Issue 60, October 2009

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Nation Revisited

An occasional e-mail to friends. # 60, October 2009

A cruel deception

In 1976 Margaret Thatcher made a speech at Kensington Town hall that earned her the title of “The Iron Lady.” She said:

The Russians are bent on world domination, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. The men in the Soviet Politburo do not have to worry about the ebb and flow of public opinion. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything before guns.

As the people of Eastern Europe were being shot for trying to cross borders Margaret Thatcher kept up her anti-communist rhetoric. But it was a cruel deception; in 1989 as half a million Berliners protested at the Berlin Wall she was in Moscow trying to keep the murderous East German regime in power.

Two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Margaret Thatcher told President Gorbachev that neither Britain nor Western Europe wanted the reunification of Germany and made clear that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it. (The Times 11/09/09)

The Soviet Union was subsidizing the East German state but they could no longer afford to prop up a bankrupt regime. Apart from the fear of a popular uprising it was economically impossible. They also knew that if East Germany escaped from the Soviet orbit the whole of the Warsaw Pact would follow. Nevertheless they let it happen and within a few years the political map of Europe was changed forever.

As a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union the spectre of communism is a thing of the past. The states of Eastern Europe have either joined the EU or are waiting in line; only Belarus and Ukraine are undecided. The Russian Federation is rebuilding its mighty economy from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. And the Chinese have embraced capitalism with the same enthusiasm that they once gave to Marxism. It’s a staggering thought that none of this might have happened if Mikhail Gorbachev had listened to Margaret Thatcher.

Britain and America

The far right has always campaigned against a federal Europe but in the early Sixties union with America was a possibility. Austen Brooks warned readers of Candour in February 1961:

None but the newest readers of Candour will need to be told of the disclosure made by Lord Lambton towards the end of November of Harold Macmillan’s advocacy of “the peculiar theme of Atlantic Union” in an off-the-record discussion with American journalists. “Indeed,” said Lord Lambton, “he is reported to have said that nothing should stand between the eventual merging of this country with the United States.” The editor of Candour, in his leading article “Treason Made Manifest” in the issue of December 2, and the subsequent article “Impeach Macmillan!” in the issue of December 16, in which he castigated the Prime Minister’s “degrading dodgemanship” when questioned on the subject in the House of Commons, can have left nobody in any doubt of the nature of the betrayal of our national independence and very national identity which Macmillan contemplates and towards which he is working ever more openly.

The trans-Atlantic marriage that Austen Brooks warned of never officially happened. We didn’t become the 51^st state but our domination by Wall Street and our subservience to American foreign policy is real enough. The World Trade Organization regulates our commerce, our armed forces are under NATO command and we have thousands of US servicemen stationed on our soil. We are about as independent as Puerto Rico.

The speed at which the toxic mortgage crisis crossed the Atlantic showed how closely the City of London is tied to Wall Street. The Labour government has pumped billions of pounds into UK banks to compensate them, but nobody has calculated what the “special relationships” is costing us.

The British economy was in a desperate state in the early Sixties. Our antiquated factories could not compete with better-organized producers and our chronic balance of payments deficit meant that we could not repay our debts or sustain the value of the pound. Union with the United States was seen as a way out of our troubles and it might have happened but for the hostility of the anti-British lobby led by the Kennedy Clan. Many Americans saw Britain as a cruel imperial power and distrusted the descendents of mad King George who tried to enslave them in the 18^th century.

Things are much the same today except that the warmongering Bush-Cheney regime has crippled the American economy with two unnecessary wars. NATO can’t survive without American money and manpower. We will be forced to use our armed forces for the defence of the homeland and look elsewhere for credit and investment. 

The cost of war

Britain’s staggering budget deficit of 90 billion pounds will force policy changes.

It will finally dawn on our leaders that we cannot afford to feed and defend the world. Sending troops into trouble spots makes politicians feel important. Even Labour ministers with pacifist backgrounds like to pose with tanks and soldiers. Tony Blair sent British troops to Iraq even though George Bush only asked for diplomatic support. He insisted on involving British forces in the invasion, destruction and occupation of a country that had never done us any harm.

