This week, both journalists and Scotland Yard's domestic extremism unit has been investigating Anders Behring Breivik's alleged links with far-right groups and individuals in the UK, while anti-racist campaigners believe the man responsible for the mass killing in Norway had been communicating with activists from the English Defence League.

While pinning down any such links is a valid exercise, the very fact that Breivik identified the UK as somewhere with a healthy and active far-right scene – he emailed his 1500-page manifesto to 250 British contacts shortly before he began his attack, according to a Belgian MP – should be a great cause of concern in itself. But it does not necessarily surprise me.

I have been covering the far right in Britain for the past 10 years, from the rise of the British National party, particularly its move from its birthplace in the south-east to targeting Labour-supporting areas in the north, and its subsequent decline. More recently, I have been reporting on the emergence of the EDL.

Last year, I spent four months undercover on EDL demonstrations, witnessing its growing popularity. At each demonstration I attended, I was confronted by casual racism, a widespread hatred of Muslims and often the threat of violence. But I also met non-white people, gay rights activists, disaffected working class men and women, and middle-class intellectuals. I came to the conclusion that the EDL is not a simple rerun of previous far-right street groups. And as we watch the BNP implode, we should be clear that the end of one far-right political party is not the end of the far-right threat in the UK, or across Europe.

These are some of the issues as I see them, and I look forward to discussing them with you.

• Matthew Taylor will be online for two hours from 12pm (UK time) to answer your questions and debate the issue

Q&A shortcuts

cardigansinbound asks:

Well done on your brave undercover work. Excellent reporting.

Given that the EDF has a LGBT section and one of the leaders is a Sikh do you think its even more inevitable that they will suffer the same kind of fracturing and infighting we've seen in the BNP if they move toward party political action? And given their success on the streets that they need to or will take that move?

Do you think the major British political parties have to share some of the responsibility for that success?

Matthew replies:

Thanks for your comment.

I think you raise a very good point about the EDL's potential to split. It seems to me it has acted as a lightening rod for a range of different groups brought together by a virulent Islamphobia - from racial nationalist,to football hooligans and as you say gay rights activists.

Given this I think any move towards a membership based political party would be fraught with difficulties in its present form.

And yes i think the mainstream political parties [and wider society] has some responsibility for not challenging the rise of Islamophobia over the past decade.

@timthemonkey asks:

Do you think the increasing number of middle class individuals attending the EDL rallies is a result of their disatisfaction with the main poltilical parties and their various failings?

I have not seen evidence of increasing numbers of middle class supporters for the EDL [although I have not been on one of its demonstrations for several months]

@IvyLeague asks:

"But I also met non-white people, gay rights activists, disaffected working class men and women, and middle-class intellectuals."

Which rather begs the question why does the Guardian feel the need to have a picture of a skinhead adorned with a Union Jack every time they have a thread about the EDL when clearly a far wider demographic have the same concerns?

Matthew replies:

The majority of people on the demonstrations I have attended were white, and working class [although as i said earliler there are a range of others people represented - I was was standing next to a gay rights activist holding a pink triangle at one demo.]

But I think your point is valid. The EDL is not the same as previous far right groups in many respects. The majority of its supporters do not support a racial nationalist agenda [although some do] and I think that requires us not to be careful about how we define them.

tehjonny asks:

Matt: No doubt you're going to get deluged with questions, so I'll get this one in early. To what extent do you think the EDL is simply a reflection of the utter failure of mainstream political parties to engage with and support the electorate

Matthew replies:

The mainstream parties must bear some responsibility for the rise of the EDL, but I don't think there are any straight forward answers. Should the group be banned? Should it be classified as an extremist organisation? These are not easy questions.

I am also drawn to the argument that some working class communities feel abandoned by the mainstream political process, as the parties compete for the votes in middle England they have taken the support in places like Stoke and Barking allowing the BNP and the EDL to come in and racialise people's genuine concerns.

The far right in the UK is coming under intense scrutiny this week but I hope that this will lead to a wider conversation about how political parties re-engage with the wider electorate and how they can close down the space for this groups to prosper.

adamvasco asks:

I would like to know more about EDL's hook ups with its European counterparts. Is there an organized ultraright panEuropean movement which presumably has contacts among their Serbian, Moldovian and Russian xenophobic friends.

