The BNP past of the EDL leader

Nick Lowles and Simon Cressy expose Tommy Robinson

Searchlight can exclusively reveal that the leader of the English Defence League is a former British National
 Party member who has served 12 months’ imprisonment for assaulting an off-duty police officer.


Self-proclaimed EDL leader Tommy Robinson is really Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, from Bedford.

In 2004 he joined the BNP with a family membership. In the same year he assaulted an off-duty police officer who intervened to stop a domestic incident between Yaxley-Lennon and his partner Jenna Vowles. During the scuffle Yaxley-Lennon kicked the officer in the head.

He was convicted on 18 April 2005 for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, for which he was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, and assault with intent to resist arrest, for which he received a concurrent term of three months.
Vowles, also a BNP member, was cautioned for possession of cocaine. She told the court that the she found two empty bags in her house and was taking them out so that her parents did not find them.

Yaxley-Lennon attended Putteridge High School in Luton and moved to nearby Bedford more recently. Robinson also claims on his Facebook site that he attended Putteridge school.

The revelation that Robinson had been a member of the BNP explains why so many of the initial EDL activists also attended BNP meetings in the Luton/Bedford area.

More importantly, it dispels the myth that the roots of the EDL are not in hard-core racism.

It destroys the protestations by the EDL leadership that, “They aren’t the BNP and they aren’t Nazis,” made at their phoney press conference held last September in a disused Luton warehouse, where they unfurled a swastika flag and proceeded to try to set it alight for the cameras.

It also explains the real reason why Robinson felt the need to hide his face.

Apart from his BNP membership and his convictions for violence, Robinson told a BBC film crew that he lived in a part of Luton where Islamic fanatics lived and that he feared for his safety. The reality is somewhat different as he lives in Wilstead, a relatively leafy village on the outskirts of Bedford.

The exposure of his identity follows a split in the EDL that is mostly being fought over the internet.

Paul Ray, self-styled spiritual guru of the EDL, has posted a series of messages on his Lionheart blog, in which he and his friend Nick Greger announce their intention to take control of the EDL. Ray was the original mover in creating the EDL, although he quickly fell out with the other leaders and moved abroad to Malta. Ray has focused his efforts on making Crusader-themed anti-Muslim promotional videos, and he and Greger have just issued a notice of “expulsion” of the EDL’s leaders, together with a demand for control of the EDL’s websites.

In one of their videos Greger goes on to say “another well-known man will soon appear within the new leadership, a man from Ulster, who is also currently in exile”.
This is almost certainly a reference to Greger’s friend Johnny Adair, a prominent loyalist terrorist who now lives in Scotland following an intra-loyalist feud. Adair’s friendship with Greger was the subject of a television documentary in 2006, when Adair met Greger while in prison for plotting acts of terror and was then the head of a nazi group in Dresden, Germany.

It is thought that Ray and Greger were responsible for the appearance of a video on YouTube that unveiled Robinson as Stephen Yaxley along with a series of photographs, following outlandish claims by Ray that the EDL led by Robinson threatened to kidnap and harm members of Ray’s family.

Robinson later confirmed on his Facebook page that the photographs were indeed of him, saying, “Hey at least people can see my hansome face now”.

Hope Not Hate

No-holds-barred racism as Griffin gets desperate (UK)

“A Third World slum colonised by millions of African and Asian immigrants, facing the growing certainty of eventual civil war between an ever-growing Muslim community and everybody else”.


This is how Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, which claims to be not racist, described Britain in an email to supporters on 23 June appealing for money to help him fight the continuing action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over the BNP’s racist constitution.

In the email, which also described Trevor Phillips, the chair of the EHRC, as an “immigrant Marxist” and a “black Marxist”, Griffin said he was “ready to go to prison” for his beliefs.

Outrageously he invoked Winston Churchill, the “heroes of D-Day” and “Spitfire pilots” in a blatant attempt to win sympathy and persuade supporters to open their wallets yet again for him.

