Don,

I thought the rest of my post indicated that the demise of the BNP would be no cause at all for celebration or complacency. Fascism is a rag bag product of specific social and economic conditions, far more than it is the product of tactics or strategies or ideologies. If and when those social and economic conditions re-emerge then fascism will reassert itself on a mass scale, with no pretence of constitutionality.

Will the EDL be part of that reassertion? Well, the EDL is a single issue virtual organisation. IE., it was brought into existence to oppose the spread of so called Islamist extremism, although EDL supporters are also known for attacking anti-fascist and socialist meetings, as well as denouncing British Airways strikers and attacking Swansea Trades Council's May Day march. Most worryingly of all, it has now aligned itself with the establishment over university education cuts and increased tuition fees, threatening violence against student protesters.

In other words, while I don't think the EDL will re-invent itself as a fully fledged fascist organisation, it is clearly starting to emerge as the British 21st century equivalent of those "groups of men in brown shirts", the para-military face of fascism which the BNP has traditionally shunned, and which will be extremely useful to a nascent fascist demagogue.

Thus, if we allow them breathing space, the EDL will eventually be sucked into some future fascist movement, just like the ashes of the BNP.

Overall then, whilst I look forwarding to dancing on the BNP's grave in hob nailed boots, the demise of the BNP will not mean the demise of fascism, any more than the death of Margaret Thatcher will herald the demise of capitalism.

And yes, the EDL represents its own threat to all of us who wish to live in a free and democratic society, one which is devoid of ethnic bigotry, concentration camps, and all the other paraphenalia of fascism. But we were talking about the BNP after all.