J.D. Wetherspoon has announced that in the future they will close their pubs rather than ‘inadvertently becoming host’ to the English Defence League (EDL). This comes after violent incidents in Stoke at a demonstration organised by the extreme-right street group.

In the course of a protest march on the 23 January, EDL supporters embarked on a spree of destruction with local shops and those working in them targeted in violent attacks. Police cars were over turned and a local mosque was daubed with offensive graffiti.

Three people were charged with racially or religiously aggravated disorder offences in the aftermath of the rally. It is believed that many of those present in the ranks of the EDL were in fact rival gangs of football hooligans.

Anti-racism organisation Unite Against Facism (UAF) say that the decision follows a campaign to ensure what ‘looked like a scene from a beer hall at the time of Hitler’  will never be allowed to happen again in Britain. Prior to the EDL protest march, Stoke police had asked a Wetherspoon pub to allow the group to meet there. The management assented, but the head of the chain subsequently sent an email to the UAF underlining that this should not be seen as endorsing a political standpoint and that in the wake of complaints they are to reverse their position to such police requests.

The decision by the chain means that from now on the EDL, which has gained notoriety for the drunkeness and violence of its supporters at rallies, will have to find somewhere else to congregate before such anti-Islam and racist demonstrations.