Griffin has often referred to an impending civil war in Britain, especially after electoral failure such as in last month’s elections. After the BNP failed to win any MEPs in the 2004 European election despite gaining 800,000 votes, Griffin said the party might have to consider alternatives to the ballot box. The following year the BNP’s general election manifesto called for adults who have completed a period of military service to be “required to keep in a safe locker in their homes a standard-issue military assault rifle and ammunition”, a policy the party has never renounced.

A number of BNP members have tried to turn Griffin’s talk about civil war into action. They include David Copeland, the London bomber, and Robert Cottage, who was convicted for possession of explosives.

In raising the prospect of imprisonment Griffin no doubt also has his eye on Eddy Butler’s challenge to his leadership of the BNP, announced on 18 June. Griffin may hope that party members would hardly desert a man who was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for them.

However most BNP members are likely to see through this ploy. Growing numbers want a new party leader because of Griffin’s incompetence in producing electoral results, dubious financial dealings and his insistence on handing over administrative and financial control of the party to the “consultant” Jim Dowson, a militant anti-abortion campaigner with criminal convictions for violence.

Butler, the BNP’s national elections officer until he was peremptorily sacked at the end of March, is now trying to collect the signatures of 20% of BNP members with at least two years’ membership, which he needs to force a leadership election. Several party branch organisers are calling local meetings so that members can sign the forms.

BNP activists all over the country are beginning to support Butler’s challenge. One of them is Danny Lake, former leader of the Young BNP. Echoing the views of many party members, he describes Griffin as “a man who has brought the party far but remains stunted by a damaged reputation”. Griffin is standing “with a set of disastrous election results behind him”, Lake points out, before expressing the view that Griffin will not allow a clean fight.

Hope Not Hate

Burned girl a symbol of Roma hate and hope (Czech Rep)

Natalka Kudrikova is a bright-eyed, three-year-old girl recovering from the severe burns she suffered when far-right extremists threw a Molotov cocktail into her home.

Her family and authorities say she was targeted because they are Roma, or gypsies. Natalka lost 80 percent of her skin, two fingers (a third was later amputated) and spent months lying in an induced coma following the attack last year in Vitkov, in the Czech Republic. She is still recuperating after 14 major surgeries.

In May, Natalka returned to Ostrava Hospital for rehabilitation sessions so that one day she may be able to get around without support. "I'd rather not take her back to the hospital," said her mother, Anna Sivakova, "but if she must return, my dream is that she learns how to walk without any help."

The very next day, four young men accused of attacking Natalka, filed into Ostrava District Court to hear the indictment: a racially motivated attempted murder.

According to the prosecutor, the attack was planned for the 120th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth. Court experts confirmed swastikas and other Nazi memorabilia were found in the defendants' homes.

In court, Ivo Muller and Vaclav Cojocaru described their coordinated Molotov cocktail attack. Their only excuse -- they said they thought they were attacking an empty storehouse of stolen goods.
Under cross-examination, Muller and Cojocaru admitted attending anti-Roma demonstrations organized by right wing extremists.

The other defendants, Jaromir Lukes and David Vaculik, did not take the stand. Lukes is accused of being the ringleader, a claim his defense counsel strongly denies although he concedes Lukes drove the getaway car. His lawyer also vehemently denies there was any racial motivation to the attack.

An anti-fascist website published a photo of Lukes walking next to the leader of the far-right Workers' Party. Another photo showed Vaculik wearing the armband of the Workers' Party, the public face of the Czech far right.

The leader of the now banned Workers' Party, Tomas Vandas, denied any involvement.

"Yes, we may have used those people as organizers of our public meetings but how could we know they would commit a crime?" said Vandas. "I hope Natalka gets better soon," he added.

Miroslav Mares, from Masaryk University in Brno, is the leading academic specialist on Czech extremist groups.