Matthew replies:

There are several Defence Leagues that have sprung up around Europe. More work needs to be done to establish whether this constitutes an organised "pan European movement". There are also a growing number of far right organisations not linked to the EDL that are becoming increasingly influential in many countries.

CarefulReader asks:

What strikes me is that so many people who espouse the views of EDL claim that Breivik's views are essentially correct, but that his actions are the consequence of him being a nutter and have nothing to do with his views.

What I wonder is, do they have a theory how their goals could be achieved without violence? What if Muslims who were born in Europe refuse to leave their European homelands?

Matthew replies:

Two good points. Personally I think that Breivik is "mad" or at least not sane, but that does not mean he was created in a vacuum - he was influenced by the virulent hate [particularly of Islam] that is in evidence on the web and at EDL demonstrations. [I remember very vividly standing in a pub in Stoke with 2,000 - 3,000 people who were all chanting "we all hate muslims, we all hate muslims." for several minutes - this demonisation of a whole community has consequences].

I can not see an "answer" to the EDL supporters' hatred of Islam. This is not something that can be "addressed" by tightening borders and controlling immigration. The people they are attacking are from settled UK communities that make a huge contribution to this country and are part of it.

LilleDanmark asks:

Do we really know enough about the operations of far right activists?

Matthew replies:

Short answer: "no". The government, the academic community and the security and police services need to do a lot more to understand these groups - and the threats they pose.

larchmont asks:

Two questions for you:

(1) Have you studied how and why members of the EDL became radicalised? If so, can you share some academic sources?

(2) How likely do you think the EDL will split off into two groups: one being pro- ethno-nationalist and the other more specifically anti-Muslim? I ask because my understanding is that the EDL developed - at least partially - in response to Anjem Choudhury's organisation, Islam4UK (or whatever they call themselves today).

Matthew replies:

1] Not in an academic sense but obviously while on demonstrations I met a lot of people who expressed different reasons for being there.

I remember in Stoke a group of teenagers [16-18 probably] said they were there because the muslims were going to "parade in Wootton Bassett" against our troops http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/11/islam4uk-cancels-march-wootton-bassett

This was something that was very unlikely to happen but much of the media whipped this up into a storm and the result was that these teenagers felt they should turn out at an EDL demonstration to "front up" to the threat from "muslims".

In Bolton i got talking to an older guy in the pub before the march and he spewed forth the most offensive and violent racism that was not specifically against muslims. A few hours later I met the man with the "pink flag" [see above]

So as I have said I think the group has operated as a lightening rod for a range of grievances and groups mostly based around a extreme Islamophobia, but a lot more research needs to be done. [I think there is an academic book on EDL supporters coming out fairly soon]

2] The EDL is already very factionalised and divided [on ideological, football and geographic lines]

It is coming under more scrutiny than ever this week but I am not sure whether this will result in a split along the lines you suggest.

greendragonreprised asks:

Why does the media give so much attention to fringe groups of nutters, like the EDL and the like, and never give any attention to serious but alternative political parties like the Greens or Plaid Cymru?

Matthew replies:

A few people have raised this or a similar point about the amount of attention given to the EDL.

I think the movement is important. It is having a big impact in places I know well in Yorkshire and across the penines in Lancashire, where its demonstrations and actions are doing real damage to community relations.

As reporters I think we have a duty [without sounding too pompus!] to find out who is supporting it and who is behind it.

Having said that I think we should also be vigilant not to exaggerate the significance of these groups for the sake of an easy headline. The EDL have never had more than 3,000 people [to my knowledge] on a demonstration and before this week seemed to be running out of steam.

[On the lack of attention given to "other parties" like the Greens and Plaid Cymru ... that is a whole different debate!]

Manterik asks:

Where is the intellectual base in the EDL ? At the moment it appears to be a disparate group just complaining about the so-called Islamification of England and that is all.

Does it have any other political views, does it have the potential to fill the void now the BNP has virtually imploded ?

I have not been close to them unlike you but I am wondering what their base is and their views are ? I mean, superficially, they appear to be a group with a Football Hooligan mentality who want to go along and provoke. The newsnight and other appearances are to give them a veneer of respectability.

If they are a single issue organisation are they likely, rather like UKIP and the Greens, to flesh that out and become more mainstream ?

