Blogs in June 2011.

I thought I should see what others are doing:

Flesh is Grass has an important post on how the EDL managed to march, unescorted, from Redbridge to Dagenham.

Yaacov Lozowick has given up blogging. Pity, I didn’t agree with him, much, but he has a thoughtful way and articulates many intelligent ideas.

Johnny Guitar thinks about the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement and the need for a South Africa-style truth commission, just not at the moment.

Weggis on the case against biofuels. Completely agree, it seems so questionable to use food stuff or related material as fuel for the internal combustion engine.

Harry Barnes on Sorting Out The Labour Party, which I think is very optimistic. In the short term they could ditch Ed Miliband, try to be a bit radical, really, seriously distance themselves from the skeleton of New Labour. Chance would be a fine thing.

In related news, I am not surprised that Ed Miliband is less popular than Iain Duncan Smith or William Hague, when they were in a similar position. Frankly, Miliband’s inarticulate, has the charisma of a saucer and he’s politically useless.

Jams looks at an evil cat, great photos.

Mark Gardner at the CST has a reflective post on the situation at UCU and its wider implications, From UCU to MEMO and “Israel’s British hirelings”.

Ten minutes hate on the ‘miracle villages’.

Chris Dillow considers Miliband’s power blindness.

Nick Lowles provides a photo and details of the EDL thugs racial attack in Dagenham.

Sorrel Moseley-Williams ponders Journalists’ Day in Argentina.

Not a blog, but worthwhile all the same. Searchlight on the BNP’s use of Facebook and Twitter.

Rosie looks at Fact and Fiction.

James Bloodworth has a couple of cracking posts, Will the Defence Secretary’s links with Sri Lanka compromise British calls for an enquiry? and Isn’t it time for an apology, Mr Chomsky?

Rebecca provides an update on the Gaza flotilla. Personally, I think the Israeli Government should allow them into Gaza with minimum fuss or hassle. I think Gazans should get as much as they can, after all living under Hamas must be terrible.

Jack of Kent looks at the arrest of blogger Jacqui Thompson and the many unanswered questions.

Greens Engage on Cynthia and Jello.

At Greater Surbiton, a guest post by David Pettigrew, Justice in Bosnia after Mladic.

Eric Reeves has a piece in the Washington Post, In Sudan, genocide anew?

Engage has an abundance of posts which should be read, just a small selection: Open antisemitism doesn’t harm your reputation, Sally Hunt pretends not to understand the term “institutional racism” and Richard Kuper on the Working Definition of Anti-Semitism (by Eve Garrard)

Enjoy!

Boozy Neo-fascists In Blackpool.

The EDL were in Blackpool today, stirring up hatred as usual.

Here is a photo from one of their many drinking sessions, note the bloke in front:

Anyone tempted to comment should first read the comments policy.

The English Defence League, Red Watch And Neofascist Thugs.

Many readers will be familiar with Red Watch, a neofascist outfit which publishes the details of its political opponents.

Its purpose is very clear, to ensure that the houses and dwellings of its political opponents are attacked, bricks through windows, firebombed, etc

It is an old fascist technique that has been updated for the 21st century.

Unsurprisingly, the English Defence League take a similar approach. A secret Facebook group of the EDL are posting the names, addresses and phone numbers of their perceived enemies.

Presumably, the EDL will organise, directly or indirectly for them to be attacked, physically.

Now their apologists will try to explain that the EDL are not neofascists, that is despite the fact that their events are published on neofascist forums, that is regardless of the presence of neo-Nazis, BNPers and certifiable racists at their events, etc etc.

This latest development shows how the EDL are changing from a proto-fascist street gang to a more traditional neofascist setup.

No surprise there.

BNP & Business, A Warning.

A word of warning to any gullible company that wishes to do business with the neofascists in the BNP, they don’t pay, as the Belfast Telegraph relates:

“The British National Party owes companies in Northern Ireland hundreds of thousands of pounds in unpaid bills, it is claimed.

The Belfast Telegraph can reveal that a number of firms here could take the party to court for monies outstanding.

One former supporter of the party has warned that small family-run firms could go bankrupt because of the shortfall, thought to total over £500,000, UK-wide.

A case has already been heard in the High Court in March involving the non-payment of election expenses relating to the Barking constituency in London, where party leader Nick Griffin was the candidate.

A company called Newton Press has taken legal action over an outstanding bill of more than £10,000 for printing services.

