“Some idiots in the Home Office might be fooled by the English Defence League but the racist agenda of the hooligan gang is becoming more obvious by the day.

“At the end of last week the EDL got hold of an email that had been widely circulated by the North West TUC advertising a meeting of trade unions to discuss the planned EDL protest for Manchester City Centre next Saturday. The EDL response was illuminating. The EDL administrator – who publicly claims not to be racist – riled against ‘building mosques’, ‘uncontrolled immigration’ and the ‘multicultural hell hole of a country’ Britain had become.

“The racist sentiments were also evident in the latest EDL posting to their members, where the woman who has been liaising with police, said that many of their followers were planning to wear masks during the protest in opposition to the burka.

“Despite the glaring racist agenda of the EDL the Home Office continue to bury its head in the sand. It refuses to even classify the group as right wing and says that they are not linked to hooligans.”

Nick Lowles at the Hope Not Hate blog, 4 October 2009