Saturday 30 November 2013


Nation Revisited # 110, December 2013


It’s all in the Protocols

Some people believe in the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. They think that a powerful group of Jews held a meeting over a hundred years ago to take over the world and that everything that has happened since is a result of that meeting. The Protocols appeared in Russia in the 1890s and arrived in the UK in 1903. They have long been exposed as a Tsarist forgery but car maker Henry Ford printed half a million copies because: “they fit in with what is going on”.

Conspiracy theory is like a religion to its followers. It explains everything and it’s an easy alternative to studying history, economics and politics. Instead of troubling your head about the causes of the First World War you simply blame it on the Great Jewish Conspiracy; “they” started it because it was part of “their” world plan.

When challenged over the suffering of the European Jews during the Second World War the conspiracy theorists will tell you that it was all part of the Plot; the Jews conspired with the Nazis to slaughter their own people in order to justify the creation of the state of Israel!

At this point we cross the fine line between credulity and insanity. From here on conspiracy theory knows no bounds. When I told a prominent far rightist that I had received an e-mail alleging that the Fukushima earthquake was caused by the CIA beaming shock waves across the Pacific, he said that I should not reject the theory without checking it out.

I was recently asked if I thought that Mossad, the CIA, MI5 or the French DGSE had bumped off Princess Diana. When I said that she had been killed in a car crash my inquisitor looked at me with pity. According to conspiracy theorists few prominent people die of natural causes and all post mortems and courts of inquiry are rigged.

Robert Maxwell and Bernie Madoff did irreparable harm to their victims but the greatest threat to humanity is Zionism; the preposterous idea that the Jews are God’s chosen people. This racist nonsense is supported by influential Jews around the world but the most vociferous Zionists are the so-called “born-again” Christians. Some Jews, like Gerald Kaufman (pictured), Israel Shamir and Norman Finkelstein, denounce Israeli aggression and support Palestine. But the Zionist lobby in Europe and America is committed to Israel and dismisses any criticism as “anti-Semitism”. Their latest target is former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Race and Culture

Race and culture are the major divisions of mankind. Chinese writing is instantly recognizable and so are the almond eyes of the Chinese people.

Arabic is spoken from the Atlantic coast of North Africa to the Persian Gulf and beyond; many nations united by a common culture.

The Polynesians are exactly the same people in New Zealand, Tonga, Tahiti and Hawaii. This great seafaring race populated the entire Pacific in antiquity The Maoris in New Zealand have adopted a British colonial culture that’s all about drinking beer and playing Rugby. In Tahiti they speak French and spend a lot of time sitting outside pavement cafes smoking Gauloises cigarettes. In Hawaii they are all-American boys eating burgers and drinking Coca Cola, and in Tonga they actually speak their own language and practice their native culture. One people subjected to many influences.

Cultures are produced by races but few races have developed in isolation. Even the Japanese had contact with the Chinese who were in touch with the rest of the world. Gunpowder was discovered in China in the 9th century and brought to Europe by the invading Mongols who won a temporary victory over the Hungarians and the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Mohi in 1241. Once possessed of gunpowder Europeans embarked on 800 years of mutual destruction that culminated in the NATO attack on Serbia in 1999; not far from Mohi battlefield.

The Vikings are remembered for their ferocity but they were primarily traders who dealt in precious stones from Sri Lanka, Ivory from sub-Saharan Africa and silk from China. They used gold coins from Arabia and Byzantium and were represented at the court of Genghis Khan. The Viking runic script was probably based on the Phoenician alphabet.  Our mental image of Vikings as axe-wielding psychopaths is in need of revision. They did their share of rape and pillage but they were a highly inventive people driven by curiosity and stimulated by every culture that they came in contact with.

European civilization is sprung from related Caucasian tribes influenced by Christianity and driven by technology; a marriage of interdependent genetic and cultural forces. We have always had Jews, Gypsies, Turks, Moors, Lapps and other peripheral minorities but now totally unrelated refugees are pouring into Europe and nobody knows where it will all end.

Race deserves to be taken seriously but some people don’t know when to stop. Instead of defending European civilization they get sidetracked into endless subdivision. While anti-communist volunteers from all over Europe fought on the Russian Front the racial obsessives in the Nazi Party were measuring heads and trying to differentiate between Nordics and East Balts.

The population of the world passed the 7 billion mark in 2012. Our industries are polluting the atmosphere and the oceans, and we are running out of natural resources. The nation state has passed its sell-by date and liberal democracy cannot cope.

Europe has got more than enough outsiders to deal with. It’s time to call a halt to asylum and immigration and we mustn’t be defeated by the magnitude of the problem. We can send rockets into outer space and probe the secrets of the universe. We are conquering disease and transforming agriculture. We have the technology to allocate territory and resources to all the peoples of the world but we will achieve nothing by clinging to outdated theories.

Infiltration

It’s foolish to expect a party with a few hundred members to come to power. Small parties cannot compete with established parties funded by big business. If you want to influence events join one of the established parties. You will not bring down the capitalist system or wipe out two centuries of liberalism but you might help to frame a sensible immigration policy.

The pre-war BUF had 50,000 members, a charismatic leader, and favourable conditions but it was shut down by a wartime government with total disregard for democracy. In the seventies the National Front was able to stand hundreds of candidates and put thousands of marchers on the streets but it was sunk by Margaret Thatcher’s assurance that she understood people’s fears of “being swamped” by immigration. A few years ago the BNP had two euro MPs, a member of the Greater London Authority, over a hundred local councilors and active branches all over the country. Today they are sadly depleted but they are still talking about “when we come to power” and putting up candidates; often against rival nationalist parties. UKIP are the latest populist party to catch on but history suggests that they will go the same way.

The world appears to be moving toward some sort of democracy. The amazing power of the Internet has spawned insurrections throughout the Middle East and the UK parliament has thrown out Dave Cameron’s plan to invade Syria. Instead of politicians pushing their policies they are starting to listen to us. Barack Obama was saved from defeat in Congress by the Russian intervention on Syria. He has reached an accord with the Russians but he is still at war with the Republicans. The world has been saved from another war by the power of public opinion and the politicians’ fear of rejection. This could be the beginning of the end for our tired and corrupt regimes

The old gang parties have abandoned their principles in pursuit of power. The Labour Party was supposed to represent the British working class but they have driven down wages and conditions by flooding the country with unskilled immigrants. Now they are promising immigration controls in response to the rise of Ukip. And the Tories are just as bad; they represent the bosses but they will give concessions to the workers if their survival depends on it. All parties are influenced by their activists and a determined individual can change the direction of a branch, a faction, or even the whole party. The established parties used to believe in an “open door” policy but they are now calling for immigration controls. There has never been a better time for a well placed infiltrator.  

