stood by a table with what appears to be a considerable amount of chang. The picture was thought to have been leaked by the North West Infidels in response to Tommy being nasty to them in Blackburn.
June
June also saw the English Defence League's eBay and PayPal accounts frozen due to apparent financial irregularities noted by the Sharia tax man.
On the 20th June, Tommy managed to get himself arrested twice in one day which was bloody good going even by his standards. Plod from Luton arrested him for a local disturbance and then Lancashire Plod nicked him for head butting Alan McKee at the disastrous Blackburn demo.
Tommy released the following statement:
Due to the ongoing harassment by the Police forces of the UK I have decided that as from this point in time there will no longer be any Police Liaison with any Police force at all levels, Division, Regional or National.
On the 21st June EDL News was born and it ended up getting quite big with lots of complete bastards writing nasty stuff about the EDL and 'patriots' in general.
Amongst the EDL, EDL News is largely though to be run by:
The police The government Communists/Students The Saudi Arabians Osama Bin Laden The dude with the hook for a hand Mi5/Mi6/Snowy Peter Tatchell Geroge Galloway/Derek Fender Ex EDL
On the same day there was a minor demonstration against a mosque in Maidenhead. The EDL excelled themselves by attacking a couple of Asian guys in the street. July
July started on a cheery note when an EDL organised 'spit on a Muslim day' sprung up as a Facebook event. The group attracted a lot of support from the rank and file.
On the 3rd July Conservative North West Euro MP Sajjad Karim was harassed at his house when a group from Blackburn Division turned up drunk and stood around in his garden. Karim said : "They were incredibly intimidating and they were all over my driveway and looking into my house." Blackburn Division then went on to Briersfield where ten of them were arrested and are awaiting trial. Among them was Chickenman Bernard Holmes who is due in court on 3rd April, 2012 and was refused bail again only last week. (Holmes crops up rather a lot)
After insulting British soldiers and bringing the EDL into disrepute, Roberta Moore issued a statement on the 4th July pretending that she was leaving the EDL after getting a better offer. This better offer did not appear to materialise and she didn't actually leave the EDL.
On the same day the the MDI (Muslim Debate Initiative) extended an invitation to the English Defence League ‘to openly debate their issues and contentions against Islam and Muslims in a live public debate at a neutral venue’. Unsurprisingly the EDL declined the offer, a move widely interpreted as a surrender to real debate, ie.one which they could not win.
On the 9th July the EDL changed their tactics and held separate multiple regional demos in Middlesbrough, Cambridge, Halifax and Plymouth. Most were poorly attended, fights broke out amongst members, the weather was poor, there were many arrests and for the most part they were all kettled in various car parks before being sent packing. In all cases they were heavily outnumbered by local people and anti fascists.
There was not really much to report from any of them, none of them had a good time and nothing was achieved apart from the usual bad publicity in the local press. There is a demo report linked above.
The Halifax demo was held in the car park of the family-oriented Eureka museum which was forced to shut for the day. Violence broke out and a pleas by police to identify the culprits was issued.
On the 11th July, Tommy celebrated his stag night by getting nicked again. He had bizarrely decided to have his stag night in the Muslim enclave of Tower Hamlets and things kicked off after someone recognized him and an ambush was set up. His whole stag party was arrested and spent the night in the cells.
The 16th July saw a demonstration in Manchester where things started off badly when the pub they had arranged to meet in was closed and the group of 'patriots' became fragmented. About 100 turned out and were immediately removed from the pubs and issued with Section 27s (under the Violent Crim Reduction Act) which forced them to leave the city centre.
Most were held in the Yates' on Portland Street and The Bank on Mosley Street before being shipped out of town with a flea in their ear. This all happened under the two tier system which sees 'patriots' getting thrown out of town by GMP's tactical support group for turning up, getting drunk and getting racist whereas Muslims who do not turn up in town, get drunk and get racist do not get thrown out of town in a heavy handed manner. There were reports of around ten EDL arrests.
On the same day another local demo took place in Portsmouth. Racist abuse was targeted at a Muslim family who had come onto their balcony to see what was happening. Hants Police estimate a mere 150 protesters turned up in the wind and rain. There were seven arrests of EDL supporters on suspicion of crimes ranging from public order offences to assaulting a police officer. Violence erupted and police formed a human barrier to stop EDL getting into Guildhall Square and grabbing scaffolding poles
The English Defence League's website was hacked again on the 18th July. The site had already been hacked on numerous occasions, resulting in a leak of the members’ list containing addresses and phone numbers of people who had bought merchandise.
Anonymous issued an ultimatum to the EDL leadership on Twitter on the 12th July.
Op_Britain Operation Britain Due to the denial of EDL admins. We shall bring the EDL site down at 1pm UK time, which is sufficient proof. That is all. #umadEDLadmin 12 Jul Favorite Retweet Reply
Followed later in the day with this post
Op_Britain Operation Britain #OpBritain delivered! #EDL is down as we promised. 12 Jul Favorite Retweet Reply
The EDL had completely lost control of their website as Anonymous posted this, taunting them.
Op_Britain Operation Britain We are letting www.englishdefenceleague.org back up for a short while.. so we can have fun on the forums....THIS IS NOW A SPIDERMAN THREAD
The EDL's online security had been a shambles with the main site getting taken down on a regular basis, their Zetaboard's message board hacked and control lost of their main Facebook page on St George's Day.
