Category Archives: UK

EDL gang in court over Leeds pub attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A gang of English Defence League supporters caused terror when they attacked a pub as an anti-racism rock concert was being staged.

Nine members of the gang were handed community sentences yesterday (Sept 3) after a court heard how windows and doors were smashed as bricks and bottles were hurled at Joseph’s Well in Leeds city centre.

Leeds Crown Court heard the gang members turned up at the venue and tried to get into to the Rock Against Racism event.

Violence erupted when one member of the gang, Mark Johnson, 31, tried to push past door staff but was resisted and suffered an injury. A man who was at the event with his son was hit in the mouth with a missile thrown by a gang member and had a tooth knocked out.

Andrew Stranex, prosecuting, said members of the group were chanting “EDL” in reference to the far right group. Others were heard to say: “We are not racist, we just hate Muslims.”

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Right-wing press continues to demonise Iran

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yesterday’s Daily Mail carried a report which began:

Not everyone at the Paralympics has been bowled over by the presence of Kate Middleton.

The Duchess of Cambridge was embarrassingly snubbed by an Iranian athlete who refused to shake her hand after she presented him with his discus silver medal on Sunday for “cultural reasons”.

The royal was warmly received on the podium by Team GB’s gold medal winner Aled Davies and Chinese bronze medallist Lezheng Wang – but when it was Mehrdad Karam Zadeh’s turn to step up, the 40-year-old failed to offer a hand to the Duchess, clutching them close to his chest.

The snub threatened to overshadow a glittering night for Paralympics GB, which enjoyed its most successful day of the Games so far with seven gold medals.

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Baroness Warsi out in Cameron reshuffle

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sayeeda Warsi tweet

Baroness Warsi has been removed from her role as Conservative Party co-chairman in David Cameron’s first major reshuffle of the coalition Government.

Lady Warsi had appealed to the Prime Minister to allow her to carry on in the post but she was widely expected to be moved on.

Her deputy, Michael Fallon, Housing Minister Grant Shapps and Employment Minister Chris Grayling are seen as strong candidates to take over.

The peer used her official ToryChairman Twitter account this morning to confirm she was “signing off”, saying it had been “a privilege and an honour to serve my party as co-chairman”.

Press Association, 4 September 2012

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Councillor promotes far-right myth about York mosque dominating skyline

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The decision to approve a new mosque in York without debate by councillors has come under fire.

Independent Osbaldwick councillor Mark Warters has written to City of York Council planning chief Mike Slater and Hull Road councillors to express his dismay that a “significant change” to York’s historic skyline had been allowed “without the open, democratic scrutiny of a planning committee meeting”. He said many local residents had told him they felt let down that such a change had been agreed behind closed doors.

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Scottish Defence League flops in Dundee

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SDL Dundee demo (2)

The humiliation of the English Defence League in Walthamstow has attracted most of the attention, but another flop for “counterjihad movement” took place in Dundee on Saturday, where the EDL’s sister organisation the Scottish Defence League staged a protest, primarily against a so-called “mega mosque” on the Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education campus, construction of which is due to start this month, providing 70 jobs for local people.

The SDL has a very low level of support in Scotland itself, and as Dundee trades council secretary Mike Arnott noted in a report for the Morning Star: “To enhance its minuscule numbers at demonstrations in Scotland the SDL also invites its unsavoury allies from the north of England along – the EDL and the North East and North West Infidels, whose reputations for thuggery are well known.”

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EDL humiliated as Walthamstow takes to the streets to stop them

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Walthamstow anti-EDL demonstration

The racists and fascists of the English Defence League (EDL) were comprehensively routed on Saturday. Thousands of anti-fascists blocked their march route and stopped their rally in Walthamstow, east London.

The EDL only managed to mobilise 200, mostly hardcore Nazis. The anti-fascist demonstration, in contrast, brought some 4,000 people together representing all the diversity of one of London’s most proudly multiracial areas.

“It’s been a brilliant day – we completely trashed them,” said Siobhan, a Waltham Forest resident. “We had a really united campaign that reached out to the whole community. We wanted to stop the EDL and that’s what we did.”

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Walthamstow gets ready to protest against EDL thugs

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We Are Waltham Forest flyerWith just a day to go before the racist English Defence League (EDL) tries to march in Waltham Forest, east London, anti-fascist activists in the local community are having a final push to build opposition.

“I don’t like it that a group of racists will be marching here tomorrow – no one needs or wants them,” Osman, a local market trader, told Socialist Worker. “But it has been really good to see people coming together to oppose them. Hopefully the EDL will be stopped.”

Mosques in Waltham Forest have been promoting the counter demonstration. The borough’s council of mosques has released a statement encouraging people join the We Are Waltham Forest demonstration.

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Two police officers to appear in court over false charges against anti-EDL protestor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two police officers are accused of perverting the course of justice over an incident which happened during the English Defence League demonstration in Bolton town centre. The charges relate to an incident involving one of the Unite Against Fascism counter-protesters, Alan Clough, from Radcliffe, who was allegedly attacked by police.

Now police officers Robert Cantrell and Alan Glover have been summonsed to appear at York Magistrates’ Court on September 11. They have both been summonsed to face charges of perverting the course of justice.

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