He thinks it's unlikely that the Workers' Party was directly involved in the arson attack, but he says they were responsible "for inflaming anti-Roma sentiment."

"Maybe some youngsters from the neo-Nazi scene said to themselves, 'If the whole population is against Romas we are justified in carrying out such attacks,'" he said.

And surveys do show anti-Roma sentiment is widespread. The European Union EURoma website says Czech Romas endure extremely high unemployment rates, low educational standards, isolation, and the prejudices of the majority population.

"In regions with high unemployment and poor social conditions, the rise of extremism is popular with unemployed young men but we can see more and more women on the neo-Nazi scene," Marek said.

Lucie Slegrova, 20, is a flag-waving militant of the now renamed Workers' Social Justice Party. She denies her party is inspired by Hitler's Nazi ideology.

Instead, she says, they follow their own nationalist ideas. "The Czech Republic should be for people who know how to behave. If the gypsies don't want to follow the rules, they're free to leave," she said.

Only one percent of Czech voters supported the Workers' Social Justice Party in the last elections, but Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer worries that 7 percent of Czech students voted for the far-right party, according to an unofficial nationwide poll.

"A lot of people are frustrated with politicians, and have troubles due to the crisis and recession. My message to them is please think it over and don't believe these very bad prophets," Fischer said.

The far-right movement has made bigger gains in neighboring Hungary where 17 percent of voters chose the Jobbik party in the last elections.

Violence has been much worse as well. In the last two years, nine Roma have been killed in Hungary in unprovoked night-time attacks, according to the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC).

Roma bashing also became an issue in the Slovakian election campaign. The far right Slovak National Party commissioned billboards showing a dark-skinned man with tattoos and an inflammatory message: "Vote SNS so we don't feed those who don't want to work."

In eastern Slovakia many Roma live in segregated communities like the village of Ostrovany where municipal authorities spent some $16,000 to build a wall separating the Roma from their white neighbors, because of fears of "alleged Roma crime," said Stanislav Daniel from ERRC.

"To me the wall is a symbol of segregation because public finances were used to target a stereotype, not what's real," Daniel said.

The wall separates a tidy town from a rural slum. Roma, living right next to the wall, have no sewage or garbage collection and there's just one tap with drinking water for dozens of families.

Back in the Czech Republic, Natalka's father, Pavel Kudrik, has chosen to stay in the region and rebuild a comfortable home for his wife and four daughters.

After police asserted that Natalka's family were victims of a racist attack, many Czechs opened their wallets and their hearts.

Prime Minister Fischer's wife and son spearheaded a nationwide campaign to help them -- a move that led to the Fischer family having full-time police protection after they received anonymous death threats.

But the current climate is not the only reason Fischer wants to clamp down on right wing extremism.

Everyone in his family died in the Holocaust except for his father and grandmother. "Sixty-five years after WWII, the societal memory is getting weak," he said.

And Roma activists complain that recognition of their sacrifices under the Nazis has never been properly acknowledged.

Half-a-million Roma perished in what they call the "Devouring" -- Hitler's campaign to eliminate them as a people.

Last May, several hundred Czech Roma gathered at a memorial for the victims of the Lety concentration camp. Hundreds of Czech Roma children died there and are buried nearby in a mass grave.

Jan Vrba is one of the camp's last survivors. He was born there. His sister perished there.

"What happened in Vitkov made me cry", said Jan. "Little Natalka reminded me of my sister who died in this camp."

--
Here is a video report about the attack.



CNN

Neo-Nazis sentenced to 4 and a half years jail at Liverpool Crown Court (uk)

Two Neo-Nazis have been sentenced to a total of four-and-a-half years behind bars by a judge at Liverpool Crown Court, for inciting racial hatred.

Food packer Michael Heaton, 42, was handed a 30-month jail term for "using threatening and abusive language likely to stir up racial hatred".

His co-defendant Trevor Hannington, 58, was sentenced to two years after admitting six offences and being found guilty by a jury of the same offence as Heaton.

