Pegida UK

Pegida UK's logo

Pegida UK was set up in January 2015 in an attempt to replicate the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant PEGIDA protests seen in Germany which started in Dresden.

The Pegida UK facebook page was set up on 1 January 2015. It had over 3,000 'likes' one week later. The page claimed to be for Europeans who 'dislike radical Islam' but the tag given to the page was 'Patriots of Europe against Islam'.

Activities

A post on 6 January 2015 stated that 'ultimately the aim is to organize (sic) peaceful protests'.. After a number of people were murdered at the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris on 7 January 2015, Pegida UK held a poorly attended 'vigil' in Manchester on 11 January 2015.

People

According to the site EDL News, which monitors the English Defence League (EDL), the orginal admins for Pegida UK's facebook page included several people with known far-right affiliations:

• Donna Treanor - a veteran former member of the fascist British National Party and subsequently a member of ex-leader Nick Griffin's new party, British Voice
• Ronnie Alte - until recently the leader of the Norwegian Defence League, a street movement modelled on the EDL said to have influenced mass murdered Anders Behring Breivik
• Craig Farnsworth - a member of several far right groups in the Bolton area including the English Defence League, the Infidels (a National Front spin off), the British National Party and its splinter group the British Voice.
• Steven Barker - member of the English Volunteer Force, a splinter group of the English Defence League who model themselves on paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.
• Billy Charlton - a long term member of the English Defence League’s Sunderland Division.

Gary Hastings of EDL News concluded that Pegida UK was 'the UK’s far right trying to present a respectable face'.