The Steadfast Trust stall incident: Marxist thugs or peaceful protesters?

For the past three years Julia "Angelcynn" Howman ran an annual stall in Norwich promoting the Steadfast Trust, a charity for the ethnic English. She claims that her most recent stall, held in July this year, was attacked by "Marxist thugs":

(If you're wondering about the first image, I swiped it from the Google cache of what seemed to be Facebook's Japanese mirror - the only place which still has the discussion, as far as I can tell)

On 30 August the Socialist Workers Party held a conference entitled Defending the Right to Protest: Cops, Class and Corruption. The event was set up by Nick O'Brien - who would later head We Are Norwich - and has a Facebook page giving a very different account of the incident:

Speakers to include John Tipple and Soren Goard. John is a lawyer who represented Joe Glenton, the anti-war soldier and is currently working with three anti-racist activists in Norwich who were arrested and charged by the police after peacefully opposing a stall in the centre of Norwich run by the Steadfast Trust, a charity with clear links to the BNP. Soren is a student activist at Goldsmiths university and has been involved with the Defend the Right to protest movement.

With Julia and her friends on the one side and the SWP on the other this looks like a conflict between two groups of loonies, with the facts of the matter taking a back seat.

Whatever happened, it would seem that the incident has taught Julia not to put so much (ahem) steadfast trust in the Steadfast Trust:

Julia "Angelcynn" Howman

Looking at my stats I've noticed a handful of people have been reading this meagre new blog of mine; most seem to have found it by Googling the name of Julia "Angelcynn". I'm guessing this is because Julia, who delivered a speech at Saturday's EDL demonstration, has been mentioned in a couple of reports on the incident.

Ask and ye shall receive...

"Julia Angelcynn" is the pseudonym used by Julia Howman on Facebook, where she has made a number of interesting posts. Here is a small sampling...

And you know what? I'm just going to leave a big fat "no comment" on this stuff. Make of it what you will.

Demonstration aftermath: three charged, one cautioned

The Norwich Evening News follows up on the four arrests:

Scott Maddox, 22, of Beecheno Road, Norwich, was charged with possession of an offensive weapon, namely a form of baton. He has been bailed to appear at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on November 30.

 

Darrell Copeland, 45, of Dorchester Ave, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, was charged with using threatening words or behaviour, and has been bailed to appear at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on November 26.

 

Matthew Berryman, 28, of Astell Road, Norwich, was also charged with using threatening words or behaviour, and has been bailed to appear at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on November 27.

 

A 44-year-old man from Telford, Shropshire, who was arrested on suspicion of assault was later cautioned for a public order offence.

According to an anonymous poster on the Hope Not Hate Norfolk blog, Scott Maddox was with We Are Norwich.

Videos of the Castle Meadow scuffle

The four arrests

The Norwich Evening News reports a total of four arrests taking place during today's demonstration:

12 noon – 22-year-old man from Norwich arrested in Theatre Street on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon.

1.20pm – 44-year-old man from Telford, Shropshire, arrested in Castle Meadow on suspicion of assault.

3.12pm – 45-year-old man from Bletchley, Milton Keynes, arrested on Gaol Hill on suspicion of committing a public order offence.

3.15pm – 28-year-old man from Norwich arrested in Prince of Wales Road on suspicion of committing a public order offence.
 

Still no confirmation as to which group each of them belonged to.

The day of the demonstration

Well, the demonstration and counter-demo took place. Three people were arrested, but it does not seem to have been revealed which side each of them was on.

Estimates of the total turnout vary, but ITV news has it as 250 for EDL and 650 for We Are Norwich.

I first saw the EDL marching down Castle Meadow as I exited Waterstone's. They were initially chanting "E, E, EDL" but soon began chanting "scum, scum, scum, scum". As far as I could see the only other people in the area were police, shoppers and what appeared to be part of a news crew, so exactly who the "scum" in question were is unclear.

This image was posted on Twitter. The injured man was identified as a twenty-year-old protester, but no further information was given. Judging by the location of the photo he was with We Are Norwich.