Keeping the Lights on

The rising cost of gas and electricity has prompted Labour Party leader Ed Miliband to promise a price freeze and persuaded Prime Minister Dave Cameron to abandon his green taxes. They seemed a good idea during the boom but we simply can’t afford them.

We cannot control the price of imported gas and oil but we have millions of tonnes of domestic coal. The EU limits coal-fired power generation but clean coal technology is encouraged and new plants are being built throughout Europe equipped with Flue Gas Desulphurization technology. At present the UK generates 33% of power from coal, Germany 42%, Poland 87%, Czech Rep 51%, and Greece 54%.

Margaret Thatcher shut down most of our coal mining industry to break the National Union of Mineworkers under Arthur Scargill. At the time coal was competing with cheap and plentiful gas, but things have changed and coal is now viable again. Nuclear power is far too expensive and nobody knows what to do with the radioactive waste. Wind turbines are unreliable and solar power is impractical. We must use the fossil fuels that we are blessed with.

Coalmining was a dirty and dangerous industry but open cast mining does not require men to risk their lives underground. Making gas and oil from coal was considered to be too expensive but with oil at more than $100 a barrel it is now cost-effective and China, Finland and the US are building coal gasification plants to exploit their ample coal reserves. Hydraulic gas fracking is another technology that is transforming the energy market. Where politicians failed science has come to the rescue. Aneurin Bevan said: “This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time.”

Ryan Shaffer

Ryan Shaffer of the Department of History at the State University of New York is the author of “Long Island Nazis”: Local Synthesis of Transnational Politics - the story of Fritz Kuhn and the German-American Bund. http://www.stonybrook.edu/lihj/IssueFiles/V21_2/Articles/Shaffer/shaffer.html

He is studying modern history and will be interviewing longstanding British nationalists during 2014. He can be contacted at: ryan.shaffer@stonybrook.edu

Read your History (Originally published in Comrade November 2012)

British newspapers have reverted to the Nazi practice of dividing Europe into Nordic and Mediterranean states when covering the sovereign debt crisis. According to them the hard working northern states are subsidizing the lazy southern states. This takes no account of the fact that Iceland, Ireland, the UK and the Baltic States have all suffered severe economic problems. We have not had a bailout during the current troubles but we have resorted to quantitative easing – creating money that is not backed by bond sales. We are currently up to £375 billion. If this trick works it will give us a chance to recover but if it doesn’t work it will drive us deeper into debt.

This tribal division of Europe will appeal to believers of the Aryan master race theory. The word “Aryan” is commonly used by them when they really mean Nordic. The American economist William Ripley divided Europeans into subspecies and placed the Nordics at the top of the league table. This was developed by the German scientist Hans Gunther and enshrined into Nazi law by Heinrich Himmler. Jews were categorized as “non-Aryans.” In fact an Aryan is simply someone who speaks an Aryan, or Indo-European language. In Britain and the US it has come to mean Nordic but throughout Europe it means white. Spanish and Portuguese nationalists describe themselves as Aryan; and so do Iranians who come from Iran – the land of the Aryans.

The American anthropologist Carleton Coon revised Ripley’s work and suggested that Nordics are Mediterranean whites who have turned blonde due to evolutionary pressures related to vitamin D. Recent studies of blonde Melanesians in the South Pacific seem to confirm this theory. DNA has completely changed our understanding of ethnology. Stephen Oppenheim has shown that the UK was populated at the end of the Ice Age from the Basque region. This would account for the extensive Mediterranean strain in the British population.

The right-wing parties developed policies to suit the master race theory. They wanted to unite Britain with the white dominions, or form a limited European Confederation. But Oswald Mosley – who was never a right winger – embraced “Europe a Nation”. He recognized that the great artistic, scientific and social advances of Europe are not confined to one part of the continent. He was uncomplimentary about the Russians during the dark days of the Cold War but he never subscribed to the master race theory which he dismissed as “codswallop,”

It was Nazi hubris that led to their defeat in WW2. Heinrich Himmler was amazed when the Red Army defended themselves with brilliantly designed T34 tanks, MiG-3 fighter aircraft and Kalashnikov rifles. They were supposed to be primitive savages, not highly organized fellow Europeans who would launch Sputnik only twelve years after the Battle of Berlin. If the Nazis had read their history they would have known that the Slavs have long defended the West against the marauders from the East. Like all Europeans they are part of the family.

The post-war migration of non-European economic refugees has reinforced our sense of European identity. We can no longer afford the luxury of petty-nationalism. A Russian, a Pole or a Portuguese is not an alien compared to an African or a South Asian tribesman who has never seen a knife and fork. The people of Europe share a history, a culture and ties of blood stretching back to the dawn of time. We will not be divided by pseudo-science and political dogma.

Russian gas and oil together with German industry will form the backbone of the new Europe; an economic and ethnic bloc stretching from Galway to Vladivostok that will overcome all obstacles and herald the renaissance of European man.

Letter from Bill White – former leader of the American NS Workers’ Party

Roanoke City Jail, Roanoke, VA. USA.  August 27 2013

Mr Baillie,

I recently saw your editorial from Comrade republished in the newsletter Heritage and Destiny. While I agree with your general thesis – that white is white – your history is generally wrong across the board.

I don’t know you and I do not follow the idiosyncrasies of British nationalist politics. I do know the white movement often attracts people who say different things because they enjoy being different and, with that, annoying people with strange statements. I also know there are people with honest differences as well. I assume you are among the latter, not the former. So I write.

The tern “Aryan” applies to the upper caste – priests and warriors – in Indo-European societies. Each Indo-European culture, whether Nordo-Germanic, Celtic, Iranian or Indian, preserved the four cast system of priest-warrior-merchant-worker. These upper castes generally were Nordic in origin. Even Sumeria, an offshoot of a proto-Indo-European culture saw those they ruled over as “the dark haired people”. “Aryan”, or “noble people” – German herren volk – is both a caste and race term.

