At a meeting this morning called by the City Mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, to brief Voluntary and Community Sector organisations in Leicester about the proposed demonstration by the English Defence League (and proposed counter-demonstration by Unite Against Fascism) in Leicester city centre on Saturday 4 February.
The meeting takes place in the Mayor’s office, floor B7 of the City Council’s New Walk Centre. As well as Sir Peter, the meeting is attended by Cllr Rory Palmer, Deputy Mayor; Cllr Sarah Russell, Assistant Mayor and Joint Cabinet Lead for Community Cohesion; Cllr Manjula Sood, Assistant Mayor and joint Cabinet Lead for Community Cohesion (and Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths); a number of officers of the City Council; and Leicester City BCU Commander Chief Superintendent Rob Nixon.
Around the table are gathered representatives of several VCS organisations, each with a perceived interest in the events of Saturday 4 February and in preparations beforehand:
- African Caribbean Citizens Forum
- Federation of Muslim Organisations
- Leicester Hebrew Congregation
- Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre
- Leicester LINks
- The Race Equality Centre
- St Matthews Community Social Centre
- Sikh Welfare and Cultural Society
- Somali Development Services
- Voluntary Action LeicesterShire
The Mayor tells us that he and his team – and the Police - are keen to understand the concerns of the community and assures us of their willingness to be open and transparent regarding the range of responses available to them.
If there is a common denominator among those present today, it’s the hope that the EDL come, do their thing, then leave with the minimum impact on the city that day - and on how our communities live and work together, before and after. Well, actually, not everyone can be said to agree on that as there’s a strong voice asking how it is that the EDL can be allowed to come, given what happened last time. Chief Superintendent Rob Nixon reminds us that the Police are required to ensure the safety and security of everyone involved in these events, no matter what side of the line they may be on.
Similarly, divergent views are expressed on whether the EDL are an assemblage of the most cunning criminal minds of their generation or nothing more than a bunch of beer-fuelled thugs. We acknowledge and discuss the relevance and significance of the Rhea Page assault case, which has been seized on by EDL as a pretext for coming back here.
In the end, we can all acknowledge that there's no single, straightforward, formulaic or generic answer to this dilemma that will work for every individual or for all communities. There's no simple way around this - we just have to get through it together. Reminiscent, then, of Michael Rosen's profound and subtle children's story, We're Going on a Bear Hunt. Anyone who knows the story should get its relevance in this context.
Much has been learned from the last time we dealt with such events, in October 2010. On the one hand, activities will be laid on in different parts of the city (particularly for young people) to keep people from coming into the city centre on the day. On the other hand, it's not being assumed this time that the best thing to do is to try and shut down the city centre for the duration of the demonstration and counter-demonstration.
I don't normally single out my own contributions to meetings like this, but I'm making an exception this time. I speak three times, my contributions based on something that happened back in October 2010, something that has only recently occurred to me – and something that doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone else.
Firstly, I propose that work needs to be done quickly and urgently with schools in and around the city – and not just to dissuade older students from coming into town on the day. This is based on something Harry told me the night before the last EDL demo. The kids were visiting me that weekend. When their mum dropped them off on the Friday evening, they could hardly wait to tell me that we have to stay out of town on Saturday afternoon, because something terrible was going to happen. When I asked what that might be, Harry told me that the word around school was that Muslims were going to set off a bomb in the city centre. He was indignant about this, to put it mildly. He told me that he was angry with his schoolmates for saying this, that he knew Muslims, that he knew I work with and for Muslims - and that they're good people, who wouldn't do such a thing ("Would they Dad?"). I really don’t want to have to hear that from my kids this time. Surely we can do something to counteract this kind of thing, whether it be simple misinformation or malicious rumour-mongering.
Secondly, I mention that this is starting to remind me of The Empire Strikes Back. Perhaps we’re being punished for being a bit too smug over how we handled it last time, a bit self-congratulatory, a bit too quick to pat ourselves on the back. What we might have done is more like making a rod for our own back. On the day following the EDL demo in October 2010, we had “Celebrate One Leicester Day” as a way of claiming back the city centre, of cleansing it even. On the stage that afternoon, Billy Bragg said that that weekend would be remembered as the time when the back of the EDL was broken, that Leicester would be remembered as the place where it happened and that we’d be remembered as the people who did it. Well, here we are, hardly 16 months later – and they’re coming back. You know how Star Wars (the original one, or Episode IV: A New Hope for you fanboys out there) ends with the big ceremony in which Princess Leia hangs medals on Luke, Han and Chewie, the droids are all shiny and tweety, our heroes exchange knowing lovey-dovey looks and everyone takes the applause of the grateful multitude. Then Darth Vader returns, wiser and badder (with the wickedest most spine-tingling theme tune in movie history), kicks the rebels’ collective butt and they only escape defeat in the final reel by the skin of their teeth.
Thirdly, some anxiety is expressed that, following the proposed demo next month, EDL might put down a marker for another run-in on St George's Day in April. I back up the importance and significance of that occasion and point out what a good job City Council has done in the past few years in appropriating the weekend of St George’s Day, filling it with multicultural, family-friendly activities and leaving no room for extremist groups to muscle in. I can only commend City Council for doing this and hope that the same will be done this year – and that all our groups will see fit to join in and support it. There’s testimony to the diversity of Leicester if ever it were needed – a Scot like me bigging up St George’s Day (and not just because I share his name).
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