"Best bit: EDL leader implies shoppers are with him and met with jeers. He flips and calls shoppers scum", tweeted Liam McCafferty.

We Are Norwich attacking elderly man?

The official blog of the EDL East Anglian division claims that a 76 year old man distributing EDL leaflets was attacked by four We Are Norwich supporters, and that the incident was witnessed by people running stalls in Norwich market.

WAN's secretary, Nick O'Brien, expressly denies these claims.

Make of this what you will.

From the EDL forum...

In the run-up to tomorrow's EDL march, here are some postings from their forum. I'm not posting them because there's anything particularly remarkable about them, merely to provide background on the march.

I skipped a few posts which were mostly just linking to videos or brief "looking forward to it" messages.

More from the comments boxes...

Yesterday the Evening News ran a short piece on the EDL march and We Are Norwich counter-demonstration. For me, the most interesting comments come from people who are critical both groups:

"timmy_two_sheds": The EDL are just a bunch of wanabee hard men.football hooligans or morons stuck in the past.All bomber jackets and shaved heads.Generally too stupid to be dangerous. The UAF to be fair are'nt much better.Brainwashed students,middle class lefties or muslims with a chip on their shoulder.

"nrg": My usual Saturday supping ruined by two groups of idiots . 

 I also notice that "dave123" (see here) has weighed in; that chap gets around. Rather rudely he tells "nrg" to "get a real life" following his comment.

We Are Norwich vs the EDL

We Are Norwich held its first public meeting on Wednesday 24 October. Its speakers included representatives of Chapelfield Mosque, Black History Month, PCS Union and the Green Party, along with Reverend Simon Wilson.

Martin Smith, who has a history of involvement with loony far-left organisations such as Unite Against Fascism and the Socialist Workers Party, appears to have been the lead speaker.

EDL members discussed the possibility of "infiltrating" the meeting:

The image comes courtesy of Hope not Hate, which does not identify the Facebook page that the discussion took place on.

Note the final comment from Julia "Angelcynn" (of Steadfast Trust fame), which ekes yet more comedy from the notion that anyone who criticises the EDL must, by definition, have poor personal hygiene. Keep at it, Julia, that one never gets old.

And here we have an exchange from the EDL East Anglian Division's page:

Aside from the curious mockery of the people at the meeting simply because some of them are elderly, notice how quickly these EDLers tar them as "UAF". Thanks to Martin Smith's presence We Are Norwich is a little too close for comfort with UAF, granted, but it seems a stretch to assume that every single one of these people is a UAF member.

EDL March: The EDP polls the city

On Tuesday October 16 the Eastern Daily Press website ran an article on the planned EDL march in Norwich and negative reactions to the prospect from Norwich church leaders. The article was accompanied by the following poll:

The yeas have it. Some EDL sympathisers, such as "dave123" and "turnover" in the article's comments box, have taken this to mean widespread support in Norwich for the EDL:

Ooh dear Sarah Bailey! Look at the vote??? Time for you and your one sided views to get back in the box! The people want this visit so enjoy the day!

I think that from the overwhelming vote of 82%. The EDL is most welcome in Norwich.

This is not necessarily the case. I do not like the EDL but I voted "yes" because I believe that they have the right to march.

As an aside, I got a laugh out of this comment from "turnover":

It seems strange that the only way the "Yes" vote is going is down yet the "No" vote is going up. I always thougth that when you reached a total of 100% from the YesNo that was the vote complete. I seems the EEN have other ideas of being Impartial (see if this gets posted unlike the last comment)

The poor fellow seems to have a shaky idea as to how votes are counted in polls: they are always at a combined total of 100%!

First post!

Welcome to my shiny new blog, Norwich Culture Wars!

For more than two decades I have been a Norwichite, and just so it happens, I have a strange obsession with the sundry cranks, extremists and other oddities found on the fringes of politics and culture.

As I type, the English Defence League is planning to hold its first ever march in Norwich on November 10. I started this blog with the short-term goal of chronicling this endeavour, but I hope to branch out and cover a wider range of subjects.

It begins here... hold on tight, you're in for a bumpy ride across a terribly, terribly flat county.