There are troubling aspects in Demos’ recent report on English Defence League (EDL) members’ attitudes. According to the press release for the report Inside the EDL by Jamie Bartlett and Mark Littler: ‘Supporters are characterised by intense pessimism about the UK’s future, worries about immigration and joblessness. This is often mixed with a proactive pride
Collective punishment of families
Local authority and police decisions to seize the homes of family members of those charged in connection with the riots or convicted of terrorist offences punish whole families for one member’s wrongdoing. Evicting rioters’ families In the aftermath of the August riots, Wandsworth Council served an eviction notice on the mother and 8-year-old sister of
Enrolment falls as EMA withdrawn
New figures on the numbers of students enrolling for further education reveal some worrying aspects in the access to education for poorer and BME communities. Following the controversy over the withdrawal of Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), the The Association of Colleges commissioned a survey of colleges to ascertain whether enrolment was affected in any way.
Are the main parties just taking on BNP policies?
The British National Party (BNP) may be in decline, but to what extent are the main parties just taking up its concerns and its discourse? A recent by-election in Barnsley continues the trend of the BNP being humiliated at the polls. But could it be that the decline of the BNP is connected to mainstream
New writing on Cable Street
The 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street in Stepney, East London on 4 October, 1936, has provoked a batch of powerful books published by the Nottingham-based Five Leaves Press. The books celebrate the mass resistance of East Londoners, whose self-organised opposition prevented a march vaunted by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists
Annual march against custody deaths
This weekend families from across the UK will match on Downing Street to protest at the increasing numbers of deaths in custody. The annual march is organised by the United Families & Friends Campaign, which is coalition that campaigns for those that have died in the custody of the police and prison service and secure
Jimmy Mubenga remembered
Last week, over fifty campaigners joined the family and friends of Jimmy Mubenga in a vigil on the first anniversary of his death. Jimmy died on 12 October 2010, after being restrained by private security guards from the company G4S on a BA flight at Heathrow airport during a deportation attempt to Angola. Jimmy’s wife,
Whatever happened to Norway’s incitement laws?
Freedom of speech and laws prohibiting incitement to racial, religious and other forms of hatred are not incompatible if we move away from absolutist definitions. When the so-called racism paragraph (§ 135 (a) in the Norwegian General Civil Penal Code) was first introduced in 1970, it was as a direct result of Norway’s adoption of
Supreme Court dashes marriage rule
The Supreme Court has condemned the raising of the minimum age of entry for spouses and partners to 21 as a ‘sledgehammer’. The Home Office protested that the sole purpose of the November 2008 changes – which raised the minimum age of entry to join spouses and partners settled in the UK from 18 to
Other victims of the Oslo massacre
The fall-out from Breivik’s attacks finds yet more victims. It is nearly three months since the Oslo massacre. Politicians have focused on the need to modify their language, with the extreme-Right Progress Party (FrP, which scored its worst result in twenty years in the September local elections) indicating that it will modify its stance.(The message