Mediterranean European culture was not Aryan. There are two major Mediterranean cultures in antiquity. One was the megalith builders; the other was the Phoenician-influenced Minoan culture, including Pelasgians and pre-Indo-European, non-Hamitic Anatolians.

The culture-bearing Indo-Europeans originated in Northern Europe and Scandinavia and founded civilization in two waves, both involving migration to and settlement in Central Asia. First were the Kurgan cultures and the Sumerian-Egyptian-Harappan wave of settlement. The second was the “Aryan” invasion of Celts, Myceneans, Hittites, Iranians and Shang Chinese, among others.

While Mediterraneans populated Britain early on, Celts conquered the British Isles circa 500 BC, followed by Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Norse, Vikings and Normans.

It is incorrect to say that Mediterranean whites are incapable of culture-bearing or are not capable of being Aryan – of realizing the spiritual potential of the upper castes. However, European culture did not arise in the Mediterranean people. Further, actual inhabitants of Mediterranean nations in the modern world are often mixed with non-white elements. Spain, Portugal, southern France, southern Italy, Greece and the southern Balkans in particular have been under Turkish or Arab occupation for centuries in the past two millennia, or have housed multi-cultural civilizations, from Rome to Carthage. However, Turks and Arabs are technically from different branches of whites, like Finns and Huns. So to call these people non-white is incorrect. But they are not European whites – more a type of mestizo.

Now, as to Mosley and German-Slavic relations; Mosley was a fascist – I think from the British Union of Fascists – you’ll concede that, and indistinguishable from a National Socialist during the period 1933-1939. Trying to divide Mosley and Hitler is nonsense and you know better.

Also World War 11 – “Nazi hubris” certainly did not lose the war. The difficulties of fighting the entire world at once lost the war. But what was the truth about German anti-Slavism?

During World War 1 the Russians went to war to defend Serbia based on pan-Slavic nationalist principles. Their explicit goal was to exterminate the German people – even though the Romanovs were ethnic Germans and the name “Rus” is that of a Nordic tribe. On this anti-German basis, Russia declared war on Germany.

During the period 1933-1939, the British in particular, inflamed Slavs in Czechoslovakia and Poland against their German populations. This led to the 1938 interventions in the Sudentenland and the 1939 war with Poland.

Now this Slavic-German warfare was wrong and stirred by internationalist forces to divide traditional societies. It was foolish and wrong. But it was stirred against Germany, and German anti-Slavicism was a reaction.

And I doubt anyone was surprised at the Soviet defense – wave after wave of cheaply valued human lives and cheap, mass produced equipment. The Germans drove the Russians back but were overwhelmed when they had to withdraw forces to defend Italy, and later France.

Attacking Germany, Adolf Hitler, and Aryan racial theory is annoying, not insightful. Yes you know about Mosley – and probably about National Bolshevism, Strasserism, and Third positionism too. So do we all! Mosley was good; the rest is junk that people pursue just to show they’ve heard of it. Maybe you’re passing through a phase – may be you’re mired there. I just hope you get out of the swamp soon.

Sincerely, Bill White.

Dear Bill White,

Thanks for the history lesson – both ancient and modern. Your interpretation is different to mine but entirely in keeping with National Socialism. I will publish your letter in my blog Nation Revisited and let my readers decide. http://nationrevisited.blogspot.co.uk    

Just a couple of points if I may:

Europe is currently being invaded and colonized by Third World immigrants, mostly from Africa and South Asia. We have got more to worry about than Germanic or Slavic culture, or where the Minoans came from. We haven’t got time for head measuring.

The last war was a disaster for Europe but it was probably a necessary step in the road to unity. I know you must have read Mein Kampf so I find it hard to accept you argument that Germany was driven to war by British propaganda. Wasn’t it always Hitler’s ambition to march east?

On a personal note, I have followed your political career with interest and been amazed at the level of persecution you have suffered for your beliefs. I hope you will soon be restored to liberty.

And as a matter of clarification I am 68 years old and have been involved in patriotic politics since I was 14. I don’t think that it’s a phase I’m going through. I am not interested in Strasserism, Hitlerism, or any of the creeds of the thirties. I follow the post-war ideas of Oswald Mosley as outlined in his book The Alternative. I am trying to defend European civilization at home and abroad.

Best wishes. Bill Baillie

Bill White’s former website can still be accessed by visiting Wayback Machine at www.archive.org and going to www.overthrow.com  It started in June 1998 supporting the Utopian Anarchist Party, it moved on to the Libertarian Socialist Party and finally became the American National Socialist Workers Party. It was closed down by the federal government in October 2008.





















Friday 1 November 2013

Nation Revisited # 109


Nation Revisited # 109, November 2013
e-mail:    nationrevisited@gmail.com
website: http://nationrevisited.blogspot.co.uk

 
 

Sterling and the Dollar – Robert Row
UKIP and its rivals want to strengthen Britain’s trade links with the Commonwealth. This was tried back in 1932 at the Ottawa Conference. Robert Row described it in this extract from “Sterling and the Dollar” published in “Lodestar” in 1985:

“But in Britain the hour of crisis produced the man of mediocrity in pursuit of the impossible. Mr Neville Chamberlain, a former Lord Mayor of Birmingham, became Chancellor of the Exchequer. His goal was to restore the old pound sterling, confronting a new situation with old ways. Armed with his umbrella, Mr Chamberlain had recourse to three old policies. A true son of Birmingham, he had visions of recapturing world markets for British manufacturers; a depreciated pound would do that. His other policies were cheap money and protectionism.
To these he added a fourth. The son of the great “Radical Joe”, Mr Chamberlain sought to realize his father’s dream of Empire Free Trade, and called the leaders of the Dominions together for a conference at Ottawa in 1932. But the dream perished at Ottawa. The Dominions were no longer the simple commodity producers of Joe Chamberlain’s time. They were becoming manufacturing countries and saw no reason to shut down their new factories to become markets for Britain’s old factories, which was Mr Chamberlain’s main aim. The very fact that their farming commodity prices were deep in a slump made them cling more fiercely to the new industries. If Mr Chamberlain was protectionist, so were they.

