Nation Revisited # 106

Nation Revisited # 106, August 2013

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

Defence

British armed forces are being restructured in line with the 2010 Defence Review but they will still be highly trained, well-equipped and funded by the fourth largest defence budget in the world. The army will consist of 82,000 regulars and 30,000 Territorial Army reservists. The Royal Navy will consist of 36,000 personnel, including 7,000 Royal Marines and 5,200 men and women of the Fleet Air Arm. The Royal Air Force will have 33,000 personnel.

Our Type 45 destroyers; Daring, Dauntless, Diamond, Dragon, Defender and Duncan are the world’s most advanced warships. They displace 8,000 tonnes and are equipped with the Sea Viper missile system and Sampson radar. After much speculation our 65,000 tonne aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are due to enter service in 2017. Each ship can carry 36 Lightning Joint Strike Fighters, 4 helicopters and a crew of 1600. Two Astute class submarines, Astute and Ambush are in service and five more will follow. These 7,000 tonne nuclear-powered submarines are armed with Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

The RAF’s main aircraft is the formidable Panavia Tornado fighter-bomber. This is being replaced with the even more advanced Eurofighter Typhoon – probably the world’s best multi-role aircraft. The Hercules fleet is being replaced by 22 Airbus A400 transporters.

Our nuclear deterrent depends on Trident missiles supplied by the US under the 1958 UK-US Mutual Defence Agreement. They are carried aboard four submarines; Vanguard