Passing sentence Judge Stephen Irwin QC said: "You clearly intended to stir-up racial hatred on behalf of the organisation

"In my judgement you saw yourself as the leader of a potentially significant National Socialist Group. You wanted to start a race war. You were clearly filled with racial hatred and you have certainly given that impression in court.

"This offence is so serious and your character is so distorted by racial hatred that only a significant sentence will suffice."

The judge told Hannington: "You are a long-standing racist and you have never hidden those views. You are a lonely man with little in your life.

"You lived in a shambles. You habitually told lies in an attempt to gain status but it is clear that you are largely a fantasist."

In a 12-day trial the court had earlier heard that Heaton idolised Nazi warlord Rudolf Hess and kept piles of memorabilia including swaztikas and a fearsome armoury of weapons.

Heaton was convicted on four counts of "using threatening and abusive language likely to stir up racial hatred".

At an earlier hearing, Hannington, admitted six further counts of using threatening and abusive language, and possessing notorious terrorism handbooks "The Anarchists Cookbook" and "The Complete Improvise Kitchen".

The jury heard that both Hannington and Heaton published a string of vile messages on the Aryan Strike Force website, which the pair operated together, between January and June 2008.

Hannington, of Hirwaun, South Wales, described as a lonely "Walter Mitty" character, also admitted posting instructions for making a home made flame-thrower on the site operated from his home.

Heaton was found not guilty on two counts of "soliciting to murder". Hannington was also found not guilty of "soliciting to murder".
Hannington's hate-filled postings include messages which read: "Kill the Jew, Kill the Jew, Burn the synagogues, and Burn the Scum".

Heaton wrote, "Jews will always be scum, and must be destroyed, I would encourage any race who wants to destroy the Jews, I hate them with a passion."

The court was also told of Heaton's connections with other convicted neo-nazi extremists, including Mark Atkinson, who was jailed for five years in 2005 for publishing racial hatred in a right-wing magazine called Stormer.

Heaton's relationship with another activist, named only as Maroney, was also described. Maroney is currently serving a life sentence after "fire-bombing" the home of a Yemeni neighbour, before firing a crossbow wildly down the street, and for sexually assaulting his girlfriend.

The court heard that Heaton, who describes himself as "slightly National Socialist", had expressed his anger at Maroney's conviction on the ASF website, writing: "Life, for singeing a Paki's grass!"

The court heard that Michael Heaton had made more than 3,000 obscene and inflammatory postings on the website under a string of pseudonyms while his co defendant operated under the aliases of Fist and Lee88.

During a search of Heaton's home, in Greater Manchester, detectives unearthed large quantities of Nazi and Hitler-related material, and a vast array of weapons.

A copy of the Nazi dictator's book, Mein Kampf, was also available to users of the website.

But in interview Heaton confessed that the man he really he idolised Hitler's upper-class henchman Rudolf Hess.
Throughout the trial, jurors were shown evidence of the pair's neo-nazi activities, including a series of videos designed for the training of extremists and activists which featured Mr Heaton violently attacking another man, in a demonstration of strength and aggression.

Further images showed 6 ft 2 inch Heaton at a Neo-Nazi demonstration in Manchester where he was seen making the Nazi salute.

Judge Irwin QC ordered the destruction of a cache of lethal weapons including knuckledusters, flick knives, and and scythes found at Heaton's home in Greater Manchester.

