Protesters and police clash in Nottingham

Published: BBC Nottingham News Online 05/12/09

Police have clashed with members of the English Defence League during a protest in Nottingham city centre.

Some 500 demonstrators from the EDL marched through the city centre shouting: "We want our country back." Earlier there was a stand-off between the EDL and Unite Against Fascism, who held a counter protest in the city.

Police mounted on horses were forced to hold back some of the demonstrators with batons and punches were thrown at police on the cordons. Many of the EDL demonstrators had their faces covered with hooded tops and scarves and shouted anti-Islamic slogans.

'No surrender'

Other protesters had Union Jacks and St George's flags which they either waved or wrapped around their shoulders as a police officer barked instructions at the crowd from a helicopter circling overhead.

Some of the group waved placards which read: "Protect Women, No To Sharia" and "No Surrender".

The EDL insists it is not a racist organisation and has no links to the BNP and is simply standing against the threat of Islamic extremism.

"If we don't have a protest then it's letting them come into town and say 'this is our place for the day', which it isn't " Michael Vickery Unite Against Fascism

A spokesman said they had planned the demo for Saturday as the Second Battalion the Mercian Regiment were holding a homecoming parade in Nottingham following a recent tour of Afghanistan.

Earlier the EDL and UAF exchanged hostile words in the city's Old Market Square.
Four people had been arrested for minor public order offences, police said. As the Mercian Regiment paraded through the city in the morning thousands of Christmas shoppers gathered to watch the 500 troops.

'Anti-British'

The homecoming parade followed a six-month tour of duty in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, where the regiment lost five soldiers and dozens of its men were injured.

A 43-year-old EDL member, a serving soldier who did not want to be named, said: "We came here to support our lads, and the UAF and other militants have turned up.

"I think it's disgusting. I look at their protest and there's a Pakistani flag flying with a Muslim symbol. Their protest isn't against the EDL, they're protesting against the troops and it's anti-British.

"They haven't got one Union Jack or St George's Flag. I'm not a fascist, I'm not a Nazi but I am British."

Michael Vickery, from the UAF, said: "It's not good enough not to have any kind of a response (to the EDL presence) because basically, if we don't have a protest then it's letting them come into town and say 'this is our place for the day', which it isn't, it belongs to everyone in Nottingham."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/8396994.stm

Posted by: Michelle Nielsen