Wednesday 21 November 2012

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:


Thursday 15 November 2012

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.

Monday 12 November 2012

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





Saturday 10 November 2012

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.

Friday 9 November 2012

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.





Friday 2 November 2012

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.