POMPEY & CIRCUMSTANCE

Despite claims of an army of 1500 mobilising, in the end the Portsmouth EDL turn-out on July 16th  was around 250. Their original plan was to lay a wreath at the war memorial in Guildhall Square, but the War Graves Commission was having none of it and in the event, it was the UAF who were able to have their rally there. Instead the hapless knuckle-draggers trudged round a small industrial estate in the rain chanting racist nonsense.

 Around 200 counter-protesters, consisting of UAF and anti-fascists, assembled in Guildhall square at 11am and occupied it until the protest came to an end at around 3pm. Police had apparently planned for around 600 EDL and so were well in control all day. A few members of the EDL youth wing approached the square, managed to look like idiots and soon got arrested.

There were small confrontations with anti-fascists later in the day as the respective demos broke up. A small anti-fascist contingency remained to patrol the streets, concentrating in the area around the local mosque, but despite threatening night-time racist wrath, the EDL were a no show.