Thus Ottawa was mainly a fiasco. Something came out of it, it is true, a few minor trade agreements in Britain’s favour dressed up as high sounding “Imperial Preference”. But since these were confined to the British colonies, and Mr Chamberlain made no attempt to develop the full potential of colonial markets, Imperial Preference was more of a sop to Tory imperialists than a real solution to Britain’s export needs.
But Ottawa had another effect, and an adverse one. Imperial Preference, meager as it was, aroused the ire of soon-to-be-elected President Roosevelt. He was reared in all the anti-imperialist prejudice of New England political families. In him the abolition of the British Empire assumed the force of a religion. And he was to succeed in this aim.”  

Eighty years later a resurrected Commonwealth is even more unlikely; Canada is locked into the North American Free Trade Agreement, Australia and New Zealand are tied to Asian markets, and South Africa and Zimbabwe are black run states.
Britain will always have ties of blood and history with the white dominions, just as we have with the United States, but it’s inevitable that we will belong to the European Union; the world’s biggest trading bloc. Those who yearn for expansion must overcome their unfounded fears and learn to love Europe.

The Alternative - Oswald Mosley
 
Union Movement’s policies were outlined in Oswald Mosley’s book The Alternative published in 1947. He recognized that the days of Empire were finished and called for the union of Europe. This was a revolutionary idea at the time. Winston Churchill had called for a “United States of Europe” but he never imagined Britain as part of it. First Mosley described the evolution of the European idea.

“The real idea, which must become the creed of the future, is surely to reject the old Internationalism on the one hand and on the other hand, to transcend an exclusive nationalism which divides natural friends and relatives. Man moved from the village to the nation in the natural process of uniting with his nearer kinsmen as his mind and spirit grew. Now the time is come to move from the nation to the continent, or even beyond it, under the same natural impulse and process of next uniting with those nearest to us in blood, tradition, mind and spirit”.
He also dealt with the lies and slanders of the popular press; no mean feat in the fanatically anti-fascist atmosphere of the late forties.

“What then was the truth concerning the National Socialist of Fascist movements before the war? Our fault was exactly the opposite of that suggested against us. How often in politics is that a fact? How rarely are the people permitted to know anything except the reverse of the truth. It was suggested that we might set the interest of other countries before our own; that was an absurd lie. In reality we were all too National – too narrowly concentrated upon securing the interests of our own nations. That was the fault of all real National Socialist or Fascist Movements; whether in Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy. So far from being willing to serve each other as “Fifth Columns” in the event of a clash between States, our political ideology and propaganda were far too Nationalistic even to mould the minds of men in a new sense of European kinship and solidarity which might have avoided disaster by universal consent. So far from fighting for other countries in a war, we none of us argued with sufficient force in favour of that new sense of European Union which modern fact must now make an integral part of a new creed.”
And he warned against the menace of petty nationalism.

“The wounds of Europe must be healed before the work of construction can begin. They are wounds of the spirit, and they are kept open by these animosities and memories of atavistic savagery. These old things have no interest to the creative mind, but they impede our work. That is why we ask Europe not to look back, but to stride forward. In these pages I have attempted to describe some possibilities which beckon us onward in the march of the European spirit. They are worth that effort of the living mind and will, which forgets the past and, thus achieves the future. Division is death, but Union is life”.
The Alternative published by Black House Publishing Co is available from Amazon.com at £9.00 for paperback or £2.75 for Kindle.

BNP Economics
The September 2013 annual conference of the BNP passed the following motion.

“This conference proposes that a British National Party government will eradicate Poverty, Unemployment and the National Debt; by creating an Alternative Monetary System, which is controlled by the British People.
A British National Party government will end the deceitful cycle of debt-slavery and will issue new debt-free money (which would never have to be repaid and would NOT increase the National Debt).

Outrageous schemes, such as the ‘Bedroom Tax’ would be eliminated, and we could also reduce taxes very significantly.
To avoid ‘boom and bust’, this new currency will be linked to Britain’s Measure of Economic Welfare and will be guaranteed by the nation’s common wealth.”

A new currency could be established linked to GDP but we would still have to repay our National Debt which currently stands at £1.16 trillion. If we defaulted we would be blacklisted by the rating agencies, the international banks, the IMF and the World Bank. The new currency would therefore be unsustainable. We would not be able to buy food or oil and we would not be able to sell anything abroad because we wouldn’t be able to pay for shipping or insurance. Our supermarkets would run out of food within days and our power stations would have to cut production almost immediately. Our gold and dollar reserves currently stand at $129.2 billion but they would not last long with foreign creditors demanding payment of outstanding accounts. This new economic system would not be under the control of the British people it would be a financial disaster leading to chaos and starvation.
The BNP are right to want a new economic system but we cannot achieve it by declaring national bankruptcy. Argentina defaulted on her international obligations in 2002 and she is still struggling. The value of a currency is decided by the marketplace. The pound trades against the euro and the dollar by international agreement not according to a fatuous declaration from the BNP.

We import nearly half our food and oil and we pay for them in dollars; not in worthless assignats issued by the “Peoples’ Bank”.
The UK is not self-sufficient but united Europe could be; especially in alliance with Russia. A European superstate stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific could have a genuinely independent economic system. But the BNP’s vision of a fiercely independent but half starved Britain cut off from Europe and growing vegetables in roadside allotments will achieve nothing. Brave words about “debt-free systems” will not keep our generators running or put food on our tables

Capitalism and Immigration
The British tax authorities recently struck a deal with the Internet giant Google to settle their outstanding tax bill. Of course Google should pay their taxes but they are a major employer in the UK with plans for expansion. The government obviously thinks they have more to gain by keeping Google on board. They have done similar deals with Amazon, Starbucks and other international corporations.

There is nothing new about global capitalism. When the grave of a Roman princess was found in Spitalfields in London in 1999 she was wearing the remains of a gold-embroidered dress from Iraq and carved jet jewelry from Germany. World trade has been with us since the days of the Roman Empire and mass production was pioneered by the British and Dutch East India Companies of the 17th century. The British Empire used Indians to build railways in East Africa, Chinese to work in the goldfields of British Columbia and West Indians to drive buses for London Transport. The great international corporations are behaving in exactly the same way by moving labour around the world to suit their requirements. Until we achieve a self-sufficient European economy based on fair wages and conditions we are stuck with a system that relies on cheap labour. All we can do in the meantime is fight for decent wages and try to keep out unskilled immigrants.
The European social model guarantees health care, education and social security. It should also guarantee work and housing. These are achievable objectives if we stop trying to feed and defend half the world and close the doors to Third World immigration. The far right parties have conflated the EU with immigration but if we quit the EU tomorrow we would still be inundated with economic refugees from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Two thirds of our immigrants come from outside Europe. The EU does not force us to take these people; they come to the UK to avail themselves of work and benefits unavailable in their home countries.

