Edge and Spence wish each other season’s beatings

The season of goodwill seems to passing by certain members of the UK’s far right, for whom only increasingly vicious threats have come gift-wrapped this year.

Last night saw a long-festering feud boil over as Britain First convert Andrew Edge and notional English Defence Leader (EDL) Alan Spence clashed on social media. We say notional as we can see no evidence of him doing or leading anything.

Both like to get a bit handy. Edge, who used to hold the heady title of Stockport regional officer for the EDL, was among 50 EDL members jailed for their roles in violence at a Birmingham.

He was quite the embarrassment in court.

Geordie Spence, meanwhile, is a former bodyguard to ex-BNP leader Nick Griffin and was part of an EDL mob jailed for a violent attack on staff at Tyneside Irish Centre.

Now they’re Facebook warriors, fighting each other.

Kicking things off, though, was EDL spokesman Ian Crossland, Sheffield’s chippiest chippy. Yeah, the one faced down by the mighty Safiyah Khan.

He’s not happy with Edge for the stand he took after the EDL’s Liverpool pin-up Dylan Cresswell (left) was accused of bullying women online. We’re not saying he’s guilty or anything, but he did flee to Twitter after getting chucked off Facebook one too many times. Twitter then gave him the order of the boot.

Anyway, Crossland oh-so-innocently posted that, no he wasn’t about to defect to Britain First, or “money first” as he waggishly described them.

“I will never join Britain First and the money making band waggon (sic),” he declared.

Fireworks then ensued as an ever-excitable Edge pawed his keyboard, claiming his new love was blossoming thanks to the affection of a small-handed American, aka “good mate Donald Trump”.

This, he claimed, meant that Britain First was not seeking to woo disaffected EDL members with free tickets. Far from it, he said, claiming Golding & Fransen Inc. is now banking the membership fees of 30,000 patriots weekly.

Not surprisingly this raised eyebrows, none more so than the strawberry blondes owned by Spence. Things then escalated rather quickly after he giggled at Edge’s post.

Very, very soon disturbing allegations and Facebook fists were flying.

Edge claimed that Spence had threatened his kids. Even we think this is unlikely and besides, Away-Day Andy probably barely recognises his offspring these days given the time he devotes to the lunatic fascist cause.

It soon became a bit of a free-for-all. Long-serving EDL Yorkshire organiser Jeffrey Carr threw in his two pennyworth. He still harbours one of many grudges after Edge set up a rival Yorkshire splinter before he jumped into bed with Paul and Jayda. Not literally of course.

Edge responded. KAPOW!

Carr hit back. BAM!

Incidentally, that Christian reference is in response to Edge’s claim to have found God, of which more later. It’s fair to say this is not what Jesus would have wanted.

The pseudo-Bible bashing bonehead then announced he was off on a pilgrimage with his not-very-wise men. He wants to spread his message as far as Benwell in Newcastle’s West End.

It’s also fair to say Spence wasn’t warm to the idea of Edge’s crusade. If they turned up, more than turkey would be getting carved at Christmas.

Meanwhile, a Spence supporter felt now might be the time to question Edge’s Christian credentials.

Well quite. However that Angel moniker is not overly appropriate either, is it now Kerry?

So why would a convicted violent thug who spends his entirely work-free days journeying to spread hate and threatening folks think he’s Christian? To answer that question we must look to his theological mentor, John Banks.

Banks (below right) was once the EDL’s Preacher in Chief. In that role, rather than spreading Christian love he spewed race hate. He was convicted of using racist threatening or abusive words on alighting from an EDL coach in Bolton.

Now he hangs with Britain First and continues to interpret the teaching of the Bible in much the same way as Anjem Choudary and ISIS interpret the Qu’ran.

He’s pictured right at Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s attempt to exploit terrorism in Manchester. At that little shindig, bottles and abuse were hurled by beer-swilling far right thugs and a group of Sikh volunteers feeding the homeless was forced to flee under a hail of racist abuse.

That Banks, ain’t Christian. Indeed it’s about as Christian as threatening your fellow man with fists and knives at Christmas.