Last week the BNP pledged to pay off all the money it owed by the end of the year, adding that the debts were a result of spending during the last European and general election campaigns.

A former BNP supporter in Northern Ireland, who is also owed money, said he is not confident of being repaid soon.

Jim Dowson is a fundraiser who helped set up BNP offices all over the UK, including in Northern Ireland.

His firm Adlorries, which provides promotional and marketing services, claims he is owed around £160,000.

He said he has already had to dip into his own cash to pay off smaller companies related to his firm who were left out of pocket.

“The BNP claim to be the saviours of British industry and British workers, but I am afraid that around half a dozen small, family-run businesses, including some in Northern Ireland, could go to the wall because the BNP have not paid them,” he said.

“We are in a recession and times are hard enough as it is. People have been treated disgracefully.”

Mr Dowson also expressed anger that party boss Mr Griffin was spotted walking around east Belfast last week, just yards from a firm the BNP allegedly owes more than £40,000.”

(H/T: Lancaster Unity)

The Lobbies, Rounding Up Before The Weekend.

I shall be away for a good few days and thought that rounding up news worthy bits and my random thoughts might be easier.

I admit I can’t stand the NewStatesman, but if you have to read it then Kevin Maguire’s column is good and sharp on domestic British politics.

A pessimistic Yaacov Lozowick says Peace Impossible; Progress Needed:

“Compared to long periods of Jewish history, deligitimization is a reasonable problem to have. For that matter, deligitimization compounded with a low level of violence isn’t an existential threat, either. Yet Jews haven’t become one of history’s oldest living nations by passively suffering circumstances. They have always tried to improve their lot, often with surprising success; Zionism is merely one of the more spectacular improvements. The Zionist tradition of activism requires we confront the present threat, rather than wait. The way forward is to disable the weapons of our enemies. Since the single most potent weapon in their arsenal is our occupation of the Palestinians, we must do as much as we reasonably can to end it.

Ending the occupation as a maneuver in an ongoing conflict is not the same as making peace. Making peace requires that all side to the conflict accept mutually agreed terms. There’s a reason this hasn’t yet happened, namely that the two sides cannot agree; even if they could, however, no Palestinian government could reconcile all Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims to Jewish sovereignty, nor convince the western supporters of ongoing violence to desist from aiding and abetting it. The aim of ending the occupation is to severely weaken the enemies of Jewish sovereignty by reducing the wind which currently blows in their sails.”

I don’t agree with him on much but he too is worth a read.

Meanwhile in Bahrain:

“Bahraini opposition groups and rights organizations say hundreds of public employees were dismissed on the grounds that they took part in protests. Bahrain says it had taken steps only against those who committed crimes during the protests.”

The yearly Orwell Prize is upon us, and bloggers haven’t been forgotten. I do find the self-promotional nature of this event somewhat disappointing, you have to submit your own work, rather than someone proposing you. It seems that the Orwell Prize has become another major happening, where the middle classes slap each other on the back and say what jolly good chaps/chappettes they are. Is this what Eric Blair really wanted? The Metropolitan elites congratulating each other? Probably not.

Interested in the Middle East? Use Google’s Chrome and check out the BBC’s Arabic page, which Chrome will automatically translate into any appropriate language. It’s a good read and has a slightly different perspective than the English language one.

Donald Trump and the Birther idiocy has compelled President Obama to release his birth certificate, view as a PDF. Gary Younge was good on the issue about 2 years ago, not much has changed since then. This is the White House blog on it, and I didn’t know it existed!

Gulf leaders are worried about Egypt.

Searchlight on the BNP’s Young, angry and on the rise.

Howard Jacobson on Ofcom and The Promise, sharp as ever:

“In a morally intelligent world – that’s to say one in which, for starters, Jews are not judged more harshly than their fellows for having been despatched to concentration camps – The Promise would be seen for the ludicrous piece of brainwashed prejudice it is. Ofcom’s rejection of complaints about the drama’s partiality and inaccuracy was to be expected. You can’t expect a body as intellectually unsophisticated as Ofcom to adjudicate between claims of dramatic truth and truth of any other sort. And for that reason it should never have been appealed to. That said, its finding that The Promise was “serious television drama, not presented as a historical and faithful re-creation”, is a poor shot at making sense of anything. You can’t brush aside historical re-creation in a work of historical re-creation, nor can you assert a thing is “serious television” when its seriousness is what’s in question. A work isn’t serious by virtue of its thinking it is. Wherein lies the seriousness, one is entitled to ask, when the drama creaks with the bad faith of a made-up mind.

