Jewish Defence League - Schmooish Defence League

A surreal afternoon and I'll write about it later. A pro Palestinian group pickets a shop selling products from the occupied territories and the Jewish Defence League, a tiny sub group of the EDL, picket the picket.

Each side scampered around photographing each other, shouting slogans and doing the Testosterone Strut until boredom overcame commitment and we could all go off for a nice cup of tea.

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Boozers Against Burkas

A sunny Saturday afternoon, a couple of hundred drink fuelled racists riding the nationalist bandwagon - "Ban the Burka", "No More Mosques", "We Want Our Country Back" as they yell, stomp and intimidate their noisy way from Westminster to, err, Westminster.

I'm always puzzled by the way this bunch make such an effort to put on an impressive show with their St George's masks, home made placards, T-shirts, big flags and banners - and then attack the photographers reporting it. Most of us were sworn at continually. Obscene, drunken spit sprayed threats competed with aggressive barging and uncoordinated grabs at our cameras. One colleague was hit on the head with a banner pole, another was punched. One clumsy drunk was so keen to push me down the steps that he nearly fell down them himself.

And then the leader of one contingent went out of his way to push aside the thugs surrounding me, praise my coverage and invite me to cover their future events. Funny bunch.

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