Click Liverpool

SPAIN'S SENATE VOTES TO BAN BURQA

In a significant escalation of Spain’s debate over how to handle radical Islam, the Senate on Wednesday  narrowly and unexpectedly approved a motion to ban Muslim women from wearing in public the burqa or other garments that cover the whole body. The vote, 131 to 129, was another setback for the Socialist government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which had favored more-limited restrictions on Islamic clothing and has instead been pushing to curtail religious fundamentalism through better education. The Spanish vote comes amid several national initiatives across Europe to restrict the spread of radical Islam and defend liberal values. In Belgium, the lower house of Parliament has already approved a measure that, if unamended by the upper house, would make it a crime to wear in public “clothing that hides the face.” France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe, has also been inching toward such a ban on the burqa. The measure has the backing of President Nicolas Sarkozy, who recently condemned the garment as “a sign of subservience” rather than one of religion. In Switzerland last year, a referendum banned the construction of minarets. While national politicians may be urging a clampdown on the burqa, such moves are still expected to run into legal obstacles. In March, France’s top administrative body, the Council of State, warned the government that a full ban would be unconstitutional. A commission of the Council of Europe, the European institution dealing with human rights issues, also recently warned governments against imposing a complete ban that would violate women’s individual rights.

Before the Spanish Senate’s vote, some of the country’s local authorities had already moved to introduce restrictions on the burqa. The issue was especially heated in the region of Catalonia, where the debate over Islam and immigration has become entangled in early campaigning ahead of regional elections later this year. The pending elections may have proved crucial in the Wednesday vote, as senators from the CiU, a Catalan party, surprisingly switched their earlier stance to vote in favor of a burqa ban. The motion adopted by the senators calls on Spain to outlaw “any usage, custom or discriminatory practice that limits the freedom of women.” It was drafted and led by politicians from the main center-right opposition People's Party. Justifying the vote, one of the senators from the CiU, Montserrat Candini, said that “we cannot tolerate that nobody understands that we are not in favor of banning the burqa.” The Senate’s position also came as a surprise because although Spain has become a major European entry point for Muslim migrants from North Africa, few of those immigrants wear either the burqa or the niqab, which does not cover the eyes. A similar argument has also been made by opponents of a burqa ban in countries like France, where only an estimated 100,000 women wear the burqa out of a Muslim population of about 5 million. France, however, already passed a law in 2004 to ban head scarves or any other “conspicuous” religious symbol from state schools in order to preserve their secularism. The Spanish government is supposed to follow the Senate’s motion. However, given that Socialist senators opposed the ban, the governing party is likely to seek ways to circumvent the vote. Anna Terrón, the secretary of state for immigration, said the Senate vote had “more to do with the election campaign in which the CiU is involved than with a real discussion” on the burqa.

NYTimes

TWO EXTREMISTS CHARGED, NEO-NAZI IDEOLOGUE FILIP VÁVRA ALLEGEDLY ONE OF THEM (Czech Rep.)

The Nova television channel and its online news server tn.cz report that police have charged two men with promoting extremism, one of whom is allegedly Filip Vávra. Previous media investigations have fingered Vávra as being behind the creation of the neo-Nazi National Resistance group and connected to the international neo-Nazi organization Blood and Honor in the past. Nova reports that police have charged Vávra with the crime of inciting hatred or suppression of the human rights and freedoms of a particular group. The charges are allegedly related to the distribution of materials with neo-Nazi subject matter. Police are refusing to reveal any further information about the case. Pavel Hanták, spokesperson for the Organized Crime Detection Unit (Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zloèinu - ÚOOZ) only made a general statement to the television channel that police had charged two men. "Two more people have been charged as part of the Lott case, both men,” Hanták told iDNES.cz, adding that a significant advance in the case occurred about a month ago. Nova reported that police have been following Vávra for some time. He has declined to comment.