The Afghan occupation is another colossal waste of lives and money. As well as killing NATO troops in battle zones the Taliban are now mounting operations in the heart of Kabul. They could not maintain their insurgency without popular support. America has pumped billions of dollars into Afghanistan but the corrupt regime of President Hamid Karzai cannot even control the capital city. Allied troops are dying to prop up a gang of drug dealers.

The cost of Britain involvement is much more than the few billion pounds admitted by the government. Their figures do not include the cost of supporting the families of fallen servicemen. Nor do they include the cost of caring for servicemen broken in body and mind.

America’s decision to scrap the proposed missile system in Eastern Europe is a victory for commonsense. President Obama will instead rely on naval interceptor missiles. These probably don’t work but since the threat of attack is imaginary it doesn’t matter. America has presented the decision as a friendly gesture towards Russia but it’s really a cost saving measure.

Under the Bush/Cheney plan missiles based in Poland would have been linked to radar stations in the Czech Republic. These would be protected by local and American troops and supported by fighter squadrons based in Germany. The costs have never been made public but they would undoubtedly be prohibitive at a time of escalating American debt.

The Pentagon may also axe the $50 billion Lockheed Martin F35 joint strike fighter. Britain is a partner in this international venture and was hoping to supply Rolls Royce engines for half the aircraft produced.

Our defence budget has always been cost driven. The Blue Streak rocket was designed to deliver a British atomic bomb anywhere in the world. But after years of costly development we were forced to cancel the project and buy the American Polaris submarine-based system. This has since been replaced by Trident but now an upgrade is required at a possible cost of ₤ 97 billion (The Times 22/09/09). There’s no way that Britain can afford this sort of money when we are shutting hospital wards and cutting teachers’ pay.

Great expectations

Politicians are actors that love applause but they live in fear of rejection. When the crowd calls for an encore they are blissfully happy but when they are booed off the stage they often take to drink and drugs. When they are at the top of the bill life is good, the money flows in and the critics are kind. But when the show flops they fall into despair and blame the producer, or the director, or even the audience. They never think that it might be their own fault.

Margaret Thatcher revived an economy blighted by industrial anarchy and instilled a new sense of pride in the nation. After the Falklands war she was hugely popular but she surrounded herself with yes men to such an extent that she lost touch with reality. Even after the disastrous poll tax she remained convinced of her own infallibility. And when her own party eventually ousted her, she said, “It’s a funny old world.”

Hermann Goering presented himself to the US Army in 1945 expecting to be treated with respect.  It must have been a terrible shock when he realized that they intended to hang him. In the end he conducted himself with dignity and cheated the hangman with a cyanide capsule. But he would never have surrendered if had understood what was going on.

History has yet to decide if George Bush was merely mad or wicked or both. His  “shock and awe” invasion of Iraq killed over a million people and almost destroyed the economy of the United States. His propaganda convinced the simple minded, but when he stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in his flying jacket and proclaimed, “mission accomplished” the whole world saw a posturing buffoon living in a world of make belief.

Delusions of grandeur also affect the little parties. The BNP have two Euro MPs, a member of the GLA and councilors at all levels. They polled nearly a million votes at the Euro election and are expected to field a record number of candidates at the general election. They have done very well but they are still a minor party with no MPs at Westminster. They are doing a good job campaigning against immigration but the rest of their policies are a mixture of prewar protectionism and nostalgic nonsense.

The Richard Barnbrook affair shows how vulnerable they are. The BNP member of the Greater London Assembly behaved foolishly but he is not the first politician to get his words “jumbled up.” The BNP must expect the state to defend itself. Any party campaigning for ethnic survival is beyond the pale so far as the Old Gang is concerned. The BNP has not achieved respectability by getting representatives elected, appearing on Question Time or changing its policies. Nick Griffin might think that his status as a MEP entitles him to some respect but like Reichmarshall Hermann Goering he should expect to be hanged.

Adam Walker

Commenting on the case of BNP teacher Adam Walker who is accused of religious intolerance, Patrick Harrington wrote to The Times online on 22/09/09:

David Hill makes a number of valid points. It seems to me that the charge against Mr Walker is based itself on intolerance - of his political opinions. Mr Walker should be free to criticize any religion he pleases. There is no evidence that his views have caused any adverse impact on pupils. On the contrary evidence suggests he is an excellent and well-liked teacher. One pupil from an ethnic minority background even wrote to a local paper in his defence stating that while she had been subjected to racism from others Mr Walker had helped her. Neither is there evidence that Mr Walker linked his opinions to his workplace.

