Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood has called upon South Wales Police to rethink their policing of the recent march by the English Defence League through Cardiff.
The group descended upon the Welsh capital at the beginning of the month but were heavily outnumbered by anti-fascist protestors. Ms Wood, who is an AM for the South Wales Central region, made a speech at a rally organised to protest against the EDL that afternoon. The rally took place amid a heavy South Wales Police presence, which restricted anti-fascists to a designated area in front of the law courts and kept them there for several hours.
Ms Wood has since sent a letter to Peter Vaughan, the Chief Constable of South Wales Police, raising her concerns over the way the event was allowed to proceed.
Addressing Jane Hutt, the Minister for Business and Budget, during plenary at the Senedd, Ms Wood said: “I’m sure that you will share my position that the English Defence League seeks to capitalise on any tensions within communities, particularly where a race angle can be taken and that their presence on our streets is a direct attack on the Welsh Government’s attempts to foster multi-racial and multi-cultural communities here in Wales.
“I’d be grateful therefore, if you could ask the Minister with responsibility for community cohesion to ask officials to prepare a report on the English Defence League and their recent visits to Wales and also the policing of such events.
“Having been in attendance on the counter anti-racist demonstration in Cardiff, I was appalled that South Wales Police appeared to have spent considerable resources building a steel fence and kettling in the anti-racist protestors, while the English Defence League were escorted to a pub and then escorted on a march around the city centre.
“I personally am sickened that these racists were allowed to march on our capital city – particularly when so many anti-racists turned out in solidarity with those from minority communities who are the subject of the EDL’s racist bile, and I’d be grateful if the Welsh Government will look at this and report back to the assembly to make sure that a situation that happened in Cardiff a week last Saturday, can never happen again.”
In reply, Ms Hutt said she would ask Carl Sargeant, the Minister for Social Justice and Local Government, to respond to the issues raised by Ms Wood and ask him to write back to her.
