Wednesday 2 October 2013

Knight-knight, East Anglian Division EDL

Knights are a favourite of the East Anglian EDL, appearing all over members' FB pages and in websites such as the East Anglian EDL and East Anglian Patriots.  

This one lives with "honor".  Is it an American knight?  The US did not have knights, right?  Is it a knight character from a foreign video game?



The non-British spelling is a strange choice for anyone calling himself an English patriot. 

The East Anglian Patriots have their own logo featuring two knights bent as if in prayerful homage to a - dragon?  But isn't the Medieval dragon of the West a symbol of all that is base in Humankind, the evil that knights are sworn to vanquish through strength and self-discipline?  

And yet here the East Anglian EDL appear to worship the dragon, which for a real knight is Evil personified, to be crushed beneath the feet.  Or at least is Welsh.  


Some other pictures used by members of the East Anglian EDL are harder to fathom.  What do you make of this strange image?


Here metaphors are mixed and eras are scrambled with the gayest of abandon, as a Crusader in a dirty tabard kneels to Jesus on the pebbled shores of some northern lake.


Is the Crusader seeking forgiveness for violence done, or benediction?  Is this the Jesus of "righteous anger" or the "Love thine enemy" version?  Is the Crusader dead and meeting judgement?  It is a creepy picture for many reasons. 


And then the pictures change from weird to downright laughable, such as the one above.  


It seems to feature a crowned Aslan and an armed Jesus, flanked by two knights, all in a muddle.  One shield with a cross of St George is evidently not enough, two appear with no regard to design, balance or allegorical sense. 

Obviously this has nothing to do with the EDL, it is the Narnian Defence League, Wardrobe Division. 

The BNP were brought down in part by the derision that greeted their undignified antics, one of which was their unforgettable colander knight, seen here with the unlamented Nick Griffin:



In East Anglia we have our own knights, real men of rich lives, rather than images from foreign comic books, non-English gaming characters or in costumes made from mother's curtains and a kitchen implement.  

How about Sir Clement Paston of Oxnead?



You that behold this stately marble tombe, 
And long to know, who here entombed lyes, 
Here rests the corps, and shall 'till day of dome, 
Of Clement Paston, fortunate and wise; 
Fourth son to old Sir William Paston, Knight, 
Who dwells with God in sphere of christal bright.
Of Brutus race princes he served four, 
In peace and war, as fortune did command.

Sometimes by sea, and sometime on the shore, 
The French and Scot he often did withstand, 
A Pere of France, in spight of all his betters, 
He took in fight, and brought him home in fetters.
Oxnede he buildt, in which he lived long, 
With great renowne for feeding of the poor, 
To frinds, a frind, of foes he took no wrong, 
Twice forty years he lived, and somewhat more, 
And at the last by dombe of hie beheste, 
His soul in heaven, his body here doth rest.
Obt. 18 Febr. 1597.

But the members of East Anglian EDL are oblivious to local history and the traditions of real knights. They are not interested in the very English history or culture they profess to defend.  


Rather they are content to tootle along lost in their own fantasy world where EDL "knights" frighten sixteen year old girls and attack critical bloggers like me with foul-mouthed threats.

In reality the self-described "knights" of the EDL are cowards, deluding themselves with confused imagery of valour and courage, when their actual reaction to any real problem or challenge is simple:









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