Bereft of new ideas since the departure of Tommy 'n' Kev for the sunlit uplands of the Quillam foundations grant-maintained gravy train, the English Defence League are promising to brighten up 2014 by coming to shout nonsense in a car park near you.

Plans for the demos (and indeed the reasons for them) are vague but the EDL have confirmed that they'll be heading for Slough on the 1st February. They then plan to demonstrate in Kidderminster on 22nd March and then in Sheffield, some time in May.

Slough has a large Asian and Muslim population, but beyond that the EDL must have struggled to come up with a reason for including it on their list of tour dates. Until at last until they stumbled on that most English of grievances, problems with parking.

Yep that's the latest excuse for a shambolic racist piss-up. According to the EDL's website (most of which is amusingly taken up with denouncing various patriotic splinter groups, but we digress) the main issue facing the residents of Slough today is the fact that an application to turn a community centre (in Langley) into a mosque will lead to a parking nightmare. “Langley will now join a long list of communities where local residents have been driven to anger, tears and despair by the continuing nuisance of Islamic community centre/mosque visitors parking their cars along local streets” – luckily the EDL are on hand to save us from this kerb-hugging jihadist menace.

Anti-fascists have already been active in the town with regular leafletting and stalls. On the day itself the Antifascist Network (AFN) have announced a rallying point for their counter-demo, 11 am 'til 4pm in Salt Hill Park. Look for the red and black flags.

For more see the Anti Fascist Network

Antifa in brief

**Over 100 counter demonstrators turned up to oppose the EDL in Bristol on very short notice on Tuesday 7th outnumbering them three to one and according to at least on account bombarding them with sandwiches.

**East Anglian Patriots, another EDL splinter group, are planning a march/demo in Lincoln this Saturday 18th – Anti racists will be assembling earlier at 10.30 at St Martin's Square. Lincoln against racism and fascism

**The English Volunteer Force claim to be organising a march on Parliament on 15th March

**Last but not least SchNEW's favourite EDL wannabes the March for England are heading back to tarnish the streets of our city by the sea, probably on the 27th April. To revisit SchNEWS account of their previous outings in 2012 and  2013 go here.