I’m an art man, myself. Aesthetics trump the lot. And “seriousness” is an aesthetic quality or it’s nothing. But you will usually find that bad intentions makes bad art, and bad art, while it might be solemn and self-righteous, forfeits the right to be called serious. From start to finish, The Promise was art with its trousers round its ankles. Yes, it looked expensive, took its time, was beautifully shot and well acted. But these are merely the superficies of art, and the more dangerously seductive for that. “Gosh, I never knew such and such had happened,” I heard people say after one or other simplifying episode, as though high production values guarantee veracity.”

The Obama administration and Syria, conflicting policies?

When people start shouting about Mosques, remember what company you’re in, BNP man arrested at mosque protest.

In Bahrain Tweeters get a warning from the State:

““Think twice before posting, forwarding, or reTweeting messages. Are they mere propaganda or could they be libelous? Think Twice before posting, forwarding or reTweeting images. Are they appropriate in their content? Are they likely to cause offense? Could they cause harm?” “

British Foreign secretaries are normally not that naive, but William Hague seems to think Bashar al-Assad is a reformer, even after 400+ Syrians were killed by the state security apparatus, police and army. Chronically stupid doesn’t even sum up Hague in this matter.

Remember 9/11? Imagine that you were one of the first people on the scene, that you risked your life to help people. How would you be treated by Congress? Pretty damn poorly, Medialite has more:

“Jon Stewart tonight tackled the absurdity of a provision in the recently passed 9/11 first responders bill that requires any potential beneficiaries to first have their name run through the FBI’s terrorism watch list before they could collect any money. Some commentators described it as “adding insult to injury,” but Stewart more bluntly called it Congress’ “final kick to the nuts” of the first responders.

This issue is somewhat personal to Stewart given that many credited him with helping to get public support for the bill’s passage. Yet Stewart went to town, lampooning anyone who could possibly think a terrorist’s grand scheme after all of these years was to trick the U.S. government into handing over money to now pay for their cancer treatment.”

HRW seems to think that Hamas will investigate itself concerning the death of Adel Razeq. Great idea, but it ain’t going to happen:

“(Jerusalem) – Hamas authorities in Gaza should order a criminal investigation into the death of a man whose body was returned to his family five days after Hamas security officials arrested him, Human Rights Watch said today.

Relatives of ‘Adel Razeq, a 52-year-old father of nine, told Human Rights Watch that when security officials arrested him on April 14, 2011, they did not present a warrant and took him away under false pretenses. Security officials would not tell his family where he was being held. When his brother examined the body, it was badly bruised and appeared to have broken bones, he told Human Rights Watch. That, if true, would cast doubt on a Hamas Interior Ministry statement that Razeq died of an unspecified illness. “

Finally to a Lobby, but not one that you’d expect, the Syrian Lobby, extracted from the WSJ:

“How does a small, energy-poor and serially misbehaving Middle Eastern regime always seem to get a Beltway pass? Conspiracy nuts and other tenured faculty would have us believe that country is Israel, though the Jewish state shares America’s enemies and our democratic values. But the question really applies to Syria, where the Assad regime is now showing its true nature.

Washington’s Syria Lobby is a bipartisan mindset. “The road to Damascus is a road to peace,” said Nancy Pelosi on a 2007 visit to Syria as House Speaker. Former Secretary of State James Baker is a longtime advocate of engagement with the House of Assad. So is Republican Chuck Hagel, who in 2008 co-wrote an op-ed with fellow Senator John Kerry in these pages titled “It’s Time to Talk to Syria.” The Massachusetts Democrat has visited Damascus five times in the past two years alone.
…
The argument made by the Syria Lobby runs briefly as follows: The Assad family is occasionally ruthless, especially when its survival is at stake, but it’s also secular and pragmatic. Though the regime is Iran’s closest ally in the Middle East, hosts terrorists in Damascus, champions Hezbollah in Lebanon and has funneled al Qaeda terrorists into Iraq, it will forgo those connections for the right price. Above all, it yearns for better treatment from Washington and the return of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau held by Israel since 1967.

