The English Defence League’s regional organisers met last night to discuss the crisis arising from the shock resignation earlier this week of Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carroll. They have issued a statement announcing that the EDL will now be run by a national committee comprising all the ROs, with Tim Ablitt appointed as the EDL’s chairman.
Category Archives: English Defence League
EDL supporters in court over South Shields protest
A woman is to stand trial over claims that she tried to headbutt a police officer after a protest by far-right groups in South Tyneside.
About 350 members of the English Defence League (EDL) and the North East Infidels (NEI) took part in a march through South Shields on August 31. The two groups – who claimed they were there to “protest against radical Islam’s encroachment into the lives of non-Muslims” – were met at Pier Parade by about 100 counter-protesters from South Tyneside Unites Against Fascism.
A number of people were arrested before, during and after the protest on suspicion of assault, breaching the peace, being drunk and disorderly, affray and disorderly conduct.
Hollie Smallwood [pictured] appeared before magistrates charged with resisting arrest and being drunk and disorderly. Kevin Smallcombe, defending Smallwood, of Manor Grange, Lanchester, County Durham, said she denies the allegations and pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Teenager accused of plotting Columbine-style massacre ‘glorified’ EDL leader Stephen Lennon and ‘wanted Hitler in power’
A teenage neo-Nazi accused of plotting a “new Columbine” school massacre idolised EDL founder Tommy Robinson and wanted Hitler in power, the Old Bailey heard today (Weds).
The 16-year-old college student dreamed of the British National Party ruling the UK and told school pals he wished he was German, jurors were told. He stockpiled petrol and pipe bombs and weaponry in his bedroom where he had hung a Nazi Swastika flag over his bed and kept a copy of Mein Kampf in among books on bomb making.
The teenager is standing trial accused of plotting a massacre at his former school in Loughborough, Leicestershire, even drawing up a hit-list of staff and students he wanted to shoot.
Tommy Robinson’s EDL resignation was disingenuous nonsense
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, AKA Robinson, is not a changed man. He may have disengaged from the EDL but it’s no victory for counter-extremism, argues Matthew Goodwin.
Crazed EDL supporter jailed after air rifle incident at Muslim home
A crazed English Defence League supporter from Rowley Regis has been jailed for brandishing an air rifle as he shouted racial abuse at a Muslim family’s home.
Neighbours of the Muslim family were terrified after seeing Shaun Havelin, aged 28, screaming and shouting racial taunts with the gun whilst wearing an EDL sweater.
The incident was sparked after an argument with his mother at her Warley Hall Road in which he shook his beloved sweater in her face and said: “I want to die in this.” He then charged round to the Muslim’s family’s house in a nearby street not realising they were not at home.
EDL supporter said he would kill ‘foreign people’, drew up list of targets
A teenage neo-Nazi accused of plotting a “new Columbine” brought a gun into college and pulled out knives in the middle of a lesson, the Old Bailey heard (Tues). The 16-year-old English Defence League supporter bragged about getting a machete for his birthday and making bombs in his bedroom, it is said.
One college pal said the teenager once pulled a large knife out of his trench coat pocket and told him “look at this”. Two weeks later, he brandished three knives in class when the teacher left the room, it is alleged. “He took me right to the bottom of the corridor and showed me this really long knife”, said the defendant’s fellow student. “It was in his trench coat, he had a massive pocket. He just goes: ‘Look at this’, then he put it back.”
He told jurors the teenager pulled out a knife from his boot and two other small blades when challenged by other students. “People were saying why don’t you get your knife out, the teacher was not in the room at the time”, he said. “He got them out in his hand on the table, from under the desk. He pulled one out of his boot, and he showed me all three.”
The boy, who is now 17 and cannot be named, is on trial accused of plotting a terrorist attack using weapons, homemade bombs, and explosives he had stockpiled in his bedroom. He allegedly planned a Columbine-style massacre at his former school in Loughborough, Leicestershire, and wanted to attack the council offices, a local cinema, and Loughborough University.
The court has heard the Nazi and EDL-obsessed teen had threatened to shoot and stab fellow college students, and had drawn up a list of targets for his attack in a notebook.
Quilliam clears the way for closer co‑operation among ‘counterjihadists’
Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carroll’s surprise announcement that they have left the English Defence League has been enthusiastically welcomed by Pamela Geller.
Geller writes that she and Robert Spencer – recently banned from the UK because of their record of inciting hatred against Muslims – both “strongly endorse” Lennon and Carroll’s decision. It has become “clear to all of us that the best way to proceed is to leave the EDL behind and move forward in new directions”, says Geller, and she and Spencer “look forward to working with Robinson and Carroll in the future as we continue this great struggle for freedom”.
Tommy and cousin Kev quit the EDL
The English Defence League demonstrating alongside the neo-Nazis of the National Front
Today the internet has been buzzing with the news that Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) and Kevin Carroll have resigned from the English Defence League. It even qualified for coverage on national TV.
The EDL leaders’ break with the organisation they helped to found was announced this morning in a press release from the Quilliam group (“Quilliam facilitates Tommy Robinson leaving the English Defence League”), which quotes Lennon as saying: “I have been considering this move for a long time because I recognise that, though street demonstrations have brought us to this point, they are no longer productive. I acknowledge the dangers of far-right extremism and the ongoing need to counter Islamist ideology not with violence but with better, democratic ideas.”
Lennon and Carroll will expand on their motives for leaving the EDL at a press conference this evening which has been organised by Quilliam.
EDL-supporting neo-Nazi ‘threatened to shoot and stab classmates’, ‘hated anyone who wasn’t white or Christian’ and wanted to join the Ku Klux Klan
A teenage neo-Nazi accused of plotting a “new Columbine” threatened to shoot one of his classmates in the head and stab another in the neck, the Old Bailey heard today.
The schoolboy allegedly brought a lock-knife to college and showed it to other students during an induction day. He also threatened to shoot one classmate in the head and stab another in the neck, the court was told.
The boy, who was 16 at the time of the alleged offences and is now 17, cannot be named because of his age.
He is standing trial accused of plotting a terrorist attack on his former school and the college where he was studying for his A-levels, as well as targets including Loughborough University, council offices and a cinema. He is also accused of having a terrorist manual and possessing parts for an improvised explosive.
The youth denies the charges. He and two other 17-year-old boys have already admitted possessing petrol bombs and pipe bombs. He has also pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon.
SDL ‘heavily outnumbered’ by UAF counter-demonstrators in Dundee
A major crowd control operation involving mounted police and almost 100 uniformed personnel was mobilised to deal with a demonstration by rival political groups in Dundee on Saturday.
The protest by the far right Scottish Defence League and counter demonstration by the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) alliance passed without any arrests thanks to strict segregation outside the City Churches.
The two groups – the SDL heavily outnumbered – confronted each other and traded chants but were kept apart by barriers and four mounted officers.
The SDL members, who were bussed into Dundee from as far as Sunderland, shouted their loathing for what they called militant Islam, but their message was drowned out by the UAF, who condemned their racial intolerance.