Matthew replies:

I think the "intellectual base" may be too grand a term but there certainly seems to be fight over who they are and what they stand for. There are those who want to oppose what they term "Islamic extremism", but on most demonstrations I was on that distinction was lost. The majority seemed opposed, , Muslims, Asian and often anyone who was non white. There is also a strand [certainly at the founding of the EDL] of thought that tied in directly with some of the Crusader rhetoric Breiviek used in his "manifesto."

The big question is are they able to fill the void left by the BNP. On one level I am sceptical. The EDL has too many internal contradictions as has been discussed to form a coherent party with a membership a, a manifesto and political ambitions.

However, it could continue to shape the wider political climate in the UK as a loosely affiliated street movement that is organised almost entirely online.

moroboshi asks:

Also, on the subject of the EDL, surely calling them racist is nonsensical? They are opposed to a specific iron age belief system, one which treats women like livestock and thinks homosexuals should be killed. You don't need a specific skin colour to believe in such nasty things, you just need a microscopic brain.

Matthew replies:

Just quickly on this. Every single demonstration I attended I experienced vicious racism often accompanied by violence or the threat of violence. Not once was this challenged in even the most half-hearted way [although of course i this may have happened when I was not there.]

I think we have to look beyond what the website says in its formal statements and listen to what its supporters say and do.

testy asks:

Why are EDL seen as a movement to be studied like wildlife? Could it be that the non-violent, democratic movement has working class origins and isn't controlled by the upper middle classes - like the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and dare I say it - the Guardian? Does the fact that the EDL doesn't play ball with the upper middle class's stereotype of the working class really bake their noodle?

Given the PPE types influence on modern society wouldn't it be better to study them like wildlife? Why do we need to know everything about every member of EDL (who they are, where they live, their economic background, what they say in private etc), but not need to know the same things about the Guardian staff?

Surely since the EDL is a democratic non-violent movement their politics should be the point of debate - not who they are? There is plenty to disagree with. But I can't help feel that the fear of EDL is less to do with fear of the far right and more to do with fear of the working classes and the fact they've formed a party/group that isn't dominated by Oxbridge types.

Matthew replies:

I dispute your description of the EDL as a non violent group. I also reject the view put forward by EDL leader Stephen Lennon that it is an authentic voice for the working class. The group has a presence in the area where I went to school and grew up and although it does have an influence there it does not represent the overwhelming majority of people I know.

I do not see myself studying "them" like widlife, but I do think it is important not to ignore what is happening.

WillHirsch

"I remember very vividly standing in a pub in Stoke with 2,000 - 3,000 people who were all chanting "we all hate muslims, we all hate muslims."

Am I the only one here who's never been to a pub even close to the size of the London Palladium?

Matthew replies:

People have often raised this with me and I agree it does sound unlikely. But go to Stoke to the Whetherspoons it is a huge barn of a place with an upstairs and, although I didn't count everyone, I did ask one of the bar staff who said he reckoned around 3,000 which seemed about right to me and another person I was with!

bluebellnutter asks:

Matthew Taylor, I have a question which I think could be illuminating.

During your time with the EDL, did you see many people reading newspaper or referring to media outlets? Which media outlets or newspapers were they particularly focussed on?

Matthew replies:

Newspapers were not really a feature! But as i said earlier there were references to stories that had appeared in the press and on television that had persuaded people to attend EDL demonstrations.

tomobedlamlives asks:

Dear Matthew,

I am saddened to see that despite your undercover work you have failed to see the obvious namely that the EDL is a racist far right organisation that supports ethnic cleansing and genocide. The EDL is run by perpretrators of hate crimes and has links to a mass murderer of children. Do you not think it is naive and a little foolish to represent the EDL as multicultural organisation, suggesting a broader support base, where in fact it overwhelmingly consists of a criminal minority of violent white supremacists? Furthermore have you considered that your article ties in perfectly with EDL propaganda that seeks to mask overt racism with references to cultural and religious incompatibility?

Matthew replies:

Sorry just seen this. As i said in a later post I witnessed virulent racism on every demonstration I attended and reject the idea that the EDL is "not racist" or that it is "a multicultural organisation." There are neo nazi and white supremacists linked to it, but dismissing the group as just the same old Nazis does not tell the whole story and will not help people understand and challenge them effectively.

Right, my time is up. Thanks very much for all your comments and questions.