News article February 9th 2011: English Defence League homecoming ends peacefully

English Defence League - "The homecoming"

The English Defence League made their long awaited return to Luton town this weekend for their biggest rally to date. The Bedfordshire town, 35 miles north of the capital has one of the largest Muslim populations in the UK.

The EDL claimed they were bringing “Tens of thousands” of their supporters to the rally, which they called their “Homecoming”. Counter groups such as Unite against fascism (UAF) and Hope not hate suggested they would also bring “several thousand” supporters.

As the day approached rumours flew across the internet. “Every Antifacist in Europe will be there mark my words” claimed one internet forum. Local residents feared a repeat of the Bradford riots ten years ago, riots which were sparked by a confrontation between the Anti-Nazi league and the BNP.

The local authorities took the possibility seriously enough to contact the Home office and ask Theresa May, the Home Secretary to ban the EDL from Luton, but rather than ban the organisation from the town entirely the EDL were banned from marching through. The democratic right to stage a static protest meant the authorities were now powerless.

An alleged “assassination attempt” on EDL number 2, Kevin Carroll stoked the fires further. Carroll claiming he had been coerced out of his home by a “Asian in his mid 20′s wielding a shotgun” the town went into a state of lockdown with police helicopters flying overhead through the night. Luton was a town gripped by a state of high tension.

The day before the protest EDL leader Stephen Yaxley, who goes by the name “Tommy Robinson” appeared on Sky News brandishing an Osman warning from the police. (An Osman warning is an official warning issued to an individual by the police advising them that they are at serious risk of being killed by someone who appears to have the capability to make good their threat). He claimed that his life was in danger, and that he had been advised to leave Luton for duration.

Dawn broke on what should have been a busy day for Luton’s shopping area with armed police already patrolling the streets. Luton resident James told the Navigator, “I came back through the town centre at 6:30 on my way home from work. There were C019 (armed police) everywhere, a lot of the shops and buildings including the library and the blood bank have been boarded up”

An Esso garage in Luton boarded up before the EDL event

2000 police officers from 14 forces were on hand later that morning to deal with the demonstrators, and the counter demonstrators. UAF members broke off from the main crowd and blocked the main train station in an attempt to stop EDL members from reaching their muster point at Charlie Brown’s night club.

In the end the demonstration perhaps thankfully did not live up to the hype. EDL numbers were nowhere near the estimates that their leadership predicted. The EDL official facebook page claimed 6500 of their members were present, but the police dispute that number putting it closer to 2000. The counter demonstration numbered at less than 1000, most of whom left early.

Perhaps the most important absence of the day was that of the Muslim youth. Who, to their credit did not march in their own counter demonstration, staying away from the town centre.

While Luton will breath a sigh of relief the residents of the town will count the cost of the days events economically. The cost of policing will run to £800’000, and the entire town will have lost a Saturday’s trade. Every bar and pub in the town was also shut, meaning that hard pressed publicans have also lost a days takings.

The EDL and the UAF have left, and Luton has paid the cost for their right to free speech. February 5th was a good day because the feared spark in community relations did not happen, there were sporadic skirmishes with the UAF and the police, but nothing that couldn’t be contained.

The EDL is growing larger with every protest and shows no signs of slowing down. Taking that trend into perspective with a lot of unemployed young men, and a resurgence in Muslim fundamentalism in the middle east that threatens to spread, a government that today decided to take a harder ine on immigration and Islam and what we have is a tinderbox on our streets that could well explode one day if cool heads and common sense do not prevail.

News article February 2nd 2011 - Enter the dragon - China's super fighter

ENTER THE DRAGON – China’s super fighter.

The United States is still regarded as the world’s sole military superpower, but the People’s Republic of China narrowed the gap slightly this month with a test flight of its own home grown stealth fighter.

While there is not a great deal of official information, observations of the test flight conclude that the Chengdu J-20, which has a Chinese name that translates as “Annihilator” is a single seat, twin engine fighter. It is larger than its opposite number, the American F-22 Raptor, and as a consequence it is believed it will have a heavier fuel and armaments load out.

The arrival of the J-20 onto the world stage might have come as a surprise the United States. It was recently suggested by the US Defence department that it would be at least the 2020’s before China was able to field a true ‘fifth generation’ fighter.

