Latest Britain First News: Britain First Are Still Wankers

Remember Britain First? The far-right street team that decided the best way to end Islamic extremism was to wear matching green jackets and hand out anti-Islam leaflets to Muslims? Well they still exist. And two of their members just got banned from entering London or going "within 250 metres of any mosque or premises used by the Muslim faith".

Last Saturday, Britain First supporters turned up outside the East London Mosque in Tower Hamlets for the third time in two months, carrying Union Jack flags and "No More Mosques" banners. According to the group's leaders, their presence at the mosque – for some inexplicable reason – didn't elicit a very positive response.

Poor old Paul Golding, 34, and Jayda Fransen, 30, complained that they had been attacked by "around 150 aggressive Muslims". However, it doesn't take a huge amount of brainwork to surmise who the real aggressors were here (the ones holding up anti-mosque signs outside a mosque).

Representatives of the mosque said the far-right group had been "attacking and provoking members of the community", and after their last demonstration there were calls for Britain First to be banned from Tower Hamlets to prevent further "racist" and "provocative" protests.

Two members, of course, have now been banned from going anywhere near the East London Mosque, or – for that matter – any mosques or Islamic centres. One of the men, a 52-year-old, was arrested on suspicion of assault; the other, a 41-year-old, on suspicion of attending the demonstration equipped to cause criminal damage. Both were released without charge, but with bail conditions that prevent them from entering London or hanging around outside mosques and shouting about "taking the country back" from Muslims, a religious group that makes up 4.5 percent of the UK population.

Britain First has had a funny old ride. Founded in 2011, the group started out as a kind of Islamophobic, dress-up Territorial Army, who took it upon themselves to rid the UK of Islam. The best way to do that, they figured, was to embark on their "Christian patrols", which essentially consisted of handing out anti-Islam propaganda, talking to each other on walkie-talkies and shouting at Muslims. Then they did a few of their trademark mosque "invasions", where they all piled into mosques and harassed worshippers, in the hope that would achieve something.

In November of 2011, the group registered as a political party, the "National People's Party", with Golding as its leader. Shortly after, they began racking up Likes on their Facebook page by sharing a weird – but clearly effective – mix of puppy photos, Islamophobic messages and the kind of memes with messages so laughably simplistic they could almost be parody posts. "Share if you're sick of terror attacks", "Share if you think Britain is great!" – that kind of thing.

Weirdly, that Facebook engagement didn't translate into legitimate political support. In all the elections they've entered, the results have been highly underwhelming.

The latest news, for anyone interested, is that Dragon's Den presenter Evan Davis recently had to deny he was a Britain First supporter, after the group posted a photo to Facebook claiming he was, and that Paul Golding is standing in the London mayoral elections. It's anyone's guess as to how that's going to go.

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