The Syria Lobby also claims that whoever succeeds Assad would probably be worse. The country is divided by sect and ethnicity, and the fall of the House of Assad could lead to bloodletting previously seen in Lebanon or Iraq. Some members of the Lobby go so far as to say that the regime remains broadly popular. “I think that President Assad is going to count on . . . majoritarian support within the country to support him in doing what he needs to do to restore order,” Flynt Leverett of the New America Foundation said recently on PBS’s NewsHour.

Now we are seeing what Mr. Leverett puts down merely to the business of “doing what he needs to do”: Video clips on YouTube of tanks rolling into Syrian cities and unarmed demonstrators being gunned down in the streets; reports of hundreds killed and widespread “disappearances.” Even the Obama Administration has belatedly criticized Assad, though so far President Obama has done no more than condemn his “outrageous human rights abuses.” ”

It is something to see, how tanks, snipers and the slaughter of civilians doesn’t to rile policy makers in DC, or political activists in Britain as witnessed by the non-existence demonstrations outside the Syrian embassy by the usual suspects! And that something that has struck me over the pass few weeks coverage of events in the Middle East, how little real indignation they invoked in the West.

Gullible BBC News And The BNP.

Anyone following the activities of the BNP would know that they are suffering from numerous internal problems, thankfully.

There has been numerous splits in the BNP leadership and a financial meltdown, yet BBC News couldn’t even get that right as HOPE not hate details:

“There are always a few in the media prepared to swallow the British National Party’s statements uncritically and talk up the racist party’s electoral prospects. But we didn’t expect the chief political correspondent of BBC Radio 4 to be one of them.

Norman Smith’s article on the BBC website today reported a claim by Simon Darby, the BNP’s media spokesman, that the BNP was “not going bust” and expects to pay off its debts of more than £500,000 by the end of the year.

“BNP officials” had told Smith that the party had instituted austerity measures including laying off staff and closing its Belfast call centre. In fact the call centre, which closed several months ago, never belonged to the party.

Smith also reported a claim that there had been an increase in donations “from the party’s 12,000 members”. Searchlight’s own sources and several disaffected former BNP officers all agree that the BNP’s membership currently stands at 6,000 maximum after large numbers of disillusioned members failed to renew or defected to rival organisations.

Darby told Smith that most of the party’s debts were the result of heavy spending on the European and general elections in 2009 and 2010 rather than on its reckless court cases and that the party was cutting back on election expenditure for this year.

In fact the BNP’s head office spent a mere £30,374 on the general election. Local party units paid for the rest and their expenditure does not contribute to the party’s current debts.

In any case, all election expenditure has by law to be paid within a few weeks of an election. Is Darby claiming that the £282,843 it spent on the 2009 European election campaign still forms part of the party’s debts two years later?”

Perhaps the BBC should take out a subscription to Searchlight?

BNP Election Material.

In Britain there is a local election on the 5th May 2011, the Indy covers the piss poor quality of BNP candidates:

“The BNP was last night accused of turning to “a hardcore group of neo-Nazis and racists” to stand as candidates in next month’s local elections.

The anti-BNP campaign group Hope not Hate said it had compiled a dossier of extremist postings of candidates standing on 5 May, either in council elections or those to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. Among the postings the group collected from Facebook pages were:

* One BNP candidate in the North of England who posted on his Facebook page a mock advert for the gas Zyklon B – used in the Nazi extermination chambers of the Second World War – captioned, “Try Zyklon B. It’s a gas!”
…
Overall the BNP will be fielding just over 200 candidates in next month’s elections – nearly 500 fewer than the in 2007. It said it “was having to cut its cloth” because of the amount of money it had had to spend defending a legal action against the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Hope not Hate said: “As his party crumbles, Nick Griffin has been forced to turn to what even by BNP standards, is a hard core of neo-Nazis and racists. These are not just activists, but people Griffin is putting forward as candidates for elected public office. They are literally the best the BNP now has to offer.”

Hope not Hate, which is funded by the trades union movement, said the party had become hopelessly split – with many members defecting to the English Democrats and the breakaway party British Freedom Party. “

(H/T: Lancaster Unity)

Update 1: Another good piece from the Indy:

“The low-key launch of the BNP’s English manifesto in a deserted Stoke-on-Trent shopping street yesterday was in marked contrast to previous events held by the group in the area. In 2008 the city played host to a 300-strong BNP rally; only around 30 members turned up yesterday.

