Second EDL March on Parliament against terrorism.

To London again. 

Today three groups were going to be in London on the matter of terrorist attacks. A new group, known as the Football Lads Alliance, or more formally Unite Against Extremism were to be marching from St Paul’s Cathedral to London Bridge to pay respects to those killed there. The EDL had arranged to march on parliament again to protest aginst terrorist attacks and demand better action from the Government to prevent such. And the UAF, (Unite against Facism )were intending to counter protest, as they do, because they can’t see that their way of life is the one most under threat. More about that later. 

The police imposed strict condidtions

The conditions have been imposed under Section 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act, 1986 in light of “current tensions and concerns, information about the intentions of the organisers of these events and intelligence from previous marches held by similar groups”.

The EDL March has been restricted to a specific route, from Charing Cross Railway Station to Craven Street, Northumberland Avenue and a rally at Victoria Embankment, before they return to the dispersal area at Charing Cross by the same route. The march has also been limited to between 1pm and 2.30pm.

Unite Against Extremism have been told they can protest at the Southern Transept of St Paul’s Cathedral between noon and 1pm. From 1pm they can hold a procession to London Bridge via Cannon Street, where their march must end at 2.30pm.

The Unite Against Fascism protest will take place at Victoria Embankment, where they can stay from 12.30pm to 3pm. Assembly at any other location is not allowed.

All protest organisers have been asked to comply with police instructions, even if that means a change of route.

When I passed Charing Cross station at 5 minutes to 1 there were only police and their vans waiting. I found out later that they were directing those arriving to a nearby pub. And I wish they wouldn’t. But obviously to see a group emerge from a pub gives credence to the taunts of ‘drunken thugs’ even though I know that many have only had one glass of beer or a hot drink. 

The UAF were much in evidence around Trafalgar Square. While the football lads at St Pauls were being served with Public Order Act notices as I passed them I did not see any such notices being given to the young and old enough to know better persons giving out or holding Socialist Workers placards.

However I did hear a police officer explaining to a group what was expected of them. 

and a young woman who was not behaving was dealt with.

The police rounded up the various groups of UAF and Antifa that were milling about and escorted them to their rally point at the further end of Victoria Embankment.

Mostly there were Socialist Worker mass produced placards and a couple of University Student banners. Somebody bankrolls these; ultimately George Soros I expect, but there must be a middle organisation. I could bear to know who. 

According to the papers afterwards these boys mocking the police were a troup of mime artists. I don’t know if they were mocking the officer’s upright march, or were pretending to be animals stalking him. Either way it was one of several occasions this afternoon when the police exercised patience. 

The EDL then came through to their rally point the nearer (to me, I had a good vantage point on one of the Jubilee footbridges alongside Hungerford Railway bridge)

You get an idea of the hand crafted banners, or flags bought from members own money or funds raised through raffles. 

The PA system was good enough for me, high on the bridge, to hear voices, but not the individual words of each speech. But I could hear enough to know that they were passionate and well received.

I could hear bystanders behind me (some of whom I later concluded were UAF supporters in more conventional clothing) sneering that the number of EDL members in the demo was below that achieved in the early days. And remarking loudly about the cost of policing. Etc. etc. 

Speeches were concluded in accordance with the timetable set by the police and at the appointed time the march moved off back in the direction of Charing Cross Station. 

And right in front of them in the narrow Craven Street was a group of UAF who had either escaped the police in the beginning, or had slipped out of their rally unchallenged. 

There were a group of young women with a loudspeaker on the sort of trolley that usually carrys a canvas shopping bag (the sort old ladies cause havok with) and a microphone attached.

 They had been allowed to move around the outside of the rally site unchecked and the sound of ‘Nazi scum off our streets’ could be constantly heard. 

The police were dealing with the obstruction and I decided to walk briskly down Northumberland Street to meet the march by Charing Cross station. 

These young women (who to give them credit had taken some effort with their placards) had a similar idea.

And you can see they appear to be expressing the desire to engage the Democratic Unionist party of Northern Ireland in sexual congress, and are assuring the socially conservative and upright men and women of that party (founded by the Revd Ian Paisley) that they have the equipment so to do. They seem not to realise than under an Islamic regime two things could happen to them. Either they would suffer the fate of the little girls of Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford and the rest. Branded with the initial of their owners (M for Mohammed) they would be prostituted out to any man for the price of a heroin wrap. Their equipment would not be ‘theirs’ but their owners. Or they would be subjected to FGM, sliced, diced and sewn into a burka, the equipment discarded, and ‘theirs’ no longer. 

And as for this pair from antifa – Antihomophobik aktion – under an islamic regime your choice (only the choice wouldn’t be yours) would be between being hurled off a high mountain or crushed beneath a wall. Or as building equipment is easier to come by, hung from a crane. 

Outside Charing Cross station the police were still keeping the UAF in order 

Other women were taking a turn with the microphone and sholley-trolley. I think she had spent a lot of time rehearsing her take on the situation and schooling her sisters in the response. 

Q What do we do when the EDL attack? 

A We fight back. 

Response And we will win. Win, win, win. 

Q What do we do when the Police attack? 

A We fight back. 

Response And we will win. Win, win, win. 
 

Q What do we do when our community is under attack? 

A We fight back. 

Response And we will win. Win, win, win. 

Except they are not fighting back. First they abandoned their schoolgirls to rape and prostitution. Soon they themselves will be on their backs with their legs wide, ‘their’ equipment at the ready. 

Oh, and another piece of advice. When you get excited your voice (that belongs to you as well) can get shrill. In the case of this group very shrill. And a shrill female voice does not command authority. Not that you will have any authority under an Islamic regime. 

Eventually the police cleared a path and the EDL could make their way safely to Embankment station and their destinations home. 

For a group that was derided as ‘small’ and ‘pathetic’ they inspired a lot of fear and loathing from the UAF and Antifa this afternoon. Methinks the anti-fascists doth protest too much.

 

Photographs E Weatherwax London June 2017