On the 22nd July Anders Behring Brievik launched his attack. His links to the EDL would later be revealed. The Jewish Division took the stance that the dead children deserved it and denounced them as scum Many EDL members jumped to the conclusion that it was Muslims that launched the attack and their Facebook was full of threats of violence until they finally accepted it was one of their own. Tommy would later go on to state that he 'understood why he did it'. The EDL News article about the Jewish Division received over 8,000 hits and remains the second most read article on the site.
In the aftermath of events in Norway, Tommy made another disastrous appearance on Newsnight when Paxman ripped him a new one.
The English Defence League's woeful online security problem continued on the 24th July as ZHC Hacking Company took control of their main Facebook page and deleted it.
The page had 96,000 likes made up of racists, trolls, journalists, spies, antifa and law enforcement agencies. The number of likes was constantly used by leadership to 'prove' how big their movement was and a couple of weeks ago the EDL's admin accidentally confessed that there were only a few thousand active users. Hel Gower has had bigger movements.
The new pages have so far failed to achieve even a fraction of the support previously claimed, the hack proving a major disaster for their online presence.
James Cohen, a Canadian who has never been to the UK was appointed head of the new Jewish Division after Tommy sacked Roberta and Rapey Robert. Roberta claimed that she owned the EDL name and would not be going anywhere despite her being about as popular with the EDL rank and file as a dead halal goat. There are now two EDL Jewish Divisions, an official one and another official one. No-one knows which is which. August
August started in the spirit of summer when Plymouth Division and the Combined Ex Forces (EDL ex military division) held a meet and greet. The meeters and greeters ended up horribly drunk and a local kebab shop was attacked. Hayley Wells, convicted eBay fraudster, and her friend Kelly Watterson were charged with racially aggravated assault and will face a jury at the beginning of January, 2012. Racially aggravated assault is a serious offence which can attract a significant custodial sentence.
CxF leader Michael Rafferty faces lesser charges of obstructing plod. Repercussions from the events resulted in Hayley Wells losing her coveted deputy regional co-ordinator position (Plymouth Deputy Chief Racist) and the CxF being ex-communicated by the EDL. The CxF would continue to go it alone which would end up in a farce of biblical proportions. After the CxF expulsion, convicted people smuggler, Alan CxF (not so) Cleverley, revealed that Tommy had sought funds from a US based Jewish terrorist group.
On the 9th August the EDL decided to involved themselves in the UK riots. A two hundred strong mob of drunk middle-aged English Defence League Members threw bottles and fought with police in Eltham, south London. Many were drinking from cans bought from the supermarket, EDL slogans were chanted and bottles were thrown at Welsh police who were drafted in from other parts of south London to deal with the disturbances.
Deranged EDL/CxF racist and chief mentalist Lyn Saddington also decided to get in on the act by smashing up the Cowley Social Club in Brighton. The police were tipped off and she was issued with an order to leave the area or be arrested. Saddington later tried to justify it by claiming 'lefties' drank there.
Days after, Prime Minister David Cameron described EDL members as “sick.” He made the comments during an emergency House of Commons debate and was responding to a question by Labour MP for Eltham, Clive Efford. Much outrage was directed towards Cameron and the EDL 'Angels' announced a demonstration outside Downing Street under the byline 'EDL Angels are not Sick'. EDL News published an article explaining in clear terms why they were considered sick by most of society.
On the 13th August the EDL held a national demonstration in Telford, Shropshire. Home Secretary Theresa May banned the demo and rendered it a static march which was kettled in a car park. The demo, which was something to do with paedophiles, passed off fairly peacefully although arrests were made when some members tried to break into a police dog van to look at the doggies. Trouble flared afterwards when Vicki 'moo moo' Covent ry was arrested and charged with trying to push someone under a train and 40 members were arrested for getting into a fight in a supermarket car park. More info here.
The 22nd August saw the English Defence League's out of control Jewish Division turn their extremism towards black people. Roberta Moore and Robert Barthomeus, neither of them Jewish or British, turned their bile towards the Reverend Jesse Jackson describing him as an 'ape faced black nazi'
The 3rd September saw the much anticipated Tower Hamlets demonstration, the big ‘big one’. Antifa had called all the pubs around Euston and they shut their doors on them, no-one knew where to meet and plod made sure they didn’t get anywhere near Tower Hamlets. Members on an errant coach from Notts Division were the only ones to make it there and drunken hard core racist, Joanne 'bus wanker' Dickens, fell from the emergency exit of the coach and had to be helped to safety by a Muslim gentleman. The whole hilarious fiasco can be read here.
Tommy turned up dressed as a rabbi along with JD leader, Roberta Moore. Rumours flew around Twitter that he has come dressed as a rabbit. Tommy was arrested the next day for breaking his bail conditions and spent four weeks in prison before being released. The whole farce pointed towards the fact that Batty Berta was still very much involved in the game, leading to speculation as to why Tommy had not shown her a straight red, and what she had over him.
Tommy went on hunger strike whilst in prison in protest at halal prison food but it turned out it only lasted 24 hours before he surrendered, whilst all the time patriots Joanne 'Bus Wanker' Dickens were praising his stance and raising money for his legal fund. Upon release, Tommy headed straight for a Halal Nandos.
The 9th September saw EDL News reveal the EDL's links with Nazi website Redwatch.
