EDL knives are out

Speight & Crosslasnd campaigning against Muslim grooming gangs

We’ve been covering the ongoing troubles in the English Defence League (EDL) since before Christmas.

Of course, the EDL has always been trouble and has always had splits, but it finds itself in a situation now where none of the of protagonists’ want to leave the organisation and are prepared instead, to stand and fight-quite literally, for control of the organisation.

There has been a series of allegations of financial and sexual impropriety levelled against two of the EDL’s most senior organisers.

Gail Speight from Leeds, the former Yorkshire regional organiser, was removed from post last weekend after accusations were made from a number of EDL activists that she had misappropriated EDL funds.

Speight has already been removed from the shareholders group-led by those still close to the EDL’s founder Stephen Lennon. Speight only held her “membership” of the EDL after her partner Ian Crossland and illiterate punch-bag Dave Bolton came to her rescue and began a series of expulsions from various groups.

Lucas: Expelled for asking questions

Speight is “head” of the EDL “Angels”, the EDL women’s group, and reacted furiously when allegations surfaced on EDL media about the group’s behaviour during the EDL’s alleged drunken orgy during the group’s time camped out in Rotherham last year.

Worse was to come and in the last 48 hours, a number of female EDL supporters have come forward to allege sexual impropriety against Dave Bolton, the under-fire London organiser and supporter of Speight and Crossland.

Daniela Lucas: Angry & Expelled

It has been alleged that Bolton has organised a “party” in his hotel room for the night before the EDL’s rally in Dudley next weekend. When I posted reference to the story on here last week, it appears a number of female EDL supporters came forward to complain that they had been harassed by Bolton on social media and then before and after EDL demonstrations. They have since been expelled from the group, by Speight, for coming forward.

The EDL organises now almost completely by social media so being banned from a Facebook group is as good as being expelled from the whole organisation. We are no longer talking about a group in its thousands, but a group in its dwindling hundreds. Control of an active EDL Facebook group elevates an individual to the group’s “management” group, which meets sporadically and only communicates internally on invite-only private Facebook pages.

Bolton is holding on for dear life and in hope that his wife does not hear about the allegations against him. He, Speight and Crossland have now begun a campaign of bullying against those making the allegations which has now led to other far-right groups getting involved and issuing threats too.

In London, supposedly Bolton’s “stronghold”, a number of people have rallied around Daniela Lucas who has led a campaign to have Bolton held to account for his actions.

For legal reasons and good taste, we can print neither all of the allegations, nor the pictures that have been made available to us concerning Bolton, Crossland’s and Speight’s alleged behaviour.

Since day one, the EDL has been nothing but a gang of drunken thugs terrorising people up and down the country. It would seem now that the terror, threats, harassment and violence is now going to be fully turned in on themselves. If it does not come in the shape of the usual fists and bottles, then it looks set to come in the shape of some rather shameless pictures that people have taken of themselves or each other over the last five years.

Bolton: Too ashamed to show his face?