Gates of Vienna: rumbled and spreading disinformation

EDL's Tommy Robinson assaulted by Pakistanis?

Yesterday I came across a story on ‘Moonbattery’, a Far Right American blog/site that’s always good for a few belly laughs, titled Christmas in Britainistan (these guys are sooo original!) and which alleges that Tommy Robinson, head nutjob of the English Defence League (EDL - now with Zionist flavour!), had been a assaulted by a gang of Pakistanis and hospitalised for the injuries sustained. The post provided Ned ‘Flanders’ May’s (‘Baron Bodissey’, cough!) The Gates of Vienna, a Rense-type sewer of Islamophobia, as the source of the ‘news’ (‘breaking’!). Ned dated the post as 22/12/11 (bear that date in mind).

Honestly surprised that such an attack seemed to have been ignored by just about every news outlet in Britain (and in the full knowledge that there would always be some willing to make political hay out of Tommy’s alleged misfortune), I Googled and found nothing but the usual suspects on the Far Right of US/UK blogosphere parroting the ‘story’ verbatim, all links pointing without exception to Gates of Vienna. Bear in mind that yesterday we were already 25 December, with the first ‘report’ on the ‘attack’ occurring on 22 December, leaving ample time for the story to trickle into the mainstream.

Amazingly, even the EDL’s own newsfeed yielded nothing, zilch, nada… The EDL not cashing in on a juicy story involving Evil British Moooslims attacking the leader of a White ‘resistance’ group and around the time of Christmas too? Pigs will fly.

Because of these oddities I decided to check out Gates of Vienna’s post again. Some aspects of the story are extremely strange. Firstly, Ned writes:

Last night English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson was attacked and beaten up by a gang of “Asians”. The following report just came in from a source in the EDL:

‘[…] Just came in from a source in the EDL […], but no mention of who the source might be. Or how he was contacted by this source.

Then there are the photographs:

'Floating head' Tommy in "ER":




















'Floating torso' Tommy in "hospital":





















Both are almost certainly Photoshopped: the face is clearly superimposed rather clumsily onto a 'ER/hospital" background.

I’ll give Ned the benefit of the doubt: it looks like he’s been duped by either an over-zealous EDLer or by an impostor.

If I’m proved wrong on this, this post will be deleted. But I’m putting money on not having to resort to that… Okelydokely, Ned!

As an aside, the following comment was made on the 'Moonbattery' post linked to higher up:

angryK9 says:

December 26, 2011 at 9:05 am

Muslims are barbarians. We can’t enjoy peace until they are wiped from the face of the earth.

And with regards to the story of Tommy Robinson’s (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) misadventure there’s more. The Liverpool antifascists have it on good authority that ‘Lennon’ wasn’t beaten up by Pakistanis but by rival football hooligans, the Luton MIGs, a milieu Tommy’s entirely familiar with:

The MIGs, for those who don’t know, are the Luton Town football hooligan firm. It is from their infamous former leader that Tommy Robinson – real name Stephen Lennon – takes his alias. The MIGs also have links with the EDL dating back to its foundation, due to the group’s roots in football hooliganism.

So which is the true story? Both have some degree of credibility as well as room for doubt, but ultimately it is the word of one group of fascists against that of another at this moment in time. Either way, what it means is that the leader of the EDL has been laid up – for some time, given reports that he has “bruising of the brain” – and there will no doubt be repercussions. Revenge attacks on Asian youths by angry EDL supporters, or clashes between rival gangs of thugs. Possibly both.

In the meantime, our thoughts should be with Tommy. As the man who reinvigorated street fascism, inspiring a new generation of goons to go on the rampage against Asians and Muslims, it really couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.

If this is the true explanation of events, combined with the malicious leaking of the ‘photos’, then that would certainly explain why the story created no headlines…