Dave Smeeton on Paul Ray and Glen Jenvey

A new comment arrives from Dave Smeeton of March for England:

As stated in earlier posts neither [Glen] Jenvey or [Paul] Ray where friends of mine, They where contacts on facebook. My friends i trust ,these two i would trust a rattle snake more. Have never trusted either of these two that is why neither have any personal details of myself,

The latest email i have from Ray proves despite what he said to the Daily Mail he was not a friend of mine and never will be.

I have never grassed anyone can the other two say that?

To make it clear March for England had nothing to do with Ray although he did try and drag us into a few things. Despite his latest sniveling email we do not want him in our ranks we dont hold with his views or his betrayal of people.

http://www.marchforengland.co.uk

This is his second message on the subject; previously, he wrote that:

while every person is entitled to worship what ever religion the choose.

Jumping into bed with Hamza Choudry and Co is somewhat beyond belief. If this is true it shows that Jenvey and his friend can not be trusted.

Both these people where om my facebook friends list only reason being there is not a contacts list ob facebook.

The other fella used March for England to keep him self in the spotlight. This was bought to an end by myself and other commitee members. We did not hold with his attacks on a religion as a whole or of some of the people in his videos.

I blogged on March for England back in March. The group is nationalistic, but it rejects association with the far-right. It also supports the cause of the Gurkhas, and it has protested against Islamic extremism alongside the Iranian dissident Potkin Azarmehr. There is also a strong link with football supporters; Smeeton has a past in a supporters’ “firm”, but he assures us that that was a very long time ago and that he is now an “old man”. MFE protests have generally been peaceful; a recent report in Searchlight explains that:

…encounters were overwhelmingly non-violent, except when the National Front (NF) turned up and were driven away by the [United British Alliance] and MFE.

The UBA and MFE appeared to draw large numbers of young men including some black people and even a couple of Jewish football supporters from Surrey. Many were former soldiers and former football hooligans. They were frighteningly disciplined.

MFE was involved in an early protest in Luton following the Islamist provocation there in March, working with Paul Ray. However, it seems that the relationship with Ray quickly soured, and Ray sought alliances with other groups. A later protest in Luton, which MFE did not organise, was marked by some violence. That brought the attention of the Daily Mail, which ran a piece (since pulled) on MFE and Ray and which noted the Facebook link from both Smeeton and Ray to Glen Jenvey; Jenvey was described as “accused by several newspapers of fabricating stories about Islamic extremism”. Jenvey did not respond well to this, and he has now converted to Islam and allied himself with an extremist group. Jenvey also stated that the Mail  did not know that he had been “under cover collecting information for a British MP and Newspaper for them to pass on to the police”.

Ray went on to associate himself with “Casuals United” – this group was behind the protest in Birmingham last month and is preparing for a replay tomorrow. However, on his blog he recently announced that:

I have decided that the way the protests are being led is not in line with how I personally, feel they should be, Because of this, I will not be supporting any upcoming ‘Casuals United’ protests, which includes the Birmingham one on 8th August.

I am no longer involved in any way, with ‘Casuals United’ and their activities, but stand shoulder to shoulder with, and back the aims and intentions of each division and branch that is involved with the group.

Ray possibly annoyed some of his “casuals” associates over a protest in east London; the protestors met up in central London but many of them drifted away when the organiser – a shadowy “Dave Shaw” – failed to materialise and there were fears of a police sting operation. Ray was scathing about those who headed for a pint in Covent Garden rather than a protest at the East London Mosque, comparing them to First World War deserters who would have been shot.

Instead, Ray now describes himself as spokesperson for the “English and Welsh Defence League” – although it should be noted that the leader of the Welsh Defence League, Jeff Marsh, is also involved with Casuals United; Marsh has been organising the Birmingham protest planned for tomorrow, although he recently handed over the reins to someone else, complaining of police harassment. Various “Casuals United” groups on Facebook have his “bouncingbomb” email address as the point of contact. I blogged on Marsh and his charming memoir here – he left a comment thanking me for extra sales which he says have resulted.

Searchlight tells us that

the MFE and UBA are the English and Welsh Defence League (EWDL)…all used to work together until recently when Ray turned against Dave Smeeton.

This pattern makes Smeeton sceptical:

Do you not find it strange he tries to use MfE then gets droped moves to the Casual lads then draws peoples names out to be published on line then he drops that group??? Is he an informer for press or other agencies??

Meanwhile, Ray boasts that the EDL has been meeting with an “influential group of people”, to create “a professional, credible and organised ‘street movement’ for our country”.

UPDATE: As an aside, West Midlands Police has issued a video statement about policing the protests tomorrow.

Watts His Line?

Fifty per cent of the time I log on to WordPress I’m obliged to see this face:

Watts WordPress

It’s there because of some kind of ranking for most popular WordPress post at any particular moment. I’ve always generally ignored it, but since reading this post at Pharyngula I’ve found this person’s visage – apparently it belongs to a certain Anthony Watts – increasingly unwelcome.