The thick racists deserve a thread of their own after the events in Eltham, I think. They are making a play that they are the true English voice (hah) and it was their intervention that drove the rioters away (hah). They also seem to have a distinct overlap with the readership and editorial lines of the Mail and the Express.

This article sums it up rather well.

This one is from Channel 4 (already being attacked for being lefty commie fascists) and refers to a TV programme this evening.

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Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

Why? They don't speak for anyone; they've got nothing interesting to say; and (here's the difference with Toby Young) I don't find them ridiculous enough to want to read funny potshots taken at their expense.

I went to an EDL/anti-EDL rally in Portsmouth last month and it was pathetic. There were fewer than a hundred EDLice there, demonstrating against fictions such as sharia law in the UK which they clearly neither understood nor cared to learn about. The antis were almost all from a local Muslim association or from the SWP. Neither side was paid much attention by the passing Saturday shoppers and latte-drinkers. Nobody learnt anything.

They ARE efficient on Twitter these days. Just got pulled up by one for criticising them. Unfortunately his "never been a supporter" line was rather ruined when looking through his previous posts...

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"Even when you're a super-computer with an IQ of 2000 it's brown trousers time."

Reclaiming "methinks" for the nation

Latest blog post - 2011 - a review (updated 07/10)

They are supported (in some sense at least) by 3 national newspapers. They recruit the least intelligent and worst educated members of society and lead them where they will through emotive lies and exaggerations. They use violence and the threat of violence. They have a major effect on cities and towns where they 'demo' and 'flashmob', they have attacked citizens and the police. They are backed by a shadowy money-man with links to very nasty right wing people. They are making inroads into working class communities, they are moving into the far-right power vacuum caused by the implosion of the BNP. In some senses they overlap with UKIP. I'd like to keep an eye on them, at least until they are banned or evaporate.

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Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

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Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

I've never seen an EDL-er use grammar before...

Malcolm what TV program does that link in your opening post refer to? There's nothing I can see on the Ch4 schedule tonight that looks relevant (just a LOT of 'come dine with me'...).

C4 News I believe.

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Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

They have moved away from opposition to 'only extreme Islam' and are increasingly the footsoldiers of anything far-right. They shouldn't be banned but they should at least be given the same level of police surveillance the football mobs they emerged from receive.

I think there would be little point in banning them - you can't ban being thick and they would just reform, like Islam4UK - but I agree that they need to be carefully monitored and their shady connections exposed.

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Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

C4 News item was pretty damning, but highlights the main problem. The EDL doesn't have 'members' it has 'supporters', so no membership cards, lists etc. Anyone can claim to be a supporter and the EDL can always disown them. @everythingedl has done sterling work in tracing 'members' through Twitter, Facebook and discussion forums.

What escapes me is how calls to murder Muslims and burn or desecrate mosques aren't removed from Facebook...

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Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

I've wondered this too. I've really had enough of Facebook after the idiocy on show this week, but the tolerence of endless 'paki cunts', 'burn mosques' etc etc etc groups and comments and the fact that Facebook don't seem to give a shit has made me pretty disgusted with it anyway.

When did Cameron say they were sick? It's the one thing I've heard him say that didn't make me want to smash things myself this week if he did.

Bet they still allow Tower Hamlets to go ahead though. I don't agree with you all on one thing - I think they should be banned.

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MY COMMENTS ARE FROM THE HORSES MOUTH AND ARE ALL FACTS

Cameroon said it during his statement, not during the debate. His actual words were something along the lines of "I've said that some parts of society is sick, and one of the sickest is the EDL."

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Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

Can't get the Youtube to embed

Vid here

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Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

fify.

Thanks both.

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MY COMMENTS ARE FROM THE HORSES MOUTH AND ARE ALL FACTS