How Lennon and Golding link in with new ‘secret’ hooligan army

The far right in this country has an obsession with acting like secret armies. Thankfully few of them have actually ever bothered to join the British army, instead they give themselves fancy titles from behind the very keyboards from where they came and generally remain.

‘Captain Caps Lock’ etc, is the sort of thing. Some claimed to have served, but often they had only bought a dodgy beret. Others that did serve, use it as a medal to spread poison.

It’s mainly the titles they like. Who can ignore the longstanding if not eternal shame of Paul Golding (“Officer in Charge”) of Britain First who has pranced around the world giving and receiving salutes of varying embarrassment as the leader of a quasi paramilitary outfit with fancy uniforms? Like many on the far right, this simulation and adulation of legitimate military forces has often been used to con the public into thinking they are legitimate soldiers collecting funds for legitimate military causes.

Those of you with long memories may recall Tim Ablitt, the man who was anointed by English Defence League (EDL) founder Stephen Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) to replace him as leader of the gang back in 2013.

Lennon had quit the EDL to pocket money offered to him by the Quilliam Foundation to tackle the very sort of prejudice he would later help take into the mainstream.

Prior to that very short-lived and embarrassing episode, Ablitt had been a member of the short-lived British National Party/EDL joint concoction, British Freedom Party. His other most noticeable contribution was the time he was arrested by armed police investigating an alleged plot to blow up a Mosque in Bournemouth.

Since losing the EDL leadership, little has been heard of Ablitt. He’s made the odd appearance at small demonstrations in the South West of England including one where he was apparently in a wheelchair. Other rumours were that he had gone to Thailand.

What we do know about Ablitt is that he has a young child with a Thai woman and the child is being brought up in Thailand. Another former EDL’er who would be proud of Ablitt for such a feat would no doubt be Margate’s moronic David Coppin, who leaves his Filipino wife at home in Margate when he hangs out with his racist mates.

Most recently Ablitt has sprung up in the beautifully titled “British Street Commandos” (BSC), a collection of ‘football hooligans’ either too hard or too soft for either variant of the Football Lads Alliance.

The BSC, all with titles like “Commander” and “Captain” for a short while ran a secret Whatsapp group awash with hard line racism and their phone numbers on display. Inside the group, which numbered a couple of hundred supporters of clubs as far north as Glasgow Rangers and as far south as Portsmouth, the group laid plans for public attacks on both Black Lives Matter (BLM) and antifascist protesters at meeting points round the country.

Things appeared to be fizzing out when despite making grand plans of attack, absolutely none of the secret army turned up in London at the beginning of the month for a show-down with either Black Britons or anti-racist protesters. Perhaps that is the way it works with secret armies? What with them being commandos, maybe they were there but camouflaged?

Quite a few of the group seem to be from or around Nottingham, including the aptly named “Commando Krokoszynski” (Stefan Krokoszynski) who shortens his name to  “Steff Krock”. The former West Notts College pupil seems to be a big Mansfield Town and Manchester United supporter. However, when we rang to ask him for a comment he would not speak. Neither would “Comando Harding” who did not want his work finding out what he gets up to in his spare time.

Ablitt still appears to be in touch with Lennon and was recently photographed with him before being appointed the lead Commando for Dorset. Also part of the group is serial wally and headcase Andrew Edge of Britain First.

The man who hands the orders out is Ryan Stevenson, but that is not thought to be his real name and he is certainly not be confused with a footballer by the same name who played for Forest.

There could be any number of reasons why close confidantes of both Stephen Lennon and Paul Golding have tried to jump on the bandwagon and both could be reasons why the group is already doomed to failure.