Vávra was behind an invitation extended last year to former Ku-Klux-Klan leader David Duke, whose visit to the Czech Republic ended in his detention and deportation. Police charged him with denying the Holocaust in his book “My Awakening”, which has come out in Czech translation. His prosecution was later halted. Over the past two years, police have focused greater attention on promoters of extremism. The Security Information Service (Bezpeènostní informaèní služba – BIS), the country’s civilian counter-intelligence agency, reported at the start of May that right-wing extremist activity fell in the Czech Republic during the first three months of 2010. BIS says developments on the neo-Nazi scene were particularly influenced by last year’s police raids against members of the scene and the trial of the Workers’ Party (Dìlnická strana - DS) which ended in the party’s ban. The right-wing radical scene is currently the least united and most fragmented it has ever been. According to a Czech Interior Ministry report on the issue of extremism in 2009, the number of people charged in relation to extremism last year rose by half the number charged in 2008. The incidence of extremist crime rose by more than one-fifth, but such crimes still comprise only 0.07 % of crime overall. The report said the April arson attack on the home of a Romani family in Vítkov was the most serious extremist crime of last year.

Romea

CROATIAN LEADERS SLAM USE OF FASCIST SYMBOLS

Croatia's top officials on Wednesday slammed the use of fascist symbols at a concert aimed at raising funds for the defence of the country's generals tried for war crimes committed during the 1991-1995 war. President Ivo Josipovic and Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor in a joint statement "most strongly condemn the use of fascist symbols" during the concert held last Sunday in the central coastal town of Split "with the alleged aim to support Croatian generals and their defence before the UN war crimes court in The Hague". The two also called on HRT national television which broadcast the concert, to "act responsibly and urgently and adopt measures that would enable it in the future to immediately halt programmes in the case of a glorification of totalitarian ideologies".

 Josipovic, the supreme commander of the country's armed forces, launched a probe into the participation of active military personnel in the concert, the statement said. Among the dozen singers who took part in the concert that was attended by thousands of people figured Marko Perkovic Thompson, a controversial singer known for his sympathies with the country's World War II pro-Nazi regime. His fans often display symbols of the Ustasha regime and use the Nazi salute. The concert was held to raise money for the defence of three former generals tried before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The three -- Ivan Cermak, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac -- have been charged with war crimes against ethnic Serbs. Many Croatians see them as national heroes. Croatia's proclamation of independence from the former Yugoslavia sparked the 1991-1995 war with Belgrade-backed rebel Serbs who opposed the decision.

AFP

BLAST ROCKS SYNAGOGUE IN RUSSIA

Regional police said that an explosive device went off just outside a synagogue in the central Russian city of Tver in the early hours of Monday, ripping a hole in its metal door and partially damaging its entrance hall. "Nobody was hurt in the explosion. The entrance to the synagogue was partly damaged. The shock wave broke windows in nearby 10 apartments. Crime experts, representatives of the prosecutor's office and the Emergency Situations Ministry are still working at the scene," a local law enforcement source said. Police said the incident had been classified as an act of hooliganism linked to political, racial or religious hatred and that a criminal case had been opened.

A local leader of the Tver Jewish community, Vladimir Spivak, said one resident had suffered a light injury in the explosion and was taken to a hospital. The blast caused an outcry among the country's Jewish communities. “The explosion is a culmination of numerous attacks against practicing Jews," Russia's Federation of Jewish Communities said in a statement. “Anti-Semitic writings have appeared on the walls of the synagogue, anti-Semitic leaflets have been circulated in the city and some 140 graves were vandalized in the Jewish part of the local cemetery in 2009,” the statement said. The federation voiced hope that the bombers will be detained, tried and duly punished because "the impunity of the vandals inevitably leads to worse consequences."

 Jewish leaders also linked the blast with the anniversary of the start of World War II in Russia, where it is known as the Great Patriotic War, which the country marks on Tuesday. "The blast is not only an offence for the Jewish population but a terrible reminder of World War II victims," the Moscow Jewish Religious Community said in a statement. Religious and hate crimes are a relatively frequent occurrence in Russia.

EJP

Convictions point to rise of far right extremism (UK)

Today's convictions of a 42-year-old food packer and a 59-year-old builder on inciting racial hatred brings to 16 the number of convictions connected to far right extremism in the past two years, as Home Affairs Correspondent Simon Israel investigates.