Whilst families of British 9/11 victims prepared for a remembrance ceremony in the September 11th memorial garden, around 50 EDL members turned up early, sang their 'Eleven Muslim bombers, flying in the air' taunts and occupied the area where MAC were suppose to demonstrate.
During the ceremony, chants of 'E-E-EDL' disrupted proceedings and amongst the mourners, they were met with as equal distaste as MAC.
A smaller group of Muslims turned up to protest against both groups of extremists and carried banners reading "Muslims Against Extremism" and "If You Want Sharia, Move To Saudi".
Running battles broke out on London's Oxford Street and the day ended with two EDL members getting slightly stabbed. This shameful footage emerged after the event.
On the 16th September, Hope Not Hate published a story along with pictures of several EDL members posing with firearms and looking like twats. The EDL issued a statement claiming that they were not EDL members despite all involved being identified as members.
On the 27th September the EDL unveiled their latest paedophile. John Snowy Shaw of the EDL splitters, the North West Infidels, broke the news that Michael Coates aka Mickey Blue Eyes had been revealed as a habitual child sex attacker. He had used several false surnames in an effort to keep his identity concealed from his new partner.
Towards end the month, Tommy was found guilty of assault for the Alan McKee headbutting incident at Blackburn magistrates court.
Tommy head butted McKee, an ex British service man after he had tried to incite a lynching at the Blackburn demonstration earlier this year.
Despite the fact that he assaulted a member of the armed forces, calls were made on the EDL's Facebook page that he should be awarded a medal for his actions, not be taken to court.
The month ended with Tommy being found guilty of assault by Blackburn magistrates court.
Despite the fact that he’d assaulted a member of the armed forces, calls were made on the EDL's Facebook page that rather than be taken to court he should have been awarded a medal for his actions. October
October started off in traditional fashion - badly. The EDL claimed that they had recruited QPR Footballer, Joey Barton. Barton strenuously denied this, referring to them as 'a bunch of mentally deficient right wing numpties.' The EDL had tried to pull a similar stunt last year with Katie Price which pretty much ended the same way.
The EDL also started a sustained campaign against the Royal British Legion. A litany of lies were spread around their social networks, with false claims the charity was not going to collect in Birmingham to avoid offending ethnic minorities. This was far from the truth and the RBL ended up not collecting in Birmingham due to the EDL invading their launch. More on this later.
The 6th October saw the start of the 'Free Danny Parker' campaign. Parker was jailed for religiously aggravated harassment after an EDL mob targeted Barnsley’s Muslim Community Centre. The campaign was a spectacular failure failed from the beginning when his wife got involved and started threatening everyone with violence. His sentence was duly upheld at appeal due to the serious nature of the incident..
Also up in court were members of the Blackburn Division for their alleged part in the Brierfield incident.allegedly attacking Muslims and harassing a MEP. Bernard Holmes, David Victor Garratt, David Wilson, Graham Smith, Jason David Smith, John Michael English, Leanne Thornton, Leonard Stephen Hawley, Myles Bradley Davies, Paul Anthony Jackson and Paul Winston were all before Preston Crown Court.
On the 9th October, The EDL Angels held a demo outside Downing Street to complain that David Cameron had called them sick. EDL News published the reasons why most sane people think they are sick. Nat Snelling, Norwich Division fishwife did a convincing impression of a banshee as she was dragged screaming by plod.
Around 100 turned up drunk, mostly men and one commentator stated that they mostly smelt of body odour and stale beer. Homophobic chants were heard and one EDLer decided to pull a cheeky Nazi salute. They classified the day as a success but to everyone else, it looked like a bit of a disaster. They were largely ignored by everyone, including the prime minister.
In a campaign which has been the least successful since the Free Danny Parker campaign, the Free the Durham two campaign got off to a bad start, Steven James Vasey, 32, and 24-year-old Anthony Donald Smith were each jailed for twelve months for their parts in spraying a poppy on a mosque and attacking two locally Muslim owned businesses, one of which was selling poppies. The campaign for their release has still not grown legs and the leadership is mostly ignoring their plight.
On the 16th October, the EDL mostly lost their Merseyside and Liverpool Divisions who decided to go their own ways and be more openly fascist by reportedly smashing up bookshops, harassing the Occupy camp and attacking trade union offices. Tommy does not publicly like this naughtiness because he does not want to be seen as leading a fascist organisation even though everyone and their dog knows he does. So, perhaps a little jealous of all the fun the Infidels were having they decided to go their own way despite retaining the English Defence League's name
Notts Division settled for some fascism lite by targeting a local boy scouts group. The person who wrote the blog panicked when members were said to be on their away to attack some scouts. A couple of days later the EDL got themselves embroiled in a massive Klu Klux Klan scandal after the Daily Mirror revealed that a member of their Biker's Division was the UK leader.
The month ended on the 29th October when the EDL took part in their much anticipated Birmingham demo. They had been to Birmingham before but got chased out by locals and anti fascists.
The demo was a bit of a PR disaster which lead to the Royal British Legion being forced to cancel their 90th anniversary poppy appeal launch in city centre due to the English Defence League holding their racist demonstration.
The RBL will not accept money from the English Defence League and it is widely thought that the organisation did not want to have their poppies connected with a crowd of drunken 'patriots' kicking off on the same day. The EDL tried to claim they generously gave the RBL permission to collect money at their demo.
The demo was a bit of a PR disaster which lead to the Royal British Legion being forced to cancel their 90th anniversary Poppy Appeal launch in the city due to the English Defence League holding their racist demonstration.
