A man repeatedly punched an anti-fascist protester in front of children during an EDL march in Hull, a court has heard.
John Claydon, 46, was pictured by the Mail being dragged away by police officers seconds after the attack. He was one of four men who appeared before city magistrates yesterday in connection with trouble at the August 17 march. Claydon, of Dronfield, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
English Defence League demonstrators halted by police at Aldgate in September 2011
BBC News reports on the Metropolitan Police’s plan for the proposed English Defence League demonstration in Tower Hamlets this Saturday:
“The Met said it will allow the march to go ahead but only between 12:00-15:00 BST, and it must only take place on this route: Queen Elizabeth Street, Tower Bridge Road, Tower Bridge Approach, The Minories and then into Aldgate High Street. It must not to go beyond the junction with Mansell Street. The route prevents the EDL from entering the heart of Tower Hamlets, residential areas and religious premises.”
Shaun Tuck, scorer of a decisive goal for Witton Albion on his return to action at the weekend, will not be sacked after spending part of the summer in prison.
The striker left jail in Merseyside a fortnight ago after serving half of a three-month sentence as punishment for writing malicious messages on the Internet in the hours following Drummer Lee Rigby’s murder in London. He has written an apology published today, Monday, and addressed to “everybody at the club”.
“It has always been up to Shaun to demonstrate he is truly sorry for his actions earlier in the summer and the shame this brought on himself, his family and the football club,” said chairman Mark Harris. “Witton Albion are giving him the chance to demonstrate that he has learned a tough lesson in life.”
A planned march through Tower Hamlets by far right group the English Defence League looks set to go ahead this weekend – despite threats of legal action if no ban is enforced.
The borough’s mayor, Lutfur Rahman, was snubbed after requesting a meeting with home secretary Theresa May to call on her to ban the march or face a High Court battle. Sources at the Mayor’s office said a petition against the demonstration has been signed by 10,000 people, as opposition mounted this week.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said a decision on how to police the march will be taken as further intelligence is gathered – and refused to rule out a ban. “We will assess the available intelligence and develop the most proportionate and lawful response,” he said. “Given the dynamic nature of such events, decisions must be taken by the operational commands at the most appropriate time.”
The current issue of Searchlight magazine features an interesting study by Dr Paul Jackson of the “independent historian and writer” Bat Ye’or (Gisele Littman).
As the author of the Muslim-conspiracy “Eurabia” thesis, Littman has served as a major source of ideological inspiration to the “counterjihad” movement, not least to the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik.
You can subscribe to Searchlight here.
Police in Quebec’s Saguenay region have been called in after a local mosque was vandalized over the weekend – splattered with what could be pig blood.
Representatives of the area’s small Muslim community say they believe it to be an isolated incident, and Saguenay Mayor Jean Tremblay agrees. Contacted by The Canadian Press Sunday, Tremblay said he was shocked by what he termed an “isolated and stupid” act of intolerance against a place of worship.
The mayor insisted that most local residents would also be appalled by the attack. “That’s not the mentality people in the region have… All it takes is one or two stupid people for something like this to happen,” he said in an interview. He said the incident undermines the community’s efforts to welcome diversity. “This isn’t the way to show we have an open mind,” he said.
A letter was also sent to the mosque and to the local Radio-Canada station spouting anti-Islamic rhetoric.
Britain is “giving into the claims of Sharia councils”, according to the leader of Norway’s anti-immigration party which is poised to enter government later this month.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Siv Jensen, the 44-year-old leader of the Progress party who cites Baroness Thatcher as her inspiration, said: “What I have seen that the UK has done is to give in to the claims of sharia councils, and I don’t think we should give into that. In Norway we have one law, and that is the Norwegian law.”
The English Defence League have announced their plans for a demonstration in Tower Hamlets next Saturday, 7 September. They propose to end the march with a rally at Altab Ali Park. Quite how they’re going to manage that is unclear, given that the Borough of Tower Hamlets has banned the EDL from using the park, as Mayor Lutfur Rahman made clear in a press release over a week ago.
Trouble flared as an English Defence League (EDL) march was led through South Shields.
About 250 members of the right-group were protesting in the town today. A heavy police presence led the march from Mile End Road through Fowler Street to Beach Road and down Sea Road before being marshalled into an area outside South Marine Park.
When the march reached Pier parade it was met by a rally of about 100 anti-fascist protesters who had gathered at the junction of Ocean Road and Lawe Road. At least one person was arrested after emerging from the trees in North Marine Park and running towards the anti-fascist rally. The rest remained behind a police cordon at the Wouldhave Memorial.
MPs are demanding a ban on a march through one of London’s most multicultural areas by the far-right English Defence League.
In a letter to the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police, seen by Channel 4 News, both of the MPs representing the Tower Hamlets borough of east London called the anti-Muslim group’s march, which is planned for Saturday 7 September, a “deplorable hate preaching tactic which we have seen result in serious violence multiple times before”.
Writing to Police Minister Damian Green on 23 August, Rushanara Ali and Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour MPs for Bethnal Green and Bow and Poplar and Limehouse, added: “It is our firm belief that this march…[poses] a serious threat to both individuals and wider Tower Hamlets community cohesion.”