Trevor Hannington, from South Wales, and Michael Heaton, from Lancashire, ran their own far right organisation which promised street action to help rid the country of minority communities.


Their Aryan Strike Force boasted 350 members. Its website had tens of thousands of postings, all messages of hate like urging the destruction of Jews, describing them as treacherous scum.

There were references to "chopping n****** legs off" and "kill the jew, burn down a synagogue today". Heaton was found guilty on four charges charges, while Hannington admitted to four terrorism charges including distributing instructions on how to turn a water pistol into a flamethrower. Both were both found not guilty of soliciting to murder.

Dr Matthew Feldman, who runs the UK's only research unit on new media and domestic extremism at Northampton University, was the prosecution's key witness in this case.

He says "These are neo-Nazis, pure and simple, and consider themselves really the most extreme versions of this ideological neo-Nazism that is new.

"We have had some evidence, I believe, of activists from the ASF appearing on videos at the English Defence League marches and so forth."

Rise in extremism
Dr Feldman believes this recent string of convictions of "lone wolf" cases and the creation of the English Defence League point to a resurgence of far right extremism.

He said: "In terms of what we might call small cell or lone wolf terrorists cases since 2008, but also other events in 2008 such as the successful election of two British National Party MEPs in the Yorkshire, Humber area, and in 2009 the creation of the English Defence League on the back of those protests by some radical Islamism groups against the return of Anglican soldiers. So I think there is a confluence of factors that do point to a resurgence in the far right."

The two convicted today actually turned up at several of the EDL rallies and used their website to praise the EDL's actions. Yet the EDL denies any links to these extremists organisation.

We asked for an interview with its organisers so we could put all our evidence to them. They declined.

Does that mean EDL is infiltrated with those with a much more extreme agenda intent on more than just glorified football style violence? Police who monitor these events say no.

Assistant Chief Constable Anton Setchell, national coordinator for domestic extremism, told Channel 4 News that "we have seen some individuals from the far right on the margins of EDL organised events but these are only one or two individuals. We have found no strong links between extreme groups like the Aryan Strike Force and the EDL."

Yet today's guilty verdicts bring to 16 the total number of far right extremists who have been convicted over the past two years.

Among them were father and son Ian and Nicky Davison who were sent to prison last month for possessing the poison Ricin and for making and detonating pipe bombs. They were also co-founders of the Aryan Strike Force.
Dr Feldman says: "in groups like the ASF successor organisations we are seeing a group numbering in the few hundreds probably at the maximum.

"That's a few hundred too many because these are not people who are far right activists for the BNP and knocking doors. These are people who may very well be considering a future as we saw in the Davison case undertaking terrorists.

In fact Heaton stated publically that as part of a "rites of passage" to join, potential recruits had to carry out a serious op, meaning a violent racist attack.

Report on racism
The Institute for Race Relations is about to publish a report, which Channel 4 News has had exclusive access to, mapping out 600 serious racist attacks in the UK last year. Many have taken place in towns which have had influxes of a migrant workforce or asylum seekers. But it also hints at a correlation between attacks and pockets of extremism.

We found that of the 16 extremist convictions since 2008, two thirds come from towns which form a corridor across the north of England: Penwortham, south of Preston, to Leigh, west of Manchester, to Batley, to Selby, to Goole, to Grimsby, then further north to Elsdon and Durham.

Privately, police sources have confirmed to us that their intelligence suggests the same. They admit there are some dangerous individuals, but overall the threat from right wing extremists has hardly changed since the days of the nail bomber David Copeland, who killed three and seriously injured 79 people in three attacks, the worst at Soho's Admiral Duncan Pub in 1999. It was the last time white supremacists were said to behind a bomb attack in the UK.

Those monitoring far right extremists attribute the recent string of convictions to a combination of "good police work", community relations and luck, rather than an increased threat.

But they say what has changed is their profile boosted by a combination of the numerous convictions and the tenor of EDL marches.

Channel 4 News