To try and temper the disastrous turnout and ill will, Tommy got his photo taken with magician Dynamo and claimed he had joined the EDL. Predictably he responded on Twitter stating that he did not know who the short arsed racist from Luton was and he is not into extremists. We contacted Dynamo to see if he could make Tommy disappear.
November
Things went quiet on the patriot scene for a couple of weeks until Tommy and Kev took another of their ill fated trips to the continent. This time to occupy FIFA’s roof in Zurich, to protest about the England team not being able to wear poppies.
They were largely ignored by the media and Prince Williams and David Cameron stepped into the row, at which point FIFA compromised.
Tommy and Kev were left on the roof for a few hours whilst the Prince and PM stole their thunder. Swiss plod nicked them, held them for a couple of days and let them go with massive fines.
This was convenient as they were out of the country for the Armistice day fiasco. 175 members arrived for the 11am ceremony, got drunk in the Red Lion Pub on Whitehall, abused the foreign bar staff, stole food, fought each other and got mass arrested by police. They had turned up to have a fight with Muslims Against Crusades even though Home Secretary Theresa May had banned MAC the previous day.
The mass arrest was thought to be down to the fact that their Facebook admin had issued direct threats to Occupy LSX The previous day and Commanding Officer of the Entire World of the Combined ex Forces, Michael Rafferty had publicly stated over Facebook secure comms that he was going to turn up in London and shoot some plod. Bizarrely Rafferty was questioned on the street by plod but not nicked. We suspect having seen his Facebook wall, plod could not be arsed taking him seriously.
Two days later, the admin of the EDL main Facebook page, who was the main cause for 175 fellow patriots getting nicked, decided that members should openly embrace white supremacism much to the delight of most of their supporters who want to be a bit more violent and white. Another fall out of the Armistice day fiasco was that Michael Rafferty was sacked by the CxF for being a bit too renegade to be in charge of a bunch of renegades. CxF CO Mike Rafferty reacted by sacking the guy who tried to sack him and outing the traitors. There now appears to be two CxFs with two leaders and no one is sure which the real one is. Lyn Saddington was thrown out the the CxF for traitorous actions as she has been turfed out of just about every nationalistic movement. We tried to warn the CO of the Women's CxF but she was having none of it.
Due to the demos turning stale and good patriots getting bored/wanting a punch up/wanting to be more racist and leaving, Tommy decided to hook up with fluffy fascists, the British Freedom Party in an attempt to get a foothold on the electoral ladder.
A meeting was held somewhere in the West Midlands and the tie up was announced to much disinterest amongst those that are only into it for the 'Paki bashing' and a rather negative reaction from those who are in it for the politics but preferred the BNP. The leaked phone calls hardly helped.
The BFP thought it would give them a ready made electorate but it seems to be falling flat on it's arse.
The month ended up with EDL News outing the EDL's racist halfwit landlord who ran the Salisbury Arms pub in Cambridge. The story went viral and we had over 18,000 hits. The people of Cambridge were not happy and Ben Green was turfed out of his job and left Cambridge to continue his football hooligan career and being a general social misfit up north somewhere with violent thug, Liam Thompson. Rumours of an engagement are flying around the EDL News office.
December
December started in a similar vein to every other month. Ten members of the EDL's Newcastle Division were up in court for attacking the Tyneside Irish Centre where they incorrectly thought an SWP meeting was taking place. There were many recriminations and accusations of grassing etc. Six patriots were jailed for periods of between six to ten months, one being Alan Spence, the North East's regional co-ordinator, and his son.
Meanwhile, over in Stoke, two members of their local division were jailed for ten years each for trying blow up a mosque with a gas pipe, causing £50,000 work of damage.
Secure comms failure came into play once again on the 10th December when an EDLer decided it would be a good idea to announce he had placed a bomb in Birmingham Central Mosque. He was promptly arrested in a 5am raid and bailed. On the same night another announced on Facebook that he was going to attack a local Hindu temple. West Midland plod were quick to nick him also.
The rest of December was mainly made of of the EDL getting paranoid about hackers after Paul Stearne's internet security tips failed to keep ZHC at bay. Their main Paul Stearnes, the EDL's internetz security gurupage was taken again, their Free Tommy Robinson group and their Stockport Division's page also met an untimely death. Another casualty was their 'Sikhs who support the EDL' group. Unsurprisingly,it was discovered that there was not one Sikh admining the page. ZHC had pretty much decimated their online presence which was an important recruiting tool for like minded racists to get together, along with those that were a bit racist but were seeking out fellow racists to be racist with.
Well it has been a fun year with the EDL. They have had a constant battle against plod, anti fascists, their own errant members, their own splinter groups, their own errant leaders, local communities, Muslims, foreign plod, football fans and hackers.
Christmas is approaching and many 'patriots' will be stuck behind bars for falling foul of Britain's two tier Sharia law system.
For that reason, we wish each and every EDL member a happy Winterval and watch out for our 2011 awards which you can vote in, coming soon!
With thanks to Expose, Still Laughing at the EDL, @bantheedl @everythingedl and anyone we have missed!
