But it is problematic to designate the EDL as far-Right, because it is a single-issue pressure group. The only thing that everyone within its loose structure has in common is that they are against Islamic extremism, and that in itself is not necessarily a far-Right cause. The problem, of course, is that an anti-Islamic extremism campaign will attract people who are simply anti-Islam. Although Paul Ray has left the EDL since his infamous talkSPORT interview (with bitter words on his blog for the "pirates" who he claims ousted him), the group is likely to remain attractive to people with his kind of views. 

Pro- and anti-EDL demonstrations in Manchester last month 

In the last month, the EDL has begun to take on a more stable identity. It now has an established leadership and an established message: it is nothing to do with the BNP, and not a political party itself; all races and religions are welcome and in fact wanted for a non-violent pressure group protesting against the influence of Islamic extremism in the UK. The only unsavoury thing that the EDL declares about itself is its affiliation with a body called Casuals Utd, a national federation of football hooligan "firms". But comparing our terraces to their Continental counterparts, football fans in this country, even the hooligan variety, are not particularly racist. The EDL argues that "only a certain sort of people will be willing to face up to the extremists", and this may or may not convince anyone. But the way the right to protest works in this country is that protest groups are taken at their word first, and then their behaviour is subject to scrutiny by the police and the media. From what the EDL says about itself, it is the claim to being non-violent, not the claim to being non-racist, that is the more suspicious.

There is no evidence for the UAF claim that the BNP or some other far-Right agenda is secretly pulling the strings. There is, however, some evidence of a certain amount of casual overlap between the EDL membership and that of the BNP (whose list was leaked to the public last year). The anti-fascism magazine Searchlight has run a series of articles investigating this kind of crossover, and when I talked to Tommy Robinson (a pseudonym), the current leader of the EDL and founder of United People of Luton, I challenged him about them.

"To be honest, my stance all along is that BNP members aren't racist. I can admit that seven years ago I looked into the BNP when I felt that I had no one else I could turn to in my hometown, just to see, because I wasn't aware of all their stances. Like not letting non-white people join — I wasn't aware of that. Like what political party Nick Griffin used to run, i.e. the National Front. 

"With regards to Chris Renton [who was said to have designed an early EDL website], he was a BNP member, he's now resigned from the BNP. One hundred per cent I believe that Chris Renton is not racist at all. He told me clearly that he was not aware that black people couldn't join. He just was worried about Islamic fundamentalism in this country, and they were the only people speaking a language that he could listen to.