With three volunteers holding up modest Union flag backdrops to ensure they did not blow over during the speech by the deputy leader Simon Darby, and press interviews held in the corner of a giant retail centre car park, the event was notably different from last year’s general election campaign launch. Then, a man dressed as St George appeared with the leader Nick Griffin in Stoke to begin the party’s ill-fated push for a Westminster seat. Mr Griffin was unable to attend this time due to poor health, leaving the floor – or rather pavement – for Mr Darby to address his small gaggle of followers. “

Update 2: Also see HOPE not hate weekend of action.

HOPE not hate weekend of action

The Daily Star And The EDL.

Anyone that has tried to read the Daily Star will know that it hardly counts as a newspaper. It is the type of publication you would put down to catch bird’s droppings, that’s all its good for.

Nevertheless, its open support of EDL is another marker in the rise of modern neofascism and anti-Muslim hatred.

Just as the BNP were falling apart Britain’s Far Right get a rejuvenating shot in the arm from the Daily Star, Roy Greenslade has more:

“Yesterday’s Daily Star broke new ground by publishing a political splash. Over a picture of flag-waving marchers was the headline English Defence League to become political party.

As this reproduction of its front page shows, it was anything but a neutral presentation. It is a clear piece of propaganda on behalf of the EDL, a group that opposes the supposed spread of Islamic extremism in Britain.

The story cannot be read as anything other than a cheer-leading, uncritical piece on behalf of the EDL. Triumphalist in tone throughout, it required no between-the-lines deconstruction to grasp its intention – to build support for the group among its readers.
…
Desmond ought to think very carefully about letting the Star use far right politics to build sales.

He should remember what happened in those societies across Europe in the 1930s where Jewish minorities were demonised in the media for their religious beliefs.

Can he not see that the underlying agenda of groups like the EDL is anti-Semitic? What does he think he is doing? “

Update 1: As Minority Thought says:

“It’s not hard to see why the Star would choose to back the EDL. The paper has a long and well-documented history of publishing stories that paint Muslims in a negative light, some examples of which can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
“

Luton And The English Defence League.

Once more the thugs in the EDL want to stomp their supposed authority on the streets of Britain.

They have tried to do this before, in Leicester, October 2010 and before that in Oldham.

Each time they sought to attack ethnic minorities, intimidate ordinary people and even smash up restaurants. As I wrote before:

“1. The EDL *leadership* is stuffed full of BNPers, ex-BNPers, neo-Nazis and their allies.

2. The EDL always pick towns with high ethnic populations to hold their demonstrations. Their objective is to run amok, abuse and intimidate local people. That’s what they do.

3. The EDL want to start ethnic conflict and anyone that supports or excuses them is beyond the pale of reasoned debate, as they are aiding and abetting racial conflict. “

They are thugs, plain and simple, as their attack on Portsmouth’s Jami Mosque showed.

This time the EDL tried it on in Luton, but they couldn’t manage it despite their own bravado, plenty of booze and police protection, Nick Lowles of HOPE not Hate has more in a rolling commentary of the day:

” Foreign nazis are arriving in Luton looking for trouble. Far right activists from Sweden have been here for a couple of days and Norwegian and Dutch extremists are arriving shortly. Our spotters have also just seen a carload of German Blood & Honour supporters, wearing Combat 18 shirts, driving through the town.

We are also expecting hardliners from Vérité, Valeurs & Démocratie (VVD), a front organization of Bloc identitaire from France. ”

“Further to my last post the police have stopped the car carrying the German Blood and Honour supporters and are currently searching them.

Some of the Dutch Defence League have arrived. I’ve heard that they were staying in Bayswater, West London, along with some of the German Defence League.

EDL groups from North London, Gateshead, Aylesbury and Milton Keynes are already here. A group boarded a train at St Pancras this morning but nowhere near the numbers the EDL gave to the press. The EDL have been given two pubs and a nightclub to meet up in. The landlords/owners are allowed to serve drinks until 12pm and then close the venues an hour later, after which the EDL march will begin. All 300 pubs across the town will be shut from 12pm and not allowed to reopen until 7pm.

Interestingly, the police have been erecting steel barriers across streets, both to keep the EDL and UAF apart but also on some of the roads linking the EDL march route and Bury Park, where the Muslim community are gathering.”

“There are 18 EDL coaches lined up along Dunstable Road waiting to enter Luton. Police seem unwilling to allow them to move until much closer to the time the demo starts.”