One of the continuing difficulties faced by the far right is their complete inability to agree on anything for very long. Massive fallouts and accusations of ‘grass’ and ‘backstabbing’ (with the occasional ‘nonce’ thrown in) are frequent on their internet forums and it seems that the Infidels are no different. In case you don’t know, the Infidels split off from the English Defence League because of Mr Tommy’s ‘pro-Zionism,’ multicultural racism and being over-friendly to the gays. The Infidels boldly declared their fascist agenda on Facebook and had their first ‘National’ demo in Leeds which was a piss poor turnout as evidenced by the photos posted on the net of them gurning whilst holding beer cans in the drizzle and being outnumbered by plod. This was bizarrely deemed a ‘success’ which was subsequently soured by internal criticisms over the fact that they looked like a bunch of beer swilling racists. Which is what they are. Following the demo some ended up in the Slug And Lettuce for a cup of tea and a bun whilst others headed off to the Hourglass Bar for something a bit more exotic. For ironically, the Hourglass is a gay bar and rumours that there is now a Gay Division in the homophobic Infidels are untrue.
North East Infidelity
Their next demo was in Newcastle where they hooked up with the tiny Scottish Defence League (6) – who are also anti-Tommyistas – and a little contingent of ageing racists from the National Front (8). This brief alliance descended into a drunken brawl over internal differences and was yet again symbolic of their complete inability to be agreeable. They all want to be Elton, no-one wants to be David! Fact! To make themselves feel better the few that weren’t too bruised or comatose went on to manfully jostle the peaceful folk at Newcastle Occupy. Given that Occupy is protesting corporate greed and social inequality we can only assume that the Infidels, like the EDL, are happy with that and are a scab organisation doing the work of the ruling classes for them. The Infidels then called a demo in Durham but no one turned up because it was a bit chilly.
And that’s about it. But now the Infidels, like the recently defunct Combined Ex-Forces, have imploded with the usual venomous recriminations and accusations of ‘grass’ and working for Special Branch. For there be two factions of Infidels, the North West and the North East and both of them are faring less than well. The NEI have just seen several members jailed for attacking the Newcastle Irish Centre. What happened was that the SWP had called a meeting at the Centre along the lines of ‘Smash The EDL’ which was a proverbial red rag to the bullshitters of the NEI. The SWP then cancelled the meeting after threats had been made but this did not deter the brave Infidels who turned up anyway and attacked the bouncers. Sadly for the Infidels, the whole thing was filmed on CCTV and many of the Infidels were consequently rounded up and sent to the choky, including failed BNP candidate Alan Spence (who is 46! Crivvens!). Spence was arrested with his son and will now be tucking into the Christmas turkey twizzlers behind bars. Shame. Plod has released images of the remaining gang members who are no doubt currently shitting themselves over their inevitable prison sentences. The SWP are not that astute when it comes to security and using inflammatory statements like ‘Smash The EDL’ is a bad idea. Wise up Trotskyites and try reading the bearded one on worker’s anti-fascist defence. Oh, I forgot, we can’t endorse ‘squadism’ can we?
And it goes on …
The NEI are accusing one Colin Bell of grassing up the Irish Centre attackers and he is currently ‘maintaining Facebook silence.’ No doubt when the thugs are let out next year they will seeking out Mr Bell to help ‘clarify the situation.’ Meanwhile, over the Pennines North West Infidel John ‘Snowy’ Shaw has been hoofed out of his Facebook pages and has fumingly started up another one (11 likes so far and counting!). Snowy, (llama farmer, no charmer and bad karma) carries the whiff of the prison yard about him and is best known for the early EDL rooftop protest in the Midlands. Mr Tommy raised funds to help Snowy the ‘political prisoner’ which are allegedly ‘unaccounted for,’ just like the money Mr Tommy raised for crack and cocaine using child porn aficionado Richard Price when he was arrested. Not only that, but the NWI are mourning the fact that their big man Mr B, or Bernard Holmes of Blackburn, was refused bail this week. He is currently serving a sentence for attacking someone and leaving them with brain damage. Nice man. To make things worse, Connor McCoy has threatened to pull the plug on their page unless he gets the Infidels/SDL flag back from Blackburn Division and he has fallen out with Snowy.
So it’s all fall-out with the beleaguered Infidels: shite turnouts, internal violence, several members jailed, people being ostracised and accused of being grasses and an alarming lack of unity all round. All in all a typical day for the far right then. Well done.
STOP PRESS: 2 EDL jailed for 10 years each after arson attempt on a mosque. See our friends at EDL News for further details.
An Italian far-right author shot dead two Senegalese vendors and wounded three in Florence on Tuesday before killing himself in a daylight shooting spree that prompted outpourings of grief in the historic city.
Witnesses said they saw the gunman calmly getting out of a car at a street market on Piazza Dalmazia, north of the city centre, and firing off three shots that instantly killed two vendors and seriously wounded a third.
The white assailant, identified by authorities as 50-year-old Gianluca Casseri, then moved on to the San Lorenzo market in the centre -- a popular destination for the thousands of tourists who visit Florence every day -- where he wounded two more vendors. Casseri then turned the gun -- a Magnum Smith & Wesson revolver according to news reports -- on himself after he was surrounded by police.
Around 200 Senegalese marched through the city in an angry protest after the shootings, shouting "Shame!" and "Racists!" Hundreds of immigrants were later seen praying on their knees in tears in front of Florence's famous cathedral.
"The heart of Florence is crying today," Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi said in a Twitter message, declaring the city would hold a day of mourning Wednesday and would pay to repatriate the bodies to Senegal.