It is clear that this case is motivated by political spite. Labour and some Unions are intent on pursuing a McCarthy style witch-hunt because they don't like BNP competition at the polls. Yet this country is a democracy and some of us are determined to keep it that way.

All teachers are something, be they members of the Labour Party, or liberals or conservatives or whatever. They might be Catholics, Jews or Muslims, or vegetarians, nudists or flying saucer enthusiasts. Human beings come in all shapes and sizes and the hold all sorts of beliefs. So long as they don’t force their beliefs on their pupils they should be fee to follow their convictions.

Victimizing people because of their opinions is a dangerous game that always gets out of control. Adam Walker never treated his pupils unfairly on account of their race or religion. But he has fallen foul of a profession dominated by a hypocritical Labour Party that pays lip service to freedom of conscience but practices witch-hunting.

This is the sort of intolerance that dehumanizes people and makes possible the spiteful cruelty that is inflicted on the Palestinians. When teachers discriminate against individuals accused of “racism” they are acting like Israeli bulldozer drivers who destroy the homes of Palestinians and tear up their olive groves because they class them as “terrorists.” They justify their actions by dehumanizing their enemies.

Comrade Dutch, otherwise known as Kang Kek Iew, is currently on trial in Phnom Penh charged with the murder of 1.7 million Cambodians during the genocidal regime of Pol Pot. The former Khmer Rouge partisan has apologized to the court. During the reign of terror he helped to kill defenceless men, women and children who had been labeled “enemies of the working class.” Just like the persecutors of Adam Walker Kang Kek Iew was a schoolteacher and an enthusiastic supporter of the government.

Ken Clarke

Dave Cameron is expected to be the next prime minister of a near bankrupt country in search of an identity. The British people have been so “enriched” by black, white and brown immigrants and so confused by Scottish, Irish and Welsh nationalism that they no longer know who they are or what they are voting for. The Labour government is so unpopular that Gordon Brown is doomed. We will reinstate the same gang of Tory incompetents that gave us the recession of 1992 and paved the way for Tony Blair.

The new government will be forced to raise taxes and cut public spending in a desperate attempt to pay off our debts. Children not yet born will grow up paying for Labour’s lunatic borrowing spree. But Tony Blair and Gordon Brown will not be held responsible. In a just society they would be charged with ruining the economy, decimating industry, importing millions of immigrants and sending British troops to die in pointless wars. Instead they will get massive pensions and write their memoirs.

Dave Cameron has been forced to promise a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty to appease his Euro-sceptic “bastard” faction. But he has reinstated former Chancellor Ken Clarke who is a committed European and practically the only Tory frontbencher with a decent track record. Dave Cameron is being held prisoner by a gang of unrepentant nonentities who have learned nothing from the crisis of capitalism.  

If the pound continues to dive the Euro-sceptic economic position will become untenable. And if foreigners decline to buy British government bonds we will be forced to call on the only bank still open to us, the European Central Bank. Dave Cameron knows this and that’s why he has kept Ken Clarke on board to negotiate with the ECB.

Tory diehards make a lot of noise about “national sovereignty” but they support NATO and Third World immigration, the two most destructive manifestations of globalism. We ceased to be independent when we opted for immigrant labour and accepted American command of our armed forces. The apocalyptic predictions of the Euro-sceptics will come to nothing if we adopt the single currency. Our nationality is about blood and culture, not banknotes and coins.

The Thatcher-Blair experiment in unregulated capitalism has ended in disaster. We failed to make a living as a service economy that imported everything from China. We must revive our industry and agriculture. The British Empire has gone and America is in transition but we have a market of half a billion people on our doorstep. Instead of being halfhearted partners we should take the lead and turn the European Union into a self-contained economy free from cheap labour and unfair competition.

It remains to be seen

Now that the British National Party has dropped its “Whites Only” policy and accepted “established” immigrants there is very little difference between them and UKIP. They are both populist parties that want to quit the European Union and stop immigration. The BNP still calls for the deportation of illegal immigrants and bogus asylum seekers but they have dropped forced repatriation from their manifesto. This has upset some of their members but if the leaders of the BNP had stuck to their original policies they might be facing prison instead of enjoying the comforts of the European Parliament and the London Assembly.