Immigrants can’t be blamed for trying to improve their conditions. The fault lies with the corrupt and lazy politicians of all parties who let them in. They either turned a blind eye to the invasion or actively encouraged it. But it’s never too late to stop immigration and start repatriation. There is no question of rounding up immigrants at gunpoint and herding them onto boats and planes. But a humane programme of resettlement funded in part by the foreign aid budget would benefit everybody. We should start with criminals and illegal immigrants and then look for volunteers. Britain is a country with limited resources. We are full up and we have to shut the door to further immigration. This is not racial hatred; it’s plain old-fashioned commonsense.
The Plot against Harold Wilson

The article on Captain Henry Kerby MP in NR # 108 prompted a reader to comment as follows:

“An old friend stated that Kerby had promised to join the National Front shortly after its formation in 1968 if that party could guarantee his Parliamentary salary for the next five years.”
Our correspondent goes on to describe the moves against Harold Wilson.

“There were two moves against Wilson. The first during 64-70 but which gathered momentum towards the end of the sixties. This was to assassinate him. That was believed to be sufficient.
When Wright (Peter Wright of Spycatcher) referred to the dissident clique in MI5, he did not state – probably because he didn’t know – that there were others outside the service involved. Some of them had previous service in the security services and, more generally, were decorated ex officers from the armed services.

The second move was to hold a coup to remove the government, during the period 74-76. By then we had three day working weeks, trade union militancy, power cuts, inflation at 28% (albeit largely the result of the Barbour boom of 1973) economic collapse (the stock market had fallen 75% from previous highs), nationalization (the building sector was next), communists running the unions – and these were merely some of the difficulties.
In the 60s and 70s, we must recall that there was still a patriotic presence in the old Establishment, who were decorated veterans of one and even two World Wars and cared not one jot what subversive Labour Party and BBC pipsqueaks thought of them. In their ranks were elements from the aristocracy. As we know, those people gradually died out.

In 74-76, rumours were rife and Wilson was aware of them – I suspect via Mountbatten, who was involved with the plotters and was reporting back to the Government. It is surprising the plotters included Mountbatten, not least given his background.
When the plot was in its final stages – and it was that close – the Duke of Edinburgh was approached to ascertain the position of the Queen in the event of a coup. The response was that under ‘no circumstances’ would she consent to it. That was the end of the affair. It was not the end of MI5’s activities, however, and in the early hours of the day of his resignation, Wilson was approached with damning evidence, which the Soviets also possessed and could have used to blackmail him. Wilson resigned at once, that day.”

This anecdotal evidence is partly supported by the memoirs of newspaper editors Hugh Cudlipp and Harold Evans, and in best sellers written by historian Ben Pimlot, journalist Chapman Pincher and former MI5 officer Peter Wright. Harold Wilson’s chief accusers were Soviet defector Anatoly Golitsyn and James Jesus Angleton the Counter Intelligence Chief of the CIA 1954-1975. Angleton also accused Canadian PMs Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, Swedish PM Olaf Palme, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and US President Gerald Ford.
The 2006 BBC documentary “The Plot against Harold Wilson” was based on tapes secretly recorded by journalists Barrie Penrose and Roger Courtiour. Harold Wilson was convinced that there was a plot against him. Penrose said:

“You may ask, at the end of the programme, how much of it can be believed. My view now, as it was then, is that Wilson was right in his fears… in answer to the question ‘how close did we come to a military government’ I can only say – closer than we’d ever be content to think.”
Five Questions Answered by Vic Sarson

So far we have had twelve replies to our Five Questions. Here is Vic Sarson, an occasional contributor to this newsletter. We would like to hear from more of our readers. Please reply to nationrevisited@gmail.com
Who are you?

Vic Sarson; I have retired from business but I am a full time community action volunteer.

What do you believe in?
I believe in representative government and public participation at all levels.

If you could influence government policy what would you do?
I would reinstate many of our traditional laws and customs with the emphasis on the protection of society rather than the rights of the criminals. Capital punishment should be available for premeditated murderers, terrorists, paedophiles, and financial criminals who threaten the national interest. Sentences for all crimes should be reviewed and where appropriate, foreign criminals should be deported on completion of their sentences.

The commercial banks should not be allowed to grant mortgages; that should be done by mutual building societies at realistic rates of interest and income multiples.

 Austerity isn’t working. The government should boost the economy by investing in job creation and industrial and scientific training, and they should protect domestic industry by banning the dumping of cheaply produced goods from overseas.

 The educational system has failed to produce a literate and numerate workforce. We must bring back selective education, teach British history, and scrap meaningless university degrees in sociology and media studies.

I would dismantle the party system. Membership of the political parties is so low that they no longer represent the people. MPs and councilors should be elected as individuals and their loyalty should be to the country – not to the party.

We obviously need to control immigration but we must acknowledge that many immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean come here to escape poverty. It would be better to improve their conditions at home with equitable trade deals rather than trying to keep them out at the point of a bayonet.

What are you proud of and what do you regret?

I am proud of successfully taking on the Labour Party, which has betrayed its original constituency, and of refusing to compromise on matters of principle. I regret not getting involved in local politics earlier. In order to influence events it’s necessary to participate in government. This is hard work. It involves organizing, canvassing, lobbying, sitting on committees, writing countless letters and e-mails, talking to people and persuading them by reasoned argument. There are no short cuts.

How would you like to be remembered?

I would like to be remembered as an honest campaigner for social justice.

The Meaning of an Enemy
 

Andrew Fountaine (1918-1997) fought for General Franco during the Spanish Civil War and served in the Pacific as a Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander during WW2. His masterly denunciation of the warmonger Winston Churchill is now available from Ostara Publications at £7.45 plus postage. www.ostarapublication.com

Peter Huxley-Blythe

 
Peter Huxley-Blythe was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire on November 16 1925 and died August 18 2013 aged 87.
As a child he was a chorister at the Chapel Royal Hampton Court and at St Mary of the Angels school.