“The EDL leadership appear to have their hands full trying to keep their rowdy bunch in order. There’s the drunken Sunderland group, others throwing bottles at the police and now the Scottish Defence League are taunting their English counterparts with chants of “where are your famous EDL?” ”

“I can now reveal that two of the speakers at today’s rally will be Austrian Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff and the surfing rabbi from the US, Nachum Shifren.

Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff is a representative of “Citizens’ Movement Pax Europa” and last year she was charged with “incitement” and “defamation of religious teachings” in Austria.

Nachum Shifren is an extremist Rabbi from California who has close links to the Tea Party.

Just for clarification, the march hasn’t actually started yet. There was some movement 25 minutes ago but it seems that they just moving into position. However, it is about to start any minute now.”

“One really has to question the tactics of the local police. While EDL thugs fight with police Stephen Lennon is helped out of the march and escorted – by police and his own security – to the square where the rally will be held.

Are they affording the same protection to local citizens terrified by the EDL demo?”

Keep on reading here.

EDL Supporters: Torrent of Racist Abuse.

Lift a stone and some EDL supporter pops out, usually letting their mask slip, Wish FM reports:

“Three English Defence League supporters have been ordered to pay more than £350 each after being found guilty of subjecting rail passengers to serious racist abuse.

Tracey Hurley (33), Stuart Parr (28) and a 17-year old youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Wigan Magistrates’ Court on 20 January for trial.

The court heard that, on Friday 25 June last year, the trio had attended an EDL march in Bradford and had been on their way home when they travelled from Manchester Victoria to Wigan on a Northern Rail service.

During the journey they became abusive and intimidating, subjecting several passengers to a torrent of racist abuse.

The abuse began when the three sang songs relating to the EDL and Taliban. At Salford Crescent an Asian man boarded the train and was immediately targeted by the group who shouted derogatory remarks about Allah to the man.

PC Tony McGibbon, of British Transport Police, said: “The abuse continued for some time and was directed at anyone on board the train who the three perceived to be anything other than white British.

“The behaviour of the three was offensive in the extreme, completely unacceptable and made everyone on the train feel incredibly uncomfortable.”

A passenger advised a member of rail staff who reported the behaviour of the three to BTP officers.
After witnesses were spoken to the three where arrested and interviewed.

During interviews they admitted having been at the EDL march and drinking heavily, but denied making any racist remarks or behaving in a racist manner.”

PS: ANYONE remotely tempted to defend the EDL should read my comments policy, again.

Update 1: My moderation queue is slowly filling up with stupid comments from dim witted EDL supporters, forget it, you and your comments ain’t going to see the light of day, now feck off.

English Defence League Attack Portsmouth Mosque.

The pretence that the English Defence League is solely concerned with extreme Jihadist is laid to rest as their supporters attack a mosque out of the blue, as the Portmouth News report:

“Scores of demonstrators gathered outside Portsmouth’s Jami Mosque. They were protesting after a small group of Muslims – not from the city – burned poppies in London during the two minutes’ silence on Armistice Day.

The protest, led by former soldier David Tallard, congregated outside the mosque at midday and numbered about 40.

It broke for Pompey’s home game against Doncaster, and gathered again shortly after 5pm this time with about 100 taking part.

Peace protesters who had heard about the protest also gathered outside the mosque.

Shouting between the two groups then ensued with firecrackers, an egg and a golf ball being thrown into the peace campaigners.

There was a strong police presence with one man from the demonstrators being arrested after a confrontation. He has now been bailed.

A 6ft poppy had also been graffitied on the mosque the day before.

Portsmouth police commander, Chief Superintendent Nigel Hindle said: ‘The majority of those taking part in the demo’s did so peacefully however there were a number of objects thrown and we did make one arrest for a public order offence.

‘We will now be reviewing CCTV footage and collecting evidence to find those who did commit offences. People can be assured we will track those responsible down and deal with them appropriately.’

‘As a precaution following yesterday’s protests additional resources were put in place today (Sunday) as a measured response. This was to make sure the Remembrance Day service in the city passed off peacefully – which we are pleased to say it did.

‘Extra officers will continue to be present in the areas around the city’s mosques today to ensure public safety and provide reassurance to the whole community.’

The Muslim community in Portsmouth said they condemned the burning of the poppies and that they would have joined any protest, had it not been directed at the Jami Mosque.

