The national leader of the English Defence League yesterday warned that Saturday’s demonstration in Aylesbury could be the first of many after a bitter row erupted with police and council bosses.
Officers were hoping to keep EDL members on the outskirts of town before a rally in Market Square, to prevent skirmishes with counter demonstrators. But yesterday Tommy Robinson – not his real name – said EDL protestors are now planning to evade police and instead gather in Vale Park – where an anti-EDL demonstration is due to be held.
He said: “If our demonstration doesn’t go how we want it to go, we’ll come back in six weeks. No other place has tried to block us like this one has.”
The EDL fell foul of police and council chiefs after trying to put up a stage and use loudspeakers – which they need a licence for. At a tense meeting on Monday, they were also told that they were not allowed to carry wooden framed banners. Coachloads of EDL members would have been met by police and escorted to Market Square, where they would have been contained inside solid barriers.
Robinson said ominously: “We don’t think they’re doing well if they want it to go peacefully.”
A doctor accepted “substantial” libel damages at the high court today over false allegations in the Sun linking him to terrorism. Dr Mohammed Asha, who is based in the Midlands, launched legal action after the Sun carried a front page article last August under the heading “Terror case doc works in casualty”.
Left-wing party Respect called for a ban on demonstrations by the far-right English Defence League, as it launched its election manifesto.
As the burqa debate raged in France this weekend, with the imposition of the first instant fine to a woman found wearing the burqa in a public place in Nantes, here in the UK former Justice Minister, Jack Straw, publicly apologised for having sparked controversy in October 2006 over making public 
Protesters are to gather outside BBC headquarters on Monday as the British National Party’s election broadcast is aired. The BBC is accused by campaign group Unite Against Fascism (UAF) of giving “unwarranted and uncritical coverage” of the BNP during the run-up to the election.
Extreme right supporters are part of an internet group opposing plans for a new mosque in Barton Hill. More than 700 people have joined a Facebook group against a planning application to convert a disused building in Aiken Street into a place of worship and community centre.
Most Muslims who live in Leicester feel at home in the city, a new study has found.