I was leading a group from the Treehouse (Beds University Luton campus Chaplaincy) on the Easter Pilgrimage to St Albans and so missed the events in the town centre. The details of what happened are coming clearer now from a few news articles and some blog and twitter pieces.
The local Luton & Dunstable Express carried this on the web, and today on their second page: Illegal protest passed peacefully. 'Illegal' protest goes ahead in town centre was on the Luton Today website and in an extended version in Luton News. BBC Three Counties website does not appear to have carried anything, though it may have been reported on the day..
The only national coverage seems to be in The Star - on Tuesday it had this story: COPS HALT 'RECLAIM OUR STREETS' DEMO and today (Wednesday) this: IT'S OK FOR MUSLIMS TO ABUSE OUR TROOPS.
On the "independent" and "unedited" internet sources:
There are short YouTube video here and here that are from Monday.
Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East, and who was born in Luton, commented here. She picked up on a Twitter stream of text and pictures from the Luton band UK Decay who seem to have been there. UK Decay's pictures are here, here, here and here and a little commentary with each.
Kerry McCarthy made some perceptive comment based on growing up here in Luton:
Depressing - this sort of thing used to happen when UKDK played the
Luton carnival 25, maybe 30 years ago, with NF skins trying to provoke
trouble. More as I hear it.
No reason to believe it wasn't real, but looks like it was kept under
control without any real trouble. The next flashpoint could be the
Luton carnival, on the second bank holiday in May. There always used to
be trouble then, but now it's the biggest one-day carnival in Europe,
and people come from far and wide - the BNP would be insane to try
anything there, but if they're after publicity I wouldn't put it past
them.
There is also chatter on the right wing blogs, chatrooms, and social networking groups, especially those who were seeking to organise a march on St George's Day. (I do not provide links to those on principle.) Some seem to have been there, but they are preferring to stay on the legal side just at present. (More below.)
So in summary, there were approximately 150 people present, who sought to move along George Street from Market Hill to the Town Hall and they appear to ended up being penned in near Bute Street. There were plenty of police, mounted police and police dogs. The protest appears to have lasted at most a couple of hours and the Arndale was closed for some time. 6 people were held in custody during the day (some or all apparently away from the main demo) but none arrested. The police describe it as a peaceful protest. That is not the description on the blogs.
On the longer term picture, the group planning the march on St George's Day were refused permission for the parade last week by the town councils "safety advisory group", it seems on the grounds that they had not submitted adequate information regarding marshalling etc. Following that decision the group convenor Paul Ray announced on his blog that they would regretfully respect that decision and seek permission for a march on D Day, June 6th. It seems to be supported by a wider group called March for England. We cannot be sure that nothing will happen on St George's Day, but it should be less that was expected.
The more that is coming out from Monday, the more troubled I am. It hasn't yet been as ugly as it might have been, and it hasn't spread. We can be very grateful there has not been a counter-demo from the Muslim group. I could feel a little like my celebrated namesake Peter who cried "wolf" when there was no wolf, but believe we can be very grateful to God that nothing major has happened to date. I am not sure we can take it for granted that will continue to be the case. St George's Day on Thursday 23rd April and the 6th June are obvious dates to be praying for, but so too (following the reminder of Kerry McCarthy above) are the grand gala opening of the Carnival Arts Centre on 3rd May and the Carnival itself on Monday 25th May. (While the main focus of the BNP and the groups demonstrating is against Extremist Islam, and they always seem to preface their words with "we are not racist", the fact is that the BNP's policy is just that.)
I posted this earlier before the Luton news came out. This troubles me:
From Luton News (15 April 2009)
The relevant piece that is of concern is this:
Luton's divisional commander, Chief Supt Andy Frost, said: "Unfortunately the people who organised the protest did not contact the police or the ouncil and had not made any provision for the safety and well-being of those attending the event, or the members of the public going about their everyday activities in the town.
"We were prepared to deal with a lawful protest or march.
"However, the organisers of the protest would not negotiate with the authorities or follow legislation."
Mr Birch said he intended to organise more marches in the future, saying: "We're going to do it every month until they listen. They just want everything to go away.
"We want to know who made the decision to let the extremists protest during the soldiers' parade. Whoever it was should lose their job.
"But if we ask the police again they'll say we won't be allowed to do it. We're not allowed to demonstrate in a country where you’ve got freedom of speech. Its double standards."
There is a lot of work to do among all our communities, especially those on the margins who feel unheard, disempowered, and angry.