Akf Suyeb, of the mosque, said: ‘When these people are pointing their fingers at us about this, it’s not right. ‘We condemn the people who burnt the poppies, and we do show our respect to the people who died in war.

‘After all, Indian people, Muslim people, also died during the first and second world wars. We should remember that.

‘As Muslims, we are not allowed to wear images of animals, but flowers are fine.

‘And we would have been happy to have a poppy painted on the mosque – but it was graffiti, and they should have asked our permission before painting on our building.

‘We would have absolutely joined in a protest, because the Muslim community condemns this act, but not when it is against our mosque.’

Former soldier Mr Tallard, 25, who was injured while serving in Iraq in 2004, insisted the protest was not racially motivated despite the location outside the mosque on Victoria Road South.

He said: ‘It is a busy road, and someone had already painted a poppy on the outside of the mosque. This protest has nothing to do with religion.

‘We just don’t want to see poppies being burned. It’s just not right.’

A coach-load of members of the English Defence League nationalist group made the trip to Southsea from London to join in the protest.”

So some idiots in LONDON burn some poppies and we meant to believe that EDL picked a peaceful, unconnected mosque in Portsmouth to attack?

That’s 75 miles away, something happens in London, so the EDL attack a mosque in Portsmouth…what racist knucklescrapers. The EDL are out just to attack Muslims, any Muslims, anywhere for any excuse.

They have to stopped.

Update 1: It seems that one EDLer admits causing criminal damage to the mosque. by painting graffiti on it.

Update 2: Any EDL supporters tempted to post should first read the my comment’s policy.

Turbulent Times At The BNP.

The British National Party is in turmoil, different factions are fighting it out, death threats, and they even expelled their assembly member for London, Richard Barnbrook.

The organisation is insolvent:

“Any remaining pretence that the BNP is not on the verge of insolvency was blown away when a document headed OFFER OF DEBT COMPROMISE sent by Jim Dowson to the BNP’s lengthy list of unpaid creditors surfaced over the weekend.

Dated October 6th (a Wednesday), the document gives the BNP’s “preferred” creditors just a few days – until Thursday October 14th – to accept a 20p in the pound settlement, and warns: “Thereafter there is no prospect of your invoices being paid at any time in the forseeable future.”

Nakedly attempting to bluff creditors tempted to use the courts to enforce payment, the heavy-handed Dowson claims: “Additionally, the lawyers who have reviewed the underlying contracts to most of the outstanding invoices have advised that most are not enforceable.”

This is almost certainly untrue, but it is an admission that the BNP considers any contract entered into with itself is not worth the paper it is written on.”

The rats have dashed off the sinking ship:

Add to that the court case which the BNP faces and it is not a happy time to be a British neofascist, and yes, that is a big smile on my face. They deserve it, and much more:

“The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) accuses Griffin, Simon Darby, the BNP deputy, and party officer Tanya Lumby of failing to comply with a county court judgment earlier this year ordering the removal of potentially racist clauses from the BNP’s constitution. The party faces a fine, hefty costs or possibly the sequestration of its assets if the court finds in favour of the EHRC.

Robin Allen QC, appearing for the watchdog, accused the BNP of “playing with” the commission and its officials instead of obeying the judgment.

He added: “Our principle position is: [Griffin] is simply lying [when he says] he did not know the terms of the order.”

Allen described Griffin as a “persistent offender” who had repeatedly failed to comply with various orders to change the constitution.”

A profile of Nick Griffin at Searchlight.

Other BNP personalities, and an unsavoury bunch they are.

Duncan’s What on earth is going on in the BNP? A rough guide is very good.

Simon Nicholson, once a rising star exposing the BNP.

The National Front, Richard Edmonds And The Leader of the EDL.

Years ago, long before the current incarnation of the British National Party there was the National Front.

The NF lacked the intellect and polish of the BNP, but it more than made up with neo-Nazism and leaders that formed their views amongst the post-WW 2 dregs of the Extreme Right.

Today’s crop of Far Righters did not appear overnight, they have a history both intellectually and physically joined at the hip with Mosleyism and 1960’s British National Socialism.

Few antifascists can forget the picture of John Tyndall or Colin Jordon striding around in fake Brown shirt clobber, replete with Nazi insignia.

