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Can of Worms Opened: The EDL Conspiracy Theories Start Here

FashWatch | 08.01.2013 05:04 | Anti-racism | Policing | Social Struggles | Liverpool | Sheffield

The judge sentencing in the Tommy Robinson false passport case today opened a wriggling, purified can of worms. Stephen Yaxley Lennon of Luton was, as expected, sentenced to a jail term as almost everybody had expected (albeit a short and unsatisfactory one). That is no surprise, as passport fraud involving the United States, meant the UK felt compelled to act. What was not not expected, was the judge's strange but honest remarks about Tommy's actual identity.



Since the first video appeared on YouTube in the spring of 2009 of the unmasked "Tommy Robinson", followed up later that year in the autumn by EDL co-founder Paul Ray giving the name Stephen Yaxley Lennon, intrigue and subterfuge has always accompanied all discussions about the wider purpose of the EDL amidst a world of dirty tricks, state collusions and conspiracy theories.

The judge surprisingly called Tommy's "Paul Harris" passport "his real passport", whilst jailing him in the name of Stephen Yaxley Lennon. And then he went onto imply that his "real name" might not be known inside the public realm.

This is probably the first case of its kind in modern legal history when a UK citizen born in the United Kingdom, known to the tax system as a self-employed businessman, has had the shadow of doubt cast upon his actual identity in a UK court of law. This does make everybody wander what, who and why did Tommy Robinson set up the EDL and under whose instructions.
If you subscribe to Hitler-worshiping fansite Stormfront, the answer will of course be a global Zionist conspiracy designed to subvert the true essence of the far right. Well they would say that, calling the EDL as a tool of the mythical and mysterious "ZOG". Yes, the EDL are funded by American neo-conservative types who heavily promote Israel, but most people believe the American-based Global Islamophobic Movement linked up with Israel simply to "curry favour" with tea party Republican party senators, as conservative US foreign policy has, since the 1970s, regarded Israel as a close ally of the US. Flying Israeli flags at EDL marches also served a dual purpose of opposing everything that most British Muslims stand for, such as freedom for Palestine and its people.

Jewish mavericks might have thought it was useful idea to help promote a far right person with less candid anti-semitism, to take the heat off an intolerant world where more and more Jewish graves are vandalised by neo-nazis, but the EDL was established long before Golden Dawn or the financial crisis that predated it, which blows this particular conspiracy theory out the water.

So, if the Hitler worshippers of the BNP and NF are talking racist bollocks as always, and yet, the judge in the fake passport trial points the finger at Tommy Robinson having more than one official identity, what other sorts of conspiracy might be happening, ones powered by feasible logic not ten foot lizards at Bilderburg get togethers???

The four most believable conspiracies for a state-controlled fascist group, which leap off the page, are as follows: -

Conspiracy One: - Set up when troops were moved from Iraq to Afganistan, another unpopular war also opposed by most taxpayers, the EDL was set up to instill American-style patriotic fervour which would lessen opposition to British Foreign Policy amongst the working classes.

Conspiracy Two: - Gordon Brown was ahead at the polls when the EDL came to prominence, so it might have been assumed the Labour Party were all-set for another term in office, the worry to the Establishment being the danger of Labour rediscovering its left wing heritage put in hibernation by Tony Blair, (or "Tony Bliar" as he was known at the time). A British secret service operation answerable to nobody yet loyal to the old school tie, could have foresaw "reds re-emerging from under the beds" and acted decisively, just as they did by tarnishing Arthur Scargill's reputation to keep Maggie Thatcher in office during the Miners' Strike, creating an ugly xenophobic underbelly of Alf Garnets especially designed to tilt taproom gut-reaction public opinion towards the right, by getting thousands of "muggy mushrooms" to march repetitively up and down town centres tanked up with brains firmly switched-off, in the pouring British rain.

Conspiracy Three: - Since Tony Blair and his friend George Bush had been publicly exposed as liars by public inquiries for the reasons Britain went to war in Iraq, the dying embers of leftwing radicalism were reborn at the point of extinction. 2009 was like the birth of the Sixties happening all over again, as people began to see the real story of New Labour and all its failings. What was starting with the man in the street questioning public foreign policy, would have soon began questioning poverty, NHS cuts, and even the necessity of paying the Royal Family out of the public purse. Mobilising a ready-made army of football hooligans and fascist thugs with Yaxley Lennon, Paul Ray and Alan Ayling's help, was the ultimate distraction tactic to keep radical British left wingers preoccupied with time-consuming, immediate anti-fascist concerns.