"I think the pain for the lives that have been cut short is not only for the Senegalese community but for all the citizens of our city," Renzi said.
International Cooperation and Integration Minister Andrea Riccardi and a Senegalese imam will attend a ceremony at Florence city hall on Wednesday.
"The Senegalese are good people, people who never get into trouble, who work every day," one Senegalese man told news channel SkyTG24. Another man said: "These lads who were killed were only earning money for their wives, their fathers, their children."
Roccangelo Tritto, a spokesman for local Carabinieri police, told AFP that the man wounded at Piazza Dalmazia would live but remain paralysed for life. The other two men were also in a serious condition -- one with a wound to the abdomen and another shot in the chest.
Casseri was the author of fantasy novels including "The Key of Chaos" about a wizard, a mathematician and an alchemist, which enjoyed some popularity. He also wrote an academic paper about Dracula folklore and was the editor of a niche magazine about fantasy and horror fiction and comics.
Casseri lived on his own in the Tuscan countryside near Pistoia. He was also a member of Casa Pound, a right-wing community group that is seen as more intellectual than other far-right organisations.
"He was a bit strange, a bit of a loner but he didn't seem crazy. He was living in his own world," said Fabio Barsanti, a regional coordinator for Casa Pound.
"He didn't seem capable of doing something like this," he said, adding: "We are against any type of violence. We consider the Senegalese humans like us."
Barsanti said Casseri was known locally mostly as a World War I buff.
While Casa Pound distanced itself from Casseri's actions, left-wingers were quick to pin the blame on a climate of racism in the country. Walter Veltroni, a lawmaker from the centre-left Democratic Party, said the shootings were "a terrorist attack by a right-wing extremist."
"What happened in Florence is the product of a climate of intolerance against foreigners that has grown over the years," he said.
Nichi Vendola, leader of the Left, Ecology and Liberty party, condemned what he said was "a racist and fascist Italy that sows hatred."
At the scene of the first shooting in Piazza Dalmazia, eyewitnesses quoted by Italian media said they were in shock and a newspaper seller said the gunman told him: "Get out of the way or I'll bump you off next."
"I heard the shots but I thought they were fireworks. Then I turned around and I saw three men on the ground in a pool of blood," one vendor said.
Another man said: "There are often Senegalese guys here who sell the usual stuff, they don't bother anyone and no one was expecting this."
African vendors can be seen on the streets of Italy's main cities selling sculptures, trinkets and fake designer handbags. They are often selling their wares illegally but are popular with tourists and local residents.
British National Party leader and MEP Nick Griffin is expected to attend a UCC debate in the New Year, just months after a Trinity College student society withdrew its invitation for the controversial politician to visit.
The UCC Government and Politics Society says Griffin has accepted its invitation to speak in a debate on the importance of free speech in modern society. The society’s chairperson Ben English told TheJournal.ie that its invitation to Griffin “is by no means a defence of what he has to say, rather it is a defence of his right to say it”.
English said Griffin will face an as-yet-unnamed second speaker in a chaired debate on free speech before taking questions from the floor.
The society decided to invite him after his invitation to address a student group at Trinity College was withdrawn recently. English said that the student group wanted to stand up in support of free speech, adding that free speech is not objective: “We can’t decide who gets freedom of speech.”
In these kinds of situations, and in Trinity’s case, college groups should not cave to outside pressures, English said.
“You need to make tough decisions and bring in people who are going to cause a bit of controversy; in the long-run it’s an event that needs to be held. People need to see something new. Our society is trying to move away from the discourse and get people talking,” he said. “The society’s main goal is to encourage students who are generally politically apathetic to engage in debate.”
English said the society has met with college staff to notify them of the event and to put “strict plans in place” to ensure the safety of staff, students and Griffin. The college has indicated it will facilitate the event, he added.
The BNP confirmed to TheJournal.ie today that Griffin is interested in participating in the debate and has accepted the invitation. A spokesperson for the party said the MEP would answer any questions put to him by the debate participants or audience.
Opposition
The UCC Labour Society says it plans to campaign against Griffin’s visit to the college. Chair of the society Dean Duke told TheJournal.ie that the Labour Soc last night agreed to boycott a joint trip planned between it and the UCC Government and Politics Soc to Leinster House. Duke said his group does not accept that Griffin’s invitation to speak is really a free speech issue and that his “intolerant views” should not be accommodated:
Nick Griffin is free to say what he likes (within the confines of the law), but that doesn’t mean that a UCC society should be hosting him. There’s a difference between allowing free speech and giving someone a platform and an audience.
Withdrawn
The BNP leader was due to participate in a debate on immigration at Trinity’s Philosophical Society in October, but the society withdrew its invitation after the college said it could not guarantee the safety of the event’s attendees. The society said that while it supports Griffin’s right to speak on the issue of immigration, it felt it had “no other responsible choice” but to cancel the debate over safety concerns.
Griffin accused people protesting his Trinity appearance of using “fascist methods” to disrupt the event. He also said he complained to gardaí about the protests which disrupted a separate society event and led to the cancellation of the one he was to attend.
A date for the UCC events has not been confirmed, but it is expected to take place in late February 2012.
A woman has been thrown off a London bus after being caught on camera hurling racist abuse at a fellow passenger.
The incident happened on the 29 bus, which runs from Trafalgar Square to Wood Green in North London. The woman can be seen swearing at a black man with dreadlocks, shouting "I can't tell whether you're Afro-bbean, Caribbean".
