More disturbing even than the stomach-churning sycophancy of the national paroxysm of what is in effect and government mandated four-day celebration of everything that is wrong with the UK (racism, privilege, inherited privilege, etc., etc.), the apex of this hideous orgy of reaction, are the apparently orchestrated actions involving officially antithetical right-wing groups (the white supremacist National Front and the supposedly just-anti-Islamic-extremist EDL) to attack republican demonstrators up and down the country. As far as I'm concerned, this is a game changer. Up till now, scary though they are, I've believed that the EDL were basically a damp squib. This recombination with the resurgent NF (in the wake of the decline of the BNP), and the aggression in attacking people who are not the core targets of either group (not Muslims, or even immigrants, but leftists – the EDL were reported to be about to attack the Occupy London camp last year, but were stopped by police), indicates however that they retain an element of dangerousness. In this case, their dangerousness amounts only to supporting the status quo, protecting the institution of the monarchy. Somehow, this seems to me to be about the most dangerous thing they could do, and, in the case of the EDL, all they ever claimed to be trying to do.