Most people would support a ban on immigration, including immigrants already here. People threatened with unemployment and surrounded by newcomers are voting for far right parties despite a state-sponsored propaganda campaign. The Labour Party is promising immigration controls and talking about “British jobs for British workers.” When it was just blacks and Asians pouring into the country it was practically illegal to mention immigration but since the arrival of a million whites from Eastern Europe it has suddenly become respectable. Even gutless rags like The Daily Mail have joined the debate. Such is the power of political correctness that it’s now possible to discuss the subject without being threatened with arrest.

Gordon Brown has made Britain the top destination for economic refugees by maintaining an “open door” policy and enforcing legislation to crush resistance to his multi-racial agenda. There is a parliamentary consensus on immigration. The Tories pretend to be moderates with middle class values but they are really old-fashioned capitalists who see immigrants as cheap labour.  And under their assumed working class façade the Labour Party is a gang of unreconstructed Marxists that would put us all in concentration camps. The police are already rounding up dissidents. The “Heretical Two” are just the beginning of a new round of internment from a state that didn’t hesitate to use emergency powers during the war and in Northern Ireland.

The BNP sprung from the post-war neo-fascist movements. John Tyndall founded the party with policies set out in his books The Authoritarian State and The Eleventh Hour. This ideology sustained them over many years but Nick Griffin changed all that when he ousted John Tyndall and turned the party into an alternative to UKIP. Disgruntled Tories vote UKIP because they are sick of immigration and frightened of Europe, and disaffected Labour Party supporters vote BNP for the same reasons. The reformist leadership of the modern BNP believes in parliamentary democracy and presumably accepts all that goes with it. They claim that their success at local and European elections justifies their strategy. But UKIP already caters for voters who want to stop immigration and quit the European Union. It remains to be seen if there is room for two parties with almost identical policies.

Views on the news

Israel’s call for international action against Iran demonstrates their mind-boggling hypocrisy. The Israelis are armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons but they are screaming for Iran to be attacked for daring to develop nuclear power. Obama, Brown and Sarkozy are just as horrified.  American troops are deployed in Iraq to the west of Iran and Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east. In Iraq they rely on the collaborationist forces of dictator Nouri al-Maliki backed by formidable American firepower. In Afghanistan they have been fought to a standstill. In Pakistan they are battling the local Taleban and guarding nuclear missiles. If America invades Iran they will have to control a landmass from Syria to China, an area as big as Western Europe with a population of over 300 million. To do this the NATO states would have to introduce conscription and be prepared for massive casualties. But that wouldn’t worry the Zionists who are only concerned with hanging onto stolen territory. They don’t care if it takes hundreds, thousands or millions of American and European lives to defend Israel. They think that they are God’s chosen people and the rest of us are expendable.

The BBC costs ₤3.4 billion a year but instead of making economies the sprawling corporation is looking for more money from the taxpayers. A television license costs ₤139.50. This is compulsory whether you watch BBC programmes or one of the hundreds of satellite stations. The BBC should be broken up and sold off to the highest bidder. We should keep one TV channel and one radio station financed by advertising revenue. The rest of the empire should be disbanded and its overpaid prominenti put to work sweeping the streets of doing something equally useful. The BBC, like the police and the education service, has become an arm of the Establishment dedicated to spouting government propaganda. It’s a colossal waste of money that we can no longer afford. The Old Gang parties love the BBC because it powders the noses of hopeless failures and presents them as great statesmen. It is a sacred cow of the political classes financed by the hapless victims of a sham democracy controlled by big business.

Police Sergeant Delroy Smellie has been charged with assaulting Nicola Fisher during the ill-fated Bank of England G8 demonstration in April. The police have always confronted perceived enemies of the state. At the famous battles of Cable Street in 1936 and Red Lion Square in 1974 it was not their primary objective to protect the BUF or the NF, they were there to contain communist street armies that threatened law and order. During the Miners’ strike of 1984-1985, led by NUM president Arthur Scargill, the government used riot cops against workingmen who were only trying to protect their jobs. And they gave violent mobs a free hand in the Sixties when organized gangs of anti-fascists were allowed to attack peaceful political meetings. It is now obvious that the police serve the state and not the people. It’s not surprising that they protect their employers. Police forces all over the world perform the same function but it’s one of the cherished myths of “democracy” that our police are non political.