If the J-20 fits the billing as fifth generation it must have certain characteristics. It must include stealth technology that allows it to evade enemy defence systems and penetrate hostile airspace during a combat mission. Integrated networking with command and control systems, the ability to ‘supercruise’ - allow supersonic flight without engaging afterburners, and thrust vectoring engines – engines that have moving nozzles to enhance turning and pitch ability.

The pictures of the J-20 do not show thrust vectoring engines but it should be noted the airframe pictured is a prototype and not a production model.

Ironically as its intended adversary is probably American some of the J-20’s technology might in fact derive from an American aircraft.

During the NATO bombing campaign of Serbia in 1998, Serbian forces were able to shoot down a F-117 Nighthawk. The wreckage was seized and presented to Russian technicians to inspect; it is thought that the Russians shared their data with China at a later date.

(The wreckage of the F-117 shot down in Serbia in March 1999 displayed the Museum of Aviation in Belgrade.)

While it is possible, it should be noted that the Nighthawk was designed in the 1970’s and was not considered advanced technology at the time of the shoot down, but the acquisition of the data from an early American stealth fighter could have helped in the initial stages of the Chinese stealth programme.

While the J-20 is not combat operational, nor is it even in production but its arrival marks a true step up not only in Chinese capability, but intent.

The Chinese military has also recently tested the ‘Dong-Feng 21’ missile, a weapon system that was designed with the sole purpose of striking at the heart of heavily escorted aircraft carrier battle groups.

There is no doubt that the People’s Republic is a rising power but with its military capability at least a generation behind the western world it is hard to see how they will catch up. But China does have some advantages. They have a massive industrial base, and they are able to mass produce at a far higher and cheaper rate than the west.

News article January 26th 2011 - Flashpoint Luton

On February 5th the English Defence League have announced they will stage their largest ever protest in Luton, which has a Muslim community in the tens of thousands. Counter organisations have also announced they will be there.

English Defence League in Luton, May 2009.

Serious civil disorder between both parties is a real possibility, and as a consequence Bedfordshire police have issued a blanket ban on alcohol sales in Luton from 12pm on the day of the protest.

Both left and right wing organisations have decided to use Luton as their battle ground, and while democratic protest is a right we all share, common sense should have prevailed in this case from the home office who have decided to allow a full march.

Of course there are problems in Luton, but these are issues for the local community to address and resolve. When the football 'causals' and the anti-fascists have all returned home it will be the people of Luton who are left to pick up the pieces, mend fences and clean up what is left of their already broken town.

The town of Luton is mostly known for three things. It’s former hosting of the Vauxhall factory, its hat industry, and its airport.

Today in the early 21st century two of its former important industries have declined and disappeared from the towns economic profile, it’s football team Luton Town FC, the ‘Hatters’ have shared much the same fate as their namesake industry dropping from the top flight to the non-league system in just 20 short years.

Its airport remains the only truly growth area of this once important town.

But something sinister has now given Luton national and international media recognition. In 2005 the 7/7 bombers set chose Luton as their staging point for a one way mission to attack London’s transport network causing 55 deaths.

The 7/7 bombers embark on their mission from Luton station

This was not the first time the words ‘Luton’ and ‘Islamic Terrorism’ were joined in the same article, nor was it the last. A small minority of the town’s very large Muslim population had been preaching extremist doctrines for some time, but were usually kept under control by the wider moderate community.

A major point of contention came 18 months ago when the Anglian regiment of the British Army, known as the 'poachers' exercised their freedom of the town and parade their colours; during the parade a small group of extremists mounted a protest with an anti-war theme calling the soldiers “Baby killers” and “Butchers of Basra”.

In response to the protest, a peaceful counter protest organisation was set up called the “United people of Luton” which decided to mount a march in the town centre on St George’s day.

The UPL organisation marched, and there were disturbances including attacks on an Indian man who was simply walking the street unaware of any protest, and a takeaway shop was also attacked. The march was widely condemned by all sections of the Luton community.

The Luton march was the genesis of something more dangerous than a counter protest. Gangs of seasoned and veteran football hooligans, known as firms seized on the opportunity to come together and form a united front, which became known as the EDL.

The English Defence League are led by a former Cardiff city firm leader who was convicted of stabbing a Manchester United supporter, and a Luton town youth crew leader called Steven Yaxley, who goes by the pseudo name ‘Tommy Robinson’, the EDL have marched in towns and cities across the UK for over a year.

Most of these marches end up in confrontation with local Muslim communities and ‘anti-fascist’ organisations such as the government backed UAF, the Socialist alliance and the more militant 'ANTIFA' movement.