He insists he is English, but when she takes a swing at him - with very embarrassing results - he takes matters into his own hands and throws her off the bus.
Scotland Yard have told LBC 97.3 that they've had no reports the incident
A 25-year-old man from Rugeley has been arrested after a bomb threat was made against Birmingham Central Mosque on Facebook.
West Midlands Police said they received a number of calls from concerned members of the public in relation to the threat on Sunday night.
A thorough search of the mosque was carried out by officers and specialist search dogs trained to search for explosives. Nothing out of the ordinary was found in the building, police said.
A West Midlands Police spokesman said: "At around 5:15am today (Monday) a warrant was executed at an address in Rugeley, Staffordshire and a 25-year-old man was arrested. He remains in custody this afternoon where he continues to help police with their enquiries."
Detective Inspector Nigel Harrison, who is leading the investigation, added: "We are grateful to the mosque for their cooperation with this ongoing enquiry and I would like to reassure the community that we are taking this incident extremely seriously."
Bosses at a South Yorkshire council have removed a far-right councillor from the authority after he failed to attend regular meetings.
John Gamble, who represented Brinsworth and Catcliffe, was elected in the seat for the British National Party in May 2008. But the 54-year-old, who later switched to the England First Party, has not attended for more than six months. During his time in office, he was able to claim £12,130 each year in allowances, the council said.
Mr Gamble, who won his seat from then Labour Mayor Allan Jackson by 61 votes, was due for re-election next May. He switched from the BNP to the England First Party in June 2009 before joining the openly-racist National Front in March last year, giving the far-right party its first elected representative for 35 years.
Announcing his second change of allegiance, Mr Gamble told The Star he had ‘jumped ship’ to the NF because he wanted to join a ‘more active’ organisation. When some of the NF’s recorded views were put to him, the Catcliffe and Brinsworth councillor said: “You have caught me somewhat flat-footed. I am not aware of the severity of these opinions.”
He added: “I am not racist, but on the far right. How can I be racist when I have had several coloured girlfriends?”
But Mr Gamble lost his position on the council after a lack of attendance led to complaints from figures, including former Brinsworth Labour councillor Reg Littleboy. Mr Littleboy said: “He is also being reported to the standards committee for abusing staff. He is a disgrace to Brinsworth and Catcliffe.”
A Rotherham Council spokeswoman for the borough council confirmed that Mr Gamble had been automatically disqualified from the council under the 1972 Local Government Act for failing to attend any meetings for six months. She said: “The disqualification will be officially reported to council at its meeting next Wednesday and the vacancy publicised shortly after. However, there will be no by-election for the vacant position because the vacancy has arisen within six months of the election for the seat in May, 2012.”
Aidan Burley, Cannock Chase MP, filmed with ski resort friends who used thick German accents to 'toast' Third Reich
A Conservative MP who attended a party where friends allegedly chanted Nazi slogans and dressed up in SS uniforms, has apologised for "any offence that was caused" at the event.
Aidan Burley used the social networking site, Twitter, to say he did "deeply regret inappropriate behaviour by some guests at a stag party" he attended and was "extremely sorry for any offence that was caused".
The apology, posted at 12.30pm on Sunday, was sent to the MP's 385 followers but was picked up by the Twitter community and passed around to many others. It failed, however, to assuage those outraged by his behaviour, with many continuing to call for his sacking and resignation.
The 32-year-old Cannock Chase MP was dining at a restaurant in the ski resort of Val Thorens, at Savoie, in the French Alps. Some of his 12 friends in the restaurant chanted "Hitler, Hitler, Hitler", according to the Mail on Sunday.
The paper claimed that the MP, who was elected in 2010, sipped wine while at least one man sitting near him goaded a French waiter, asking: "You are from Germany? No, you must be from Austria, then?" and "Are you insulting his Reich?"
Burley was filmed raising his glass in a toast before, the paper claimed, another guest beside him made a speech, in which he said: "Let's raise a toast to Tom for organising the stag do, and if we're perfectly honest, to the ideology and thought process of the Third Reich."
The party was said to have moved on to a British-themed pub, where partygoers adopted thick German accents and chanted: "Mein Fuhrer! Mein Fuhrer! Mein Fuhrer!", "Himmler! Himmler! Himmler!" and "Eichmann! Eichmann! Eichmann!"
The paper quoted a French police spokesman who said that Burley's friends could face prosecution: under the French penal code it is a crime to wear or exhibit in public anything reminiscent of what was worn or used by the Nazis, unless required for the purposes of a film, play or historical exhibition. The spokesman added: "Anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi crimes are taken extremely seriously in France. Anyone suspected of breaking the law in this respect can and will be prosecuted."
Burley, a rising star in the Conservative party and senior aide to the transport secretary, Justine Greening, was thought to be close friends with the man who wore the SS uniform – Mark Fournier, 34, an accountant and graduate of Queen's College, Oxford University, for whom the stag party was held.
Fournier, the paper added, was frequently addressed by the others as "Himmler". His brother, John Fournier, 37, a businessman, gave the toast. Later, the elder brother gave another speech, saying of Burley: "This man is a Tory MP. He went to Oxford as well. A Tory boy. He was the candidate for Berlin East."
Burley, who was said to be standing a few feet away, was not seen to object to any of the speeches or the actions of his friends, the paper claimed. The Guardian
A property tycoon and a City-based financier quizzed by police over his links to the gunman who slaughtered 69 people in Norway are exposed today as key figures behind the rise of the far-right English Defence League (EDL).