Conspiracy Four: - The Public Political Chess Game: i.e., by creating a chess game in which Anjem Choudary and Stephen Yaxley Lennon were both rabble-rousing, and bringing people out onto the streets, unmasked before TV cameras, both pro and anti, was an invaluable exercise for the state to keep tabs upon both left and right. Like setting up cheese on the mousetrap, both Choudary and Lennon helped to expose the secret identities of radical Islamists, neo-nazis, and anti-capitalist anarchists, in one fell swoop, adding names and photos to databases. When thousands of EDLers used to turn up into cities such as Manchester with its state-of-the-art surveillance, once the police made people take their masks off, every last participant could be photographed, tracked and manipulated from the comfort of a police control centre.

Whether one particular conspiracy theory is true, they are all true, or portions of them are true, one thing is for sure, once David Cameron entered Number 10, and the Coalition started to cut back on public services, whilst it was not beyond the realms of possibility that hardline Islamophobia and violent extreme rightwing street thuggery might have notionally been welcomed by the "Monday Club" set, suddenly, almost overnight, the EDL became unwanted by the state. As with the Northern League in Italy, Britain's post-BNP far right had done their job (by whatever means) of helping getting a conservative prime minister elected to office.

Their official role (whatever that was) was now over, and Stephen Yaxley Lennon would have got a handsome payout from manila envelopes for many years to come, but greedy as he was, he saw merchandising opportunities forevermore. Thus the state-controlled EDL continued as a commercial enterprise, causing splits, ill-feeling and discontement amonst the ranks, whilst the Sun and the Daily Mail, from the point of David Cameron entering office, began to take a robustly anti-EDL stance.

As with the National Front, who in the 1970s, had colluded with racists in the Metropolitan Police to intimidate, bully and harrass liberals and leftwingers, once the Tories enter office, any state collusion and funding of fascism, is almost automaticaoly decomissioned. The hate stories about Muslims and asylum seekers still continue in the rightwing press under the Coalition (despite running occassional Searchlight / Hope Not Hate press releases about the EDL), but purely as a lobby tool, to keep wooly politicians under check.....


FashWatch

Comments

Hide the following 17 comments

I must admit

08.01.2013 05:13

I'm not into most conspiracy theories but the idea the British leftwing were kept actively distracted from campaigning about job losses, the minimum wage, housing, corporate greedm etc, (before the banking crisis mobilised people), seems to set alarm bells ringing in my head.

How much time was spent stuck in UAF kettles, whilst I could have been helping to lead a revolution on many, varied fronts, not just anti-fascism!

The EDL, with their racism and thuggish behaviour, have kept me busy and occupied since 2009.

It has indeed to be a state set up for rightwing political purposes to get Cameron elected.

Yaxley Lennon was foolish not to decommission when MI5 told him to do so, and not he is paying the ultimate price, especially now the Tea Party backers are out on a limb in Obama's second term.

Geordie Shaw


Useful Idiots

08.01.2013 05:21


.

Idiots Recruitment Officer


interesting piece

08.01.2013 10:26

not one for conspiracy theory but the judge's comments have really opened this up. that robinson was compromised and tuend by plod given his long criminal record - of thuggish behaviour and financial doings none of them 'political' - is not beyond the realm of possibility. he has been allowed to profit from the EDL - why no enquiries into a VERY lucrative operation - in return for the EDL being monitored and info gathered by plod. it is likely after he was nicked in scotland and taken to sheffield that he has been giving info on nazis and hooligans to plod. he has now served his purpose and it looks like he has been cut off, hence being jailed and all the charges piling up over the last 6 months. it reeks and if he is exposed as a 'state asset' there are going to be a lot of embarrassed eejits just like after combat 18 was revealed to be a state op!

Malatesta
- Homepage: malatesta32@wordpress.com


Sheffield

08.01.2013 12:20

Like other posters here I don't hold with conspiracy theories at all and those outlined in the main article seem a little far fetched to me BUT something did crack off in Sheffield. Tommy was busted, held and questioned then released and the next time the EDL demoed (Bolton/Manchester) it was clearly evident that the police aided the EDL and victimized the anti-fascists.
Myself and others at the time said as much and many questions were asked as to what exactly happened in that Sheffield police station. Now the hammer has fallen on little TR maybe he has outlived whatever purpose he was applied to in Sheffield?