He joined the Royal Navy as an officer cadet and served in the Battle of the Atlantic, the North African Campaign and the Far East.

After the war he supported Oswald Mosley’s Union Movement but broke away with Guy Chesham and Baroness Pfugl to join the European Liberation Front led by Francis Parker Yockey; the author of “Imperium”. They fought for a united Europe when most of the continent was in ruins. Peter Huxley-Blythe edited the ELF paper “Frontfighter”. He published the newsletter of the British-German group Natinform, with AFX Baron. Later he founded the Northern League with Roger Pearson and Jan Kruls. He helped John Bean to distribute his newsletter “Outrider” in 1954. And he published his own newspaper “The World Survey” from 1954 to 1959.
Between 1959 and 1961 he wrote a series of articles for “The American Mercury”. The following extract is from “Modern Christian Martyrs”:

“That the Communists are determined to destroy the United States at the earliest possible opportunity is a fact. Before that can be accomplished they must first remove the solid foundation upon which the Constitution was built, namely the belief in Jesus Christ and his teachings. Unfortunately there are patriots who believe that too much stress is placed upon the religious aspect of our fight against the Red virus. These people together with many clerics of all denominations are unwittingly giving material aid to the enemy. Their protests, a manifestation of materialism, show how well antireligious propaganda has been operated inside America.”
In 1964 he wrote “The East Comes West”, the story of the Cossack volunteers for the Third Reich. This was followed by “Under St Andrew’s Cross, on the same subject, and “The Man Who was Uncle”, the story of Nicholas Dulger-Sheikin who was a double agent for Germany and Greece.

In the late sixties he took a PhD in psychosomatic medicine in America and founded the National College of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy. In the seventies he wrote a number of books on psychology and made a successful career as a consultant specializing in the needs of children with learning difficulties. He is survived by his wife Sally, a stepdaughter and two stepsons, and by a son and daughter by an earlier marriage. Peter Huxley-Blyth led a full and interesting life. May he rest in peace.

 

Saturday 28 September 2013

Nation Revisited # 108


Nation Revisited # 108, October 2013

website: http://nationrevisited.blogspot.co.uk

 
The Spectre of Communism
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels published the Communist Manifesto in 1848. The first lines of it read: “A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism.” Collins English Dictionary defines the word “spectre” as - a ghost; phantom; apparition; a mental image of something unpleasant or menacing.

From October 1917 until December 1991 communist all over the world promoted the Soviet Union including the teachers and professors of the Frankfurt School; an informal group of academics who tried to bring about a “quiet revolution” by spreading propaganda amongst their students. Anti-communists accuse them of undermining national identity but the Communist Manifesto puts the blame on capitalism:

“The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization. The cheap prices of commodities are the heavy artillery with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production: it compels them to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.”

Marx and Engels were right about the spectre of communism; a mental image of something unpleasant or menacing is still haunting us. Their manifesto predicted war between the classes and indicated Europe as the best place to start. But the terrible revolutionary conditions of the 19th century have passed into history and we have no need to be frightened of ghosts.

Despite the efforts of the Frankfurt School most young Britons emerge from the educational system as law-abiding, respectful and diligent citizens. Britain’s contribution to the arts is outstanding and we are world leaders in the fields of scientific research, pharmaceuticals, nuclear and precision engineering. Every generation has bemoaned modern morals and manners but given the right leadership our youngsters are capable of great things. The real and present danger to Britain and Europe is unrestrained global capitalism. A ruthless system that is committed to world domination, bereft of morality, dependant on cheap labour and addicted to perpetual warfare. It is not the ghosts of long dead academics that we should worry about but the living politicians, bosses and generals of the American military-industrial complex.

Representation of the People
Dave Cameron’s humiliating defeat in the Syrian debate was a rare victory for democracy in a country where membership of the political parties is collapsing and election turnouts average less than half.

Our most popular TV programmes are East Enders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale. They depict dramatized accounts of everyday life in London, Manchester and rural Yorkshire. BBC 2 is the most popular radio station with over 15 million listeners, this is a music station aimed at adults. Second is BBC Radio1 with 11 million listeners, this is also a music station but aimed at a younger audience. And third is BBC Radio 4 with 10 million listeners, this covers news, current affairs, the arts etc.

The most popular British newspaper is the Sun with 2.5 million readers, followed by the Daily Mail with nearly 2 million readers and the Daily Mirror with 1 million readers. They are a shameful waste of ink and paper. The Sun pioneered the use of semi-naked women on page three. The Daily Mail is obsessed with the Royal Family and the Daily Mirror caters to an industrial working class that has almost ceased to exist.

The great British public watches East Enders, listens to Radio 2 and reads the Sun. We also eat takeaways, shop at the local supermarket, and only go to church for weddings, christenings and funerals. Our unchallenging lifestyle is universally popular but it does not equip us to make informed political decisions.

Some American states used to have literacy tests for voters. They were outlawed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. They may have been discriminatory but they restricted the franchise to those capable of understanding what they were voting for. In Louisiana potential voters were given a complicated test that defeated most of them.

In the UK the voting age has been dropped to 16 for the coming Scottish referendum and there is talk of extending voting rights to prisoners, lunatics and expatriates. Everybody is encouraged to vote for candidates who they have probably never heard of and know nothing about. And the party with the most votes gets to raise taxes, pass laws, make war and do what it likes until the next general election.

This system was devised in the age of the stagecoach to represent a privileged minority of male landowners. In those days communications were slow and MPs from outlying areas took weeks to get to Westminster. But in the age of universal suffrage and instant communications there are quicker ways to express our opinions. There is no reason why we shouldn’t have referendums by e-mail or text message. If the powers that be really believe in democracy they would embrace the idea; instead of waffling on about “the sovereignty of Parliament”. But if we adopted modern methods we wouldn’t need 650 MPs and 760 members of the House of Lords.



Captain Henry Kerby MP
In AK Chesterton’s book Facing the Abyss he described his dealings with Captain Henry Kerby MP. AK was something of an authority on conspiracies but he probably never knew that Kerby was an MI5 agent.

