Often when extremisms come about, they don’t occur in isolation. In the UK, for example, the emergence of extremist mobilisations have occurred subsequent to high-profile counter-movements, counter-protests and terror attacks that suggest a ‘connectivity between extremisms’ (Ranstrop 2010). In the far-right space, we’ve seen this in the creation of the English Defence League (EDL) in… Continue reading “Cumulative Extremism Online: How Moral and Strategic Aims Predict Narrative Escalation”
As a Special Branch officer I watched the anti-Islam protest movement, the English Defence League (EDL), develop in 2009, I was struck by their apparent strategic acumen, not something normally associated with the far-right or football-related gang. The traditional Special Branch role of providing chief officers with intelligence on public order had slipped down the… Continue reading “Guest Blog: The catalyst for the EDL: March 2009 Luton – a terrible mistake”