This entry was posted on
Friday, May 29th, 2009 at
10:44 pm and is filed
under Old Media.

Daily Mail – Unmasked: The football hooligans behind last weekend’s bloody protest against a Muslim war demo: (Dave Smeeton) and his supporters were in Luton for the Bank Holiday to lay wreaths at the war memorial. And to take part in a supposedly peaceful demonstration against Islamic fanatics who jeered and waved placards saying ‘Butchers of Basra’ during a homecoming parade for The 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment in March. But the event on Sunday turned into mob violence. Asians – and Asian shops – were attacked, cars vandalised and stones hurled at police. At the centre of the mayhem, whipping up the 500-strong crowd, were skinheads and men in balaclavas with shirts bearing the Cross of St George… A similar coat of arms and Crusader imagery is featured in a notorious anti-Islamic website penned by someone calling himself Lionheart. Lionheart, we discovered, is Paul Ray, 32. Ray used to run a computer repair shop in nearby Dunstable, but is now unemployed. Last year, he was arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred and is still on bail… Guess which organisation Paul Ray belongs to? Yes, that’s right, March for England. He took part in Sunday’s demonstration, but says he was not involved in any of the trouble. Ray calls Smeeton a ‘very good friend.’ Another link between the men is Glen Jenvey, accused by several newspapers of fabricating stories about Islamic extremism. Jenvey has eight ‘friends’ on his Facebook site; two of them are Ray and Smeeton.

I love the ‘several newspapers’ bit. Why have you not reported it yourself, Mail peeps?

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UPDATE – Rather more detail from Richard Bartholomew:

Richard Bartholomew – Daily Mail Article on Luton anti-Muslim Violence: And as for Glen Jenvey: it’s a long story, but the guts of it are here. In fact, there is overwhelming circumstantial evidence that Jenvey (a pundit on the controversial Obsession DVD) has indeed fabricated stories which he then sold to newspapers, as has been investigated extensively by Tim Ireland (with a bit of assistance from  me). Alas, though, rather fewer than “several newspapers” have so far taken up the investigation; all we’ve had are two short pieces, one in the media section of  the Guardian and the other in Private Eye. Ray denounced the evidence against Jenvey as “propaganda”, although he’s been silent on the subject more recently. Of course, there is no reason to suppose that just because he’s a Facebook contact of Smeeton that Smeeton knows much about him; Jenvey may have few Facebook links, but Smeeton has many more. Some clarification would be nice, though. And also alas – the Daily Mail continues to use the wrong picture to illustrate the extremist Muslims who gave Ray just want he wanted (just as he has now returned the favour).

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UPDATE (2 Jun) – Richard Bartholomew – Daily Mail Pulls Article on Luton Disturbance: The Daily Mail has removed the article I blogged on here, which gave some background to the recent supposedly “anti-extremist” disturbance in Luton. I also understand that the reference to Glen Jenvey had been scrubbed before the whole thing was pulled… The thought of Glen Jenvey taking the stand as victim of mispresentation is a laugh, given his recent activities. And the complaint is back-to-front: the Mail suggested that being linked to Glen Jenvey makes the alleged hooligans look bad, not the other way round!