The demonstrations on Saturday provoked a lot of thought from many people. We saw reactions on Facebook, on Twitter and on people’s blogs. I’ve collected together some posts from people who had  a range of views on the demonstrations.

Reni Eddo-Lodge said ‘an invisible, suffocating feeling of fear blanketed the streets. It was easy to feel intimidated by groups of white men with black scarves covering their mouths and concealing their identities’. in her post entitled The English Defence League – A personal account.

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Hope Not Hate have a photoblog entitled Postcard from Preston.

Surya Jonckheere said ‘the EDL wants to protect British values. But did they think of that when they threw their firecrackers, fireworks and smokebombs at the public? There were families shopping in the streets. Families with children. Before protecting the values, shouldn’t they be protecting their country’s citizens first?’ in a post entitled And so they came.

Andrew Reeves describes the experience of seeing UAF and EDL supporters thusly: ‘I didn’t want to associate with either party because I don’t have in-depth knowledge about them and they both seemed a little extreme in my view’. in English Defence League Protest in Preston – One Man’s Perspective.

Finally Barry Crosby, in his post entitled I’m in exile in my home country, said: ‘The England I grew up in was tolerant, liberal and secular. These people weren’t from my Britain, my England. They singled out a large portion of English society for hatred under the guise that they were protecting English Christian values’.

If you blogged about the demonstrations and aren’t included here, send me an email at joseph(at)blogpreston(dot)co(dot)uk and I’ll put you on the list.