Because of these so called ‘peaceful’ protests in the past, entire city centres have had to be shut down, and the economic cost to local business and the tax payer is enormous.

News and Magazine production Week Seven

This week had high and low points in the project for me. The high points where that I have completed not just one, but two large features and a review. I am also feeling a lot more confident in my abilities as a writer because of the good feedback that my work is getting. The ability to take on-board advice in regards to changes or error is a part of my professional and in some ways my personal work ethic where I feel I was flawed, I have had a tendency in the past to become defensive about constructive criticism but I really feel that I have managed to get over that in this second year of the degree. I have also learned the value of having someone in a management position that is astute and knows what they are doing to look over my work and suggest changes. This leads to an enhancement and that is a good thing. However it is a shame that this constructive criticism does not come from the group, but from the teaching staff. I feel we should be at a level where we can self edit and work on each others work.

Often in a group situation I seem to naturally take a leadership position, and while this isn't a bad thing I don't think my interaction skills people are as good as they could, or should be. I am not very good at being diplomatic, and while I feel I have improved a lot since starting at university, on this project I was hoping that I would be able to sit back and just complete my areas of the project and not worry as much about the over all picture. However, sadly several members of the group have not put as much effort into the project as the rest of us and as a consequence I've found myself doing what I didn't want to have to do, and that is in a sense Marshall a few of the other guys to get them to work. I understand that we are marked individually, but I in a group situation I always believe in the team and try my best not just to do well for myself, but for the rest of the group. The dilemma I see myself in is should I ignore what comes naturally? The desire to lead and try and help people who are falling behind to do better, or to throw those feelings aside and just work for myself and my own mark?.

On the plus side there are some really talented people in this group, half of them turn up on a regular basis, but It is becoming asyemterical in terms of work load. Julian for example, has taken on a higher workload than anyone because he designed the cover, and is also working on an extra feature to fill the gap that other members have left void because that have not done anywork. I also feel that the group has left Julian down because he put himself out there to get the magazine printed thanks to his family contacts but they group cannot even provide a fixed number of pages because we don't know how many we are going to have due to not knowing who will actually have work finished on Tuesday.

I am hoping that the entire group, the whole roster will be there on Tuesday with finished features and we can get to the production stage. The people who were there this week decided that the deadline for work to be submitted would be the following Tuesday, and that if they don't have completed work by then it would not be going in the magazine.

News and Magazine production Week Six

Because of reading week there was no tutor lead session but it was a good chance to use the facilities on our own things are coming together but slowly. Since reading week was a break from the project for me, apart from on the Tuesday where I did some editing of my features I don't really have anything to report. I am hoping everyone will be in next Tuesday with features at least finished to the point of a final draft.

News and Magazine production Week Five

This week I handed my feature piece in. I am glad to report that I was actually ahead of schedule. My piece was accepted and praised although I was asked to make a few changes. It also is being let down by the lack of more than one original source but, I am confident I can gather some more quotes before the deadline. I was advised to move one section of the text to a higher [position in the document to allow for better flow and I have done so, as well as streamlining the opening section. I’ve since abandoned my “first person” perspective that led into the article.

In this week’s learning session we worked on Adobe In design which didn’t go very well since all the machines had problems, however we did pick up some good tips from the board.

Some In Design essential steps.

· On opening the page make sure “facing pages” is ticked.

· Make sure you allow the correct page size

· Number of columns

· Open ‘More options’ To size up the margins and to allow a bleed area which will be essential when we come to print.

· ‘Space CTRL’ Allows ‘zoom’ on page

· Open window pages (F12) where you can view your master pages

· You can now draw a text box.

· Three types of copy (TBD) Body copy/Captions/Headline – In a magazine, set the character styles to AUTO FORMAT, for example Ariel 10pt

· Be aware of the bleed when adding images

· Textures available from CG Textures

Work Placement

As part of the course we are required to find a work placement for one month towards the end of the second year. I am really hoping to find a placement in Germany, and if possible in Berlin. I've been fascinated with the city since the first time I visited in 2004 and I have been back four times since seeing a lot of it and making friends along the way. I have a good grasp of German and I am taking lessons via the university so I can continually improve. There are several English language magazines in Berlin and I think it would be a really good experience to work on one of them for a month. Finding somewhere to stay for a shot while should not be a problem and defiantly worth it.