According to the EDL the police had agreed for them to rendezvous in 3 pubs around Kings Cross railway station, but, so far as I could tell, the EDL could only fill one pub - The Dolphin - in the back streets behind Camden Town Hall. Arriving in Walthamstow around mid-day, around 800 highly ethnically-mixed counter-protestors had already assembled, listening to speeches from local interfaith types and Trades Union activists. Points of interest included banners from the British Medical Association and Jewish Socialists and a message of support from Sikhs Against The EDL.

Swelled now to I reckon around 1200 people, the counter-protest set-off around 1pm, and, credit where credit's due, UAF have sometimes been accused to leading people away from places where the EDL could be stopped, but the march went right up Hoe Street to the junction with Forest Road, to block the EDL's route from Blackhorse Road tube station (where you could tell the EDL still were, from the position of the police helicopter hovering above them). When, about 30 minutes later, the EDL came up Forest Road, in contrast to their poor showing in Tower Hamlets (about 700), today the EDL were down to about 200.

On the way 2 - count 'em, just TWO members of the public expressed any support for the EDL, while shirtless, butt-ugly late middle-aged goons treated police photographers to a veritable catwalk of faded skinhead tattoos and helpfully informed the press and passers-by that they were all paedophiles. Just after the EDL passed the William Morris Art Gallery, the EDL responded to the first group of counter-protestors by throwing bottles and thunder-flashes, and, rather than steaming-in to arrest the people who were throwing bombs at members of the public, the police responded by attacking a group of punks for the crime of raising a banner, making violent arrests, smacking people onto the pavement and into the side of a bus shelter.

More to follow...