“What goes on in the minds of Right-Wing MPs intelligent enough to be aware of what their leaders are doing? In the middle 50s Captain Henry Kerby, Conservative MP for Arundel, asked me to visit him at the House of Commons. His object was to tell me that he and very many of his colleagues greatly admired the work I was doing in defence of British interests at home and overseas. I expressed my gratification adding that it would be even more encouraging were the Members to defend these causes from the floor of the House of Commons. “Never fear, it will come, it will come” he assured me. The years went by but nothing came. Then it occurred to me to ask why, if the others were afraid to speak out. Kerby did not defy the Devil.

Here as far as I can remember is his answer: “Look at the chaps on our side of the House, if they do not posses private means have this, that, or the other City directorship, or are political advisers to this or that big corporation they would struggle financially. Some of the biggest corporations have quite a bevy of political advisers, and not from all Benches! For my own part I have no City directorship or emoluments from any outside source. If I were to stand up in the House and hammer home the truths you publish, Central Office would not lose a day before going to work in my constituency. Someone else would be put forward as the official candidate at the next election and I would be ditched.”

Kerby’s ironical understanding of his colleagues in Parliament shows something of the reality of life in the Palace of Westminster, as it does the unreality of many popular conceptions of what takes place there. While it cannot be said that the politician is a greatly esteemed figure in modern Britain few people realize how great the difference between Parliamentary values and the values held in private life.”

Captain Henry Kerby MP (1914-1971) introduced an Early Day Motion in 1964 calling for the power to issue money to be restored to the Crown. This confirmed him as an enemy of international finance and a hero to the far right. He was also a fierce supporter of the duodecimal system who called decimalization:  “this metric madness, this alien academic nonsense, introduced by the back door by a bunch of cranks and the big business tycoons.”

We now know that Kerby was a wartime SAS officer who fought with Tito’s Partisans. He spoke prefect Russian and acted as a parliamentary interpreter during the visit of Nicolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev in 1956. He retired from MI5 1966 but he continued to spy on his fellow parliamentarians. He tipped off Harold Macmillan about the Profumo affair, spread the rumour that Ted Heath was homosexual, and alleged that Harold Wilson was a Soviet agent. But despite his anti-socialist pretentions he ended his days as Harold Wilson’s personal spy inside the Tory Party.

This article is based on; Richard Davenport-Hines, An English Affair. Peter Wright, Spycatcher, and Freddie Feest, On Red Alert).

Gas and Hypocrisy
In recent years the British and French air forces under NATO command have bombed targets in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya killing an unknown number of civilians. The Americans have killed 2,809 Afghans and Pakistanis with pilotless drones (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism), and their client state Israel used napalm, depleted uranium shells, white phosphorus bombs and anti-personnel mines to kill thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. With this appalling record of aggression we have no right to usurp the function of the UN Security Council by intervening in Syria.

The British media doesn’t like the Syrian regime but they probably wouldn’t like the al-Nusra Front if they took a good look at them. They are mostly foreign mercenaries armed and funded by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

The Emirate of Qatar operates the world’s third largest gas field. They are trying to build a pipeline to export gas from the Persian Gulf to Turkey. They have spent $3 billion trying to install a puppet regime in Syria because Bashar al-Assad is allied to rival gas producers Russia and Iran and will not allow it to cross his territory. Estimates of the potential European gas market run into trillions of dollars.

But the Syrian war is not just about gas; either poisoned or natural. It is part of the ongoing struggle between Saudi Arabia supported by the US, and Iran supported by Russia. Israel is happy to see Syria destroyed but there is no compelling European interest; Britain and France are just obeying orders. The centre-right government of Dave Cameron and the centre-left government of Francois Hollande are united in their unquestioning support for “American exceptionalism”.

Two years ago rioting mobs burned down Croydon town centre and terrorized the UK but the Syrians refrained from commenting on our misfortune. We have got a persistent housing crisis. Our borders are completely out of control and nobody knows how many illegal immigrants are in the country. Our public services are being starved of investment and youth unemployment is unacceptably high. We have got more than enough problems without sticking our noses into the Middle East. Following the decisive vote in Parliament we should stop pretending to be a world power and sack William Hague; a strutting, boastful, ridiculous Foreign Secretary who thinks he is Lord Palmeston sending a gunboat to put down a native uprising.

John Tyndall on Europe and the Commonwealth
John Tyndall had a long and turbulent political career but in death he has become the spiritual leader of the far right. He believed in restoring our ties with the white dominions and his followers are still pursuing that policy. His thoughts were set out in a National Front booklet from the seventies entitled “Britain: World Power of Pauper State”.

“Australia, New Zealand and Canada do not have to be won back into the Commonwealth; they are in it now. They have to be persuaded to join with Britain in making the Commonwealth more than just a phrase, in making it work as a co-ordinated body able to count in the balance of modern world power. South Africa and Rhodesia have to be persuaded to rejoin and thence to do the same for their co-members. If we were living in any period before 1918 it would be realistic to propose that these countries enter immediately into a full political federation which would grant to some supreme ruling body executive powers over foreign policy, trade and tariffs, defence and other major fields of decision. This was always a desirable course for the Empire and Commonwealth, and for a long time it might have been straightaway feasible had there been in the leading Commonwealth nation, Britain, a government with the determination to pursue it. Much water has flowed under the bridge since that time and the best prospect that the immediate future can offer is that the countries concerned may be persuaded to return to a relationship based on strong voluntary co-operation such as existed between 1918 and 1945.”

Britain tried to unite the Empire at Ottawa in 1932. But British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin’s plan for Empire Free Trade was vetoed by the United States. We were in no position to defy America. British exports had slumped by 50% since 1929; we had a trade deficit of £100 million (£1.6 billion in today’s money) and 3 million unemployed. Eighty years later a reconstructed Commonwealth is just as unlikely because Canada is fully integrated into the North American Free Trade Area, South Africa and Zimbabwe are black-run states, and Australia and New Zealand have found new markets. The following quotation is from John Tyndall’s book The Eleventh Hour:

“In this book I have emphasized the national and British interest, and called for the building in Britain of a movement of nationalism. This is necessary because Britain is our country and it must come first in our priorities – along with those other countries sharing with us a British heritage. But none of this should obscure the fact that, at a certain level our struggle is global – just as we are confronted by a global enemy. I have acknowledged our spiritual and intellectual debt to nationalist thinkers of the era preceding 1914, and it is a considerable one. But in our thinking today and in the future nationalism must take on something of a different dimension to the one dominant at that stage of history. Over and above the rivalries of nations, there is the transcending interest of Western Civilization, Western Culture and – as the creator of these things – the White European Race. Here we must see “The West”, not in the form currently fashionable: as a coalition of organized in mutual defence of the dubious blessings of ‘liberal democracy’ and ‘capitalism’, but as a cultural and above all racial entity. In this regard, the peoples of Eastern Europe currently under communist rule are in truth part of the same entity.”

