Anjem Choudhary and his band of publicity-seeking wimps backed out of the demo in Trafalgar Square in the face of up to three counter-demos. Apparently some small alternative-demo was held in Walthamstow but no one has yet confirmed that.

Good thing the people from British Muslims for Secular Democracy and their friends turned up.

The English Defence League did not, apparently they were at a demo in Leeds, but the English Democrats did. The latter were generally a nice bunch of people (at least their spokesperson was).

Below are some pictures. I’m uploading some videos too.

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The people from English Democrats were adamant they had nothing to do with the English Defence League. One said it was too infiltrated by BNP types for him. The English Democrats said they were quite proud of the anti-Islamists demo and stood by them.

However, a little distance remained between the two groups. I also did a short interview with the English Democrats spokesperson that I’m uploading now.

Here’s a general video

Tory bloggers are tonight spinning that David Miliband’s alleged attempt to head up Europe is no longer possible after Poland threatened a veto.

But the claims do not stand up.

Tory blogger Iain Dale wrote:

ikes Tony Blair’s campaign for the EU Presidency, it looks like David Miliband’s nascent campaign to be EU High Representative hasn’t got off to a good start. Here’s what the Chairman of the Polish Law and Justice Party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has said today…
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I don’t think Mr Miliband quite realises how badly his vituperative remarks have gone down in Poland. I wonder what the future holds for David Miliband. He certainly won’t be leader of the Labour Party. He also won’t be getting the EU job. Anyone suggest what he might do next?

Tory blogger Guido Fawkes wrote:

Polish governing party says it will veto Miliband EU foreign minister role

But Charles Grant from Center for European Reform, told Left Foot Forward:

In theory decisions on both jobs taken will be taken by qualified majority; in practice there will be a lot of effort to reach a consensus and the big countries would be able to veto someone they do not like. So the UK would block Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister, if his campaign for the presidency looked like succeeding.

As for the reports that Poland would block David Miliband from becoming High Representative, it is not clear whether Poland really counts as a ’big country’, ie one that can veto. Would Poland really try to block him? That would depend on the balance of power between the president, who is doubtless furious with Miliband’s comments about his Law and Justice Party, and the PM, whose own party is a bitter opponent of Law and Justice.

So Poland cannot veto Miliband, even if he was standing. And yet the Tories continue their smears.

THE lands between the Baltic and Black seas endured a 20th century of almost unimaginable horror: it brought war, genocide, famine, invasion, occupation, fascism, communism, economic turmoil and corruption. The politics and parties that emerged have been warped and confused by that awful past. They cannot fairly be judged by the standards of long-established democracies. But that does not mean, as Britain’s Conservatives almost seem to think, that they cannot be judged at all.

Earlier this year, David Cameron fulfilled a pledge to pull his Conservative members of the European Parliament out of the European People’s Party (EPP), the block to which they formerly belonged. Instead the Tory MEPs now form the core of a cobbled-together new group, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). One of their new partners is a mainstream centre-right party from the Czech Republic. But some of the others are less respectable. They include the Law and Justice Party of Poland, and in particular Michal Kaminski, a controversial MEP who has made remarks about homosexuals, and about a wartime massacre of Jews by Poles in Jedwabne (a town he once represented in the Polish parliament), which many find alarming.

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But if this interpretation—charitable but plausible—mitigates the foolishness of Mr Cameron’s past decisions, it also raises an awkward question about his future.

It is this: if this shoddy, shaming alliance is the price he was obliged to pay his party for the changes needed to make it seem modern and compassionate, what sort of party is it that Mr Cameron leads? What else will its members demand, and what else—when his popularity and authority wane—will he be obliged to give them, after he becomes prime minister?

…more at The Economist

Hundreds of Amnesty activists & women’s rights campaigners head to Parliament to demand protection for all women facing violence in the UK.

On Wednesday 4 November, hundreds of Amnesty International campaigners and campaigners from women’s rights groups from across the UK will travel to London to join the organisation’s mass lobby of Parliament.

Activists will be gathering at the Shaftesbury Avenue Cineworld, London, from 9.30am and they are due to arrive at Parliament at 12pm for the mass lobby.

While at Westminster, Amnesty activists who are travelling to London from as far as Rochdale and Southampton will meet their local MPs and urge them to call on the Government to provide adequate funding to protect all women who are victims of violence living in the UK.

Specifically they will call for all women living in the UK to be able to access a refuge and receive specialised support.

Currently hundreds of women with insecure immigration status are not able to get a refuge or adequate support because of the ‘no recourse to public funds’ rule.

They will also challenge their MP to pressure the Government to increase funding for specialist services such as rape crisis centres and refuges as they roll out their Violence Against Women Strategy, expected later this month November.

It has been a week now since the BNP’s Nick Griffin made his disastrous debut on Question Time, and even his own members are calling for him to leave owing to his odious performance.

But he was not the only member of the far-right party in that studio who, instead of opening his mouth, should have burrowed down a hole and veiled himself away from public speaking forever.

The other party cohort who made his BBC-QT debut was one John Clarke.

You may remember that his question was cut short, due to his lack of conviction, allowing another more eloquent member of the audience to wax lyrical about how difficult it can be for asylum seekers to integrate and find work in this country, though many manage to do it against all odds.

Imagine my surprise when, by chance, I realise he is a fairly high ranking member of the BNP. His profile on the BNP website (which I will not be linking to) reads:

John is 41 years of age, currently single and has lived in London all his life, mainly in the Croydon area. He attended Croydon College where he obtained City and Guilds qualifications in mechanical engineering and is now working as a mechanical engineer, setting and operating CNC machines (computer numerical control).

John has many interests and hobbies including reading, music, chess and watching cricket. As a younger man John enjoyed boxing, Kung Fu, football and cricket.

Controversy surrounded his eligibility as candidate for the London assembly. The Standard ran a piece that tells us of Clarke’s amusing home story:

Mr Clarke sought election as a BNP candidate in Merton in 2006 but used a false address on his nomination papers to get round the rule that council candidates must live or work in the borough. As his current biography on the BNP website confirms, he actually lives in Croydon.

After the Standard exposed the front address used by Mr Clarke, as well as another BNP candidate and the BNP supporter who actually lived there, Merton council called the police. Asked why the BNP was claiming three men and their families lived in the two bedroom maisonette, a party spokesman said: “People live in all sorts of ways these days.”

This was apparently the BNP’s big chance, but again they have proved themselves to have be composed of dullards with dubious backgrounds.