Supporters Labeled the Organizers “Ridiculous” and the Event a “Shambles”.

a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6790067.ece"Indeed/a.  At least I rest easier knowing that the English racist / fascist set couldn't organize the proverbial piss-up in a brewery.  Some further internal dissent can be found a href="http://lionheartuk.blogspot.com/2009/07/statement-re-casuals-united.html"here/a.divbr //divdivThe title above appears in span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"The Times/span coverage of this event, where the English Defence League kicked off their promised season of anti-Muslim demonstrations in the center of Birmingham.  divbr //divdivOnly, those against whom they were "protesting" (protesting span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"what/span, exactly?) and their allies were considerably better organized.  Reports in the span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"MSM/span are sketchy and inconsistent, with span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"The Times/span referring to the group as the English Defence League, while a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-arrest-35-at-birmingham-protest-1770030.html"the /aspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-arrest-35-at-birmingham-protest-1770030.html"Independent/a/spana href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-arrest-35-at-birmingham-protest-1770030.html" refers/a to them as the more broad-minded English and Welsh Defence League.  Both indicate that the Casuals United were possibly involved, possibly not.  To wit, from the span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"Independent/span:/divdivblockquoteDiscussion and planning on online social networking sites led police to believe the group involved was the English and Welsh Defence League, or Casuals United./blockquotedivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"The Times/span also suggests that both groups were in cahoots.  Casuals United seem to be an umbrella organization of various football hooligan firms (so I guess in IR parlance it would be more the UN of hooligans rather than a NATO of hooligans . . . they'll stop beating up on each other only when a more threatening foe arrives).  /divdivbr //divdivWhat interests me here is the alleged ties to, and denials from, those lovable non-racists in the span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"BNP/span.  Again, from span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"The Times/span:/divdivblockquoteThe English Defence League claim not to be a racist group and say that they have no ties with the British National Party. One of the websites linked to the League is believed to have been set up by a known span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"BNP/span member, but that has now been taken down in an apparent attempt to conceal any link./blockquote/divdivThere is evidence to suggest a connection between the span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"BNP/span and this new English (and Welsh!) Defence League.  More indirect evidence can be found a href="http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/the_english_defence_league_march_in_birmingham_4th_july_2009/"here/a.  It's heartening to see the non racist span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"BNP/span (a href="http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2009/06/keep-johnny-foreigner-out.html"see my earlier post here/a outlining their lack of racism) embracing the globalization concept of outsourcing, and thus outsourcing their racism.  A couple motivations spring immediately to mind for this from the span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"BNP/span perspective.  More likely and obvious, they want to raise the spectre of further racist clashes in order to draw attention to the salience of their "cause". /divdivbr //divdivLess likely (because I don't think that they are this clever) but more problematic due to the inherent efficacy of this approach is a reading of behavioral economics.  If the span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"BNP/span are outsourcing the more radical elements of their appeal to a new organization / party positioned to their right, according to the principle of the "decoy effect" this would make the span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"BNP/span more appealing when contrasted to a context where this more radical decoy doesn't exist.  The first chapter of Dan span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"Ariely's/span span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"eminently/span readable book span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"Predictably Irrational/span covers this concept (and there's a blog of the same name a href="http://www.predictablyirrational.com/"here/a).  /divdivbr //divdivI can see the span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"BNP/span and their even less racist cousins span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11"UKIP/span making further inroads in local elections in England and Wales.  Thankfully, local counsellors have very little power to do anything about anything./div/div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-6408622729606262860?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div