IHTF


set up

08.01.2013 14:32

Every one with half a brain knows the edl was a set up and it was done for one reason only to take the youth away from the bnp.

oldboy


'Tools' of the state

08.01.2013 14:34

prison gang, useful idiots.

not a theory


Poor research

08.01.2013 16:01

"the EDL was established long before Golden Dawn or the financial crisis that predated it, which blows this particular conspiracy theory out the water."
This is bollocks. Golden Dawn's roots go back to the 80s, and it started serious operations in the early 90s. They suspended public activity in favour of working in the "Patriotic Alliance" front from 2005-7, but even so they've been active in their current form since 2007. The housing bubble started to burst in 2007, and the economy was definitely in the shit by 2008. The EDL was established in 2009. This is pretty basic stuff, and if you can't get it right then it's a bit hard to take your more imaginative claims seriously.

Fact checker


Cocks To The Last Bozo!

08.01.2013 18:52


.

Jon


Plenty of Truth

08.01.2013 18:56

Yes, some of the facts lack proper anaylsis (dates etc), however there are serious pointers that lead us to believe the EDL are a branch of the state. In this case, it is not worth shooting the messenger but opening minds to the manupulative tactics by Western governments that happen to usurp rightwing extremists for mainstream political gain.

Shelley


Cameron

08.01.2013 19:04

David Cameron's "multiculturalism is not working" speech was playing straight up to the EDL and the BNP, and happened on the same day as a notable EDL event when they were in the news.

(presumably MI5 wanted an informal bigging-up of far right dogma to boost their little false flag plaything).

Votes are votes, and it's funny that come election time, immigration is whipped by by the shitty tabloids and the amount of racist attacks reported to the police, rise!

Until Tommy's ego got the better of him, and he decided to go party political with the BFP, they were not an electable organisation just a "pressure group / so-called human rights organisation LOL".

EDL on the streets, Tories in the ballot box (cos the Daily Mail told you so).

Conspiracist


Lionising the failure!!!

09.01.2013 01:45

What a load of garbage!

The EDL were just the National Front re-invented in order to have a bash at a resurgent Leftwing which had caused the government no end of trouble over the Iraq and Afghani wars. The left and some others had mobilised huge numbers of people and that ended with large numbers of muslims coming out onto the streets.

The government doesn't like minorities becoming empowered. So when the left dominates, the right wingers get together to mobilise the nations neanderthals to come out and smother everything with violence...so the police and the media can get together to show the wider public that its the state which will always show up and take ownership of things.

Thats the way it always is, that is the way it always has been...that is the way it always will be.

Left, Right...it don't matter none...they is all there to oppress ya!

Red, blue? Its all poison in your tee-cup.

Gloria Englandia.


The Removal Van Episode

09.01.2013 03:36


Yes, as many people are saying, Yaxley Lennon or whatever the little prick's name is, did spend a good few hours lying to the coppers before Bolton, the result was the cops beating up the peaceful UAF anti-nazi protestors in Bolton, but one other key episode happened in 2012 when Tommeh loaded up a removal van full of cretins (himself and UnKle Kev Karroll included.

Only Tommeh knew where the van switchover would take place, as there were no windows in the van.

This was 100% a state set-up to get EDLers fingerprinted, etc.

Because they are no longer of use by the state.

Pick Ford


One of these days

09.01.2013 03:43

the truth will out about the state setting up the EDL.

.


Deportation for Tommy, Paul Stephen etc.....

09.01.2013 16:32

If Tommy cannot/will not prove his real identity, I think it should be presumed by the authorities that he is an illegal immigrant and deported. I think Iran would be a good place.

Anon


little hitler

09.01.2013 17:56


just desserts

stamp em out


Tommy Robinson/Harris/Yaxley-Lennon Whiting!

12.01.2013 23:22

"If Tommy cannot/will not prove his real identity, I think it should be presumed by the authorities that he is an illegal immigrant and deported. I think Iran would be a good place."

No, send him to Amerika, they are far more violent and anti-social...and they have more guns.

anonymous


There is no conspiracy

21.06.2013 10:28

There is nothing inconsistent with the EDL being intended to draw recruits away from the BNP. There is no State advantage in a Far Right group existing for too long. Where the National Front to have not been broken in the 1980's they would have evolved a power base that could challenge the Right. A problem being currently experienced by the Tories with their own party in a party: UKIP. You do not need a conspiracy to explain the apparent destruction or surprising rise of the EDL. Follow the money - but follow the paper trail too. Where would you get a fake UK passport?

Nor is there anything just about bouncing the nameless one into prison. Where his organisational and communication skills will find a ready audience and he will be at the heart of the most effective "extremist" recruitment machine in the country. Who is to say the nameless one is not of more use to the state in prison than out. Odd career move - but potentially very, very profitable.

Nick Griffins Accountant


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