A Sunday Times investigation has revealed that Ann Marchini, a mother from Highgate, north London, and Alan Ayling, a former director of an investment fund, have sought to mould the thuggish anti-Muslim group into a credible political force.
They are both linked to the murky world of the online "counter-jihad" movement from which Anders Behring Breivik drew ideological inspiration before committing his massacre in Norway in July. They have remained in the shadows until now by using aliases on the internet to mask their true identities.
Breivik repeatedly mentioned the EDL in his 1,600-page "manifesto" and once belonged to an Oslo-based offshoot called the Norwegian Defence League.
The EDL, whose support has mushroomed since it was formed in Luton in 2009, has organised a string of protests against what it perceives as the growing "Islamisation" of Britain.
Many have descended into violence perpetrated by a hard core of football hooligans.
However, the "brains" behind the group — which plans to field candidates at the next council elections — come from a different background.
Marchini, who is thought to be in her fifties, runs a buy-to-let property empire from her £1.6m mock-Tudor home in Highgate, a leafy suburb usually associated with liberals.
Marchini, who is believed to be divorced from an Italian banker, operates under at least two aliases: "Gaia", the Earth goddess from Greek mythology, and "Dominique Devaux".
She is said to have helped organise a "pivotal" meeting between EDL figures and anti-jihad thinkers in July 2009 and recently attended a discussion where the EDL agreed to consider an electoral pact with the right-wing British Freedom party (BFP).
A report by Gaia on the BFP website states that Stephen Lennon, the EDL leader, "explained that the EDL need to move up a notch — they cannot go on forever staging street demos. They are still widely perceived as a rabble, and as such cannot possibly obtain funding or be taken seriously by the political class".
Marchini was photographed alongside Lennon, 28, at a far-right demonstration this year and the image was posted on the website of Hope Not Hate, an anti-fascist group. Her name and address also appeared on a leaked list of EDL donors.
The 2009 EDL meeting took place at the £500,000 flat of Ayling in the Barbican in central London. Lennon attended with two relatives from Luton.
Paul Ray, who claims to be a founder of the EDL, was also there. He says he travelled to the venue from Highgate with Marchini, whom he knew at the time as "Ann", "Gaia" or "Dominique". He says he had previously stayed for "a few months" at one of her rental flats on British Street in Bow, east London.
Ray regards the Barbican meeting as "pivotal". "It was the key people being brought together," he said. "It was bringing together the ideological and political side with the boots on the ground."
Two days after the meeting, Ray received an email from "Dominique Devaux", using the account "gaia2600@hotmail.com". "Still very interested in helping EDF [sic] grow as a movement," it stated. It was signed off by "Ann".
Another email, seen by The Sunday Times, gives a mobile number used by Marchini for letting her properties.
Ayling, 57, has been operating under the alias "Alan Lake". He is an IT expert and was a director of Pacific Capital Investment Management until January this year. The fund was dissolved in August.
Last month Ayling was interviewed by officers from Scotland Yard at the behest of Norwegian police who were investigating whether he was a possible "mentor" of Breivik.
Paal-Fredrik Kraby, an Oslo police prosecutor, confirmed that "the man known as Alan Lake" had been questioned. "But his real name is not for us to give to the press," he said.
In an interview with a Norwegian newspaper nine days ago, Lake denied having any contact with Breivik. However, he admitted to having met a prolific anti-Islam blogger called "Fjordman". "People ought to read him, he is good," Lake said. Breivik named Fjordman 111 times in his manifesto.
In the same interview, Lake said Breivik was "wrong", but added the following about Norway's immigration policies: "You let in dangerous people who do not share your values, who will destroy your society and take your freedom. You will have to pay the price for that."
When shown a photograph of Lake last week, two separate sources at the Barbican confirmed that the man in the picture was Ayling. A man inside his flat denied he was Ayling when contacted over the intercom and refused to step outside. Ayling did not respond to a written list of questions.
Norwegian police say Lake was interviewed in London as a "witness". They have also spoken at length to Ray, 35, who voluntarily flew to Oslo to try to clear his name after speculation that he could have unwittingly inspired Breivik.
The Norwegian gunman, 32, who has been declared insane by psychiatrists, claimed in his manifesto that he once had an English mentor called "Richard (the Lionhearted)". Ray, a born-again Christian who subsequently fell out with the EDL, runs a blog called Lionheart.
When The Sunday Times first approached Marchini about her EDL links on November 30, she slammed the door shut on a reporter. Last week, she and her son, Paolo, hung up at least three times when contacted by telephone.
On Friday, a lawyer for Marchini said: "Ann Marchini does not operate under the alias of either Dominique Devaux or Gaia. She is a member of British Freedom, but joined only to show support for her personal friend Paul Weston [the chairman]."
Two names on Dominique Devaux's list of Facebook friends — Paolo and Bianca Marchini — disappeared on the same day.
Weston, a former UK Independence party candidate, said he could not recall befriending Devaux on Facebook. He described Breivik as "a psychopathic lunatic".
Lennon admitted knowing Marchini under the Devaux alias, but denied she was influential. He said Lake was a "nutjob" and had not been involved with the EDL "for ages". Lennon, a former member of the British National party, denied the EDL was racist and said Breivik was "a monster". The Sunday Times
Jewish Chronicle
