Piss Poor: EDL Damp Squib in Rochdale

The English Defence League demonstration in Rochdale today was extremely feeble. About 350 turned up and there were 35 arrests, i.e., 10% of them. This will no doubt be interpreted as a massive victory by the under fire leadership. The EDL claim this was a regional demo but it was still a piss poor effort. The hoodies and flags on display were mainly from Wigan, Bolton and Leeds with 1 or 2 other few towns as well. Rochdale division, if one exists, maintained an extremely low profile. The cops and commentators on Twitter said that the vast majority of EDL had been bussed in, i.e., were not from round the Dale.

The EDL still brag about outnumbering the opposition and no doubt will do so tonight on their web forums. Well, the reason why there isn’t a massive turnout against them is because many anti-fascists realise that the EDL are not worth it and that the EDL’s bother over ‘Islamism’ is insignificant compared to the economy, the government coalition and the middle east. However, the local youth did turn out in force – and in some rather fetching black ensembles. Nice!

Yet again the vast majority of the EDL were bussed in from outside, escorted and then kettled by the cops whilst annoying the local community - rather than representing them. They are whining about the cops having a go at them and numerous members were bitten by plod dogs. The EDL threatened to demonstrate at Dagenham and in the East Midlands but the Dagenham protest against the mosque has been hampered by the split between the EDL and the English National Alliance led by Bill ‘Bunter’ Baker, the pastryman’s friend. The EDL and ENA fell out last week after Baker had made a twat of himself on TV, something which the publicity hungry EDL leader, Stephen Caxley-Robinson resented because if anyone is going to make a twat of themselves on TV it is going to be him! From what we can gather, fuck all happened in the East Midlands either.

Still, EDL watchers this week will no doubt have been amused by the EDL Islamic Division Facebook group prank. And whilst the EDL are desperate to assure people they are not BNP, who turned up to ‘protect’ the BNP stall in Barnsley last week from beastly trade unionists, but the EDL. So much all the ‘hard work’ the leadership do purging the ranks of fascists. Fuckwits.