As probably everyone knows by now, EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, and his cousin and political side-kick Kevin Carroll, have quit the English Defence League, stating that Tommy can "no longer keep extremist elements (in the EDL) at bay". Tommy Robinson's defection was apparently brokered by the liberal-Muslim, anti-Islamist and anti-Fascist campaign group the Quilliam Foundation, who rightly note the "symbiotic relationship between far right extremism and Islamism".

Of course, EDL leadership team members like BNP "Gold" member Chris Renton (aka John Sheridan), have "quit" the EDL in the past, remaining highly active within the EDL behind the scenes, but the high-profile involvement of the Quilliam Foundation suggests this might not just be another of the EDL's deceptive PR stunts.

Tommy Robinson is a former BNP member (pictured here attending a BNP meeting alongside convicted race-hate attacker and Holocaust-denier Richard Edmonds), and (although it seems the Quilliam Foundation may have wrongly stated that it was Yaxley-Lennon and Carroll who founded the EDL) the EDL's original founder and leader Paul Ray was elbowed out of the EDL for opposing Chris Renton inviting Nazis to join EDL demos.

Dozens of EDL supporters have been photographed making Nazi salutes, displaying Nazi tattoos and T-shirts, posing with guns, knives, crossbows, hammers etc, EDL branches the Welsh and Scottish Defence Leagues have been exposed as blatantly Nazi, dozens of EDL supporters have been filmed (on protests etc) and screen-captured (on-line) making often violently racist comments, and (over a period of years) extensive overlaps have been revealed between the EDL and the BNP & NF, as well as blatantly homicidal groups like Blood & Honour and (the remnants of) Combat 18, even the convicted terrorists of the Aryan Strike Force (not to mention the question of to what extent the EDL influenced Anders Breivik).

So, there's more than enough of reason to remain skeptical, but this news can still be greeted with cautious optimism (if all else fails, at least because of the infighting Tommy's defection may, hopefully will, cause in far-right circles). It remains to be seen whether Robinson and Carroll will put down the coke spoon, do the decent thing, and retire to a life of quietly running tanning salons aimed at the Polish migrant community, or whether the endless cycles of deceptions and self-justifications will extend to Robinson trying to forge another political career for himself. As for what remains of the EDL, here's a video of the EDL on their recent Tower Hamlets outing referring to an Anti-Fascist counter-protestor as a "F*cking P*ki-loving c*nt"

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hGX9pqOm2I

EDL leader Tommy Robinson quits and brands violent anti-Muslim supporters "morons". The two leaders of the English Defence League are to end their involvement with the far right group after accepting it has been taken over by neo-Nazis...

 http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/435209/EDL-leader-Tommy-Robinson-QUITS-and-brands-violent-anti-Muslim-supporters-morons

 https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/08/511722.html