Which leads us to Richard Edmonds, long time fixture on Britain’s Extreme Right, who I ran across in the 1970s. He’s not the type of person you could forget, tallish with a grasping violent manner and a true neo-Nazi believer, as HOPE not hate details:

“Richard Edmonds was once a powerful figure in the BNP, the right-hand man to its founder, John Tyndall. Despite his marginalisation under the new “modern” BNP Edmonds remains an important figure whom Griffin cannot afford wholly to ignore, not for who he is but because of what he stands for. After Tyndall’s death in 2005 Edmonds took over as the personification of the “old” hardline, antisemitic BNP, with which many of its activists still identify.

A former member of the National Front, Edmonds was a teacher in Tulse Hill, south London where teachers and pupils alike were less than impressed by his political activities. He is a convinced antisemite and played a leading role in producing the Holocaust denial newspaper Holocaust News.”

The video below shows EDL leader, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson lapping up Richard Edmonds’ racist rants with gusto.

As the antifascist YouTube channel, BNPinfo relates:

“This photo shows EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon with violent race-hate criminal, Holocaust denier and senior BNP and NF official Richard Edmonds, and with John Pater of an openly Nazi group called the November 9th Society.

Richard Edmonds published an extreme right-wing magazine called Holocaust News, which pretended Hitler never gassed Jews, gypsies, gays and disabled people in concentration camps, and is the person who famously admitted on TV that the BNP are “100% Racist”.

The Nov 9th Society is also known (ironically) as the British First Party, but takes the Nov 9th name from the date of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s failed 1923 beer-hall putsch in… Germany!

Despite what the EDL say about how immigrants should respect British laws, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is currently being investigated for money laundering and was jailed for attacking a police officer who tried to stop Yaxley-Lennon beating-up his own girlfriend. “

I think that tells us the type of company that the ex-BNPer and current EDL leader, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson really likes to keep.

(Hat tip: FightBack UK)

Update 1: The JC has more on the November 9th Society:

“Kevin Quinn, leader of the extreme-right November 9th Society, was unequivocal about its policy when the JC called him. Israel, rather than Jews, was the enemy, he insisted, even if that contradicted a past advertisement in a virulently antisemitic publication.

When it was pointed out to Quinn that the majority of people in Israel are Jewish, he replied without a hint of irony: “I was under the impression that Israel was formed as a homeland for all Jews. I would invite all Jews to go back there.”

The society’s spiritual leader is Adolf Hitler and Quinn denies the Holocaust, claiming it was a “physical impossibility.” He contends that 300,000 died from typhoid and Allied bombing.

In any event, he is “not concerned with what happened to Jews or anyone else in a foreign country. I am concerned only with Great Britain and what happens here, with asylum seekers coming through tunnels, with pensioners who cannot afford to pay heating bills, with British soldiers coming home in body bags.”

These sentiments are repeated on the N9S website, which carries videos that, at the very least, are in poor taste.

Kevin Quinn — a 41-year-psychiatric nurse and father-of-four — maintains that the Society is “not Fascist. We are National Socialist.” He claims it has “about 940 members” and organises demonstrations “all over the country.” It hopes to field four or five candidates in next year’s local elections.

But one source who monitors far-right organisations questioned the membership claims. “When they do appear, they cannot muster more than about a dozen people. They like to dress up in uniforms but do not do much else.”

Quinn admitted to having worn a uniform in the past but claimed he no longer did so. He did not give Nazi salutes in public.

He dubbed the British National Party “Conservatives on steroids.” “

BNP Goes Tits Up.

I want to blog, but for complex (and simple) reasons I can’t, so instead here’s good news, the BNP are going bankrupt.** Marvellous news and Liverpool Antifascists has the story from the Northern Echo:

“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.”

—

“**Editorial Note. According to the above, the BNP, as an unincorporated organisation, cannot be declared bankrupt, but liability could be laid at the door of Nick Griffin as party leader. However, it is Liveraf’s understanding that Griffin has turned himself into a man of straw, with no assets which can technically be called his own, and which could not be seized as the result of an action against Griffin. If so, it means that the BNP and its leader are virtually untouchable in terms of financial liability; almost as untouchable as Al Capone in fact.”

A good laugh eh?

Not In Our Name – Jews Against the EDL.

The Union of Jewish Student has a new campaign, Not In Our Name – Jews Against the EDL.

It is a most welcome initiative.

It is early days yet, but they can be found at notinourna.me

They are on Facebook and Twitter too.