John Tyndall was a nationalist who campaigned against the European Union but he recognized our cultural and racial origins and he even accepted our kinship with the peoples east of the Oder-Neisse Line. The British people are worried about the economy, crime and immigration. Those implacably opposed to Europe will vote Ukip and carry on dreaming of Empire, but those of us who acknowledge “the transcending interest of Western Civilization” know that the Commonwealth will not be revived and that we must fully engage with Europe.

The free movement of labour policy was drawn up in the days of full employment but the founding fathers of the EU never envisaged mass migration from the former Soviet bloc. All the major states of Europe are experiencing the same problems so there will be no problem in changing the rules. And Angela Merkel’s stunning victory in the German general election means that Europe is on track towards political and economic union.

Contrary to the propaganda of the popular press the EU is governed by its member states. Margaret Thatcher negotiated her rebate, the Poles kept aspects of their legal system, and the Danes linked the krona to the euro. National requirements are being met within the framework of the EU. It’s up to us to make it fit for purpose.


Union Movement Policies
The world has changed dramatically since the demise of Union Movement nearly forty years ago. Communism has collapsed in Russia and turned into rampant capitalism in China. The European empires in Africa and Asia have gone. Britain is recovering from the worst recession since the thirties but we are still stumbling from one crisis to another. Our borders are almost unguarded against an invasion of economic refugees, our defence relies on NATO, our energy policies are in chaos and we are at the mercy of world trade. People are increasingly disillusioned with party politics but none of the existing parties offer a way out. We will not be developing Africa as envisioned by Oswald Mosley, and the UK demographic has changed. But the core policies of Union Movement have stood the test of time. They are outlined in the following leaflet from the early sixties.

Britain should join with Europe, the former white dominions and southern Africa in creating a great “third force” in the world, independent of both America and Russia. This “third force” should have a central government for its defence, the economy, finance and scientific development, with power to raise wages and control prices as production increased for a guaranteed market, insulated against unfair competition from the rest of the world.

The pressures on our housing and other social problems should be eased by stopping further immigration and by returning post-war immigrants to good jobs and conditions in their homelands to which prosperity had been returned by using the surplus wealth and production of united Europe. Britain should make a start now.

The housing problem should be relieved by taking it out of the hands of local authorities and entrusting it to the government, with power to treat it as an “operation of war”. That is, the government should organize the mass production of houses for the people, as they organized the mass-production of armaments during the war. The rents of the houses thus cheaply produced should be further reduced by the provision by government of low-interest loans for housing, paid for by high-interest loans for luxury construction or enterprise.

While there should be a central European government there should also be independent national and regional governments for each European country and the main regions. This would enable England, Wales, Scotland and other European countries to have their own parliaments for internal affairs and for the preservation of their national and regional cultures.

There should be freedom of speech for everyone, guaranteed by the government, which should maintain law and order in the State and take effective action against mob violence, which today denies freedom of expression to any view of which its agitators disapprove.

There should be freedom of the press, for both newspapers and the public. Any man who felt himself misrepresented in the press should be guaranteed (by law) equal space to reply in the newspaper concerned. This would free the public from the expense of seeing justice through costly libel actions and free the newspapers from the legal blackmail of a threatened libel action by some unscrupulous racketeer.

Government elected by the whole people alone should govern, and that both trade unions and employers must obey the law. But government should give clear economic leadership to get better wages and to stop price rises as science increases the means of production. Then we will have co-operation instead of conflict in industry.

The “brain drain” should be halted and a new spirit of national service aroused in our British people by relating all reward directly to skill, effort, initiative and responsibility. There should be “great reward for great service”, crowned by higher pensions drawn from the wealth of the new economic system.


Neville Bealing
I recently received an enquiry about Neville Bealing from Jose Bellido Anon, a postdoctoral scholar at Birkbeck College, London University who is working on the history of post-war Britain in the twentieth century. I was able to tell him that Neville Bealing was a political activist with the National Labour Party; a forerunner of the National Front led by John Bean and Andrew Fountaine. He spoke at their inaugural meeting in 1957, together with John Tyndall, and he wrote an article in the first issue of Combat calling for white solidarity and workers’ partnership.

I did not know Neville Bealing (I was only 12 in 1957) but his contemporaries remember him as an imposing figure who spoke several languages including ancient Greek and Persian. He was a follower of Francis Parker Yockey and part of a convivial group that frequented the Black Horse in Kentish Town; this included Bert Clare, Peter Greenslade, Frank Leonard and the enigmatic John Gaster.

In 2009 a non-political fellow linguist called Michael Rank posted the following article on his website:

“I am not impressed with GCHQ. I dare say Britain’s main intelligence gathering centre doesn’t feel the need to impress the likes of me (or probably you), but it could have been more helpful nevertheless.

I emailed GCHQ a few weeks ago about a colleague, Neville Bealing, who died recently aged 83. I was going to say a few words at his funeral in a week’s time, so I asked them politely and somewhat hesitantly if they could confirm that Neville worked for GCHQ (or its predecessor) about 50 years ago.

He had mentioned to a colleague that he had worked for GCHQ, and it must have been as long ago as the late 1940s or the early 50s as he worked for the company I work for as a translator for an amazing 50 years. He retired (reluctantly) only a year or two before his death.

I didn’t expect GCHQ to tell me much; just confirmation that he had worked there would have been enough.

But they didn’t even reply. Not so much as an acknowledgement, not even a computer generated one. This doesn’t surprise me hugely but it does make me angry. I don’t like to be ignored when I ask a polite, reasonable question…

Oh, as a tribute to Neville I would like to mention his other main claim to fame. He sat on Thomas Hardy’s knee as a baby. His father was a photographer in Shaftesbury, Dorset, so he must surely have taken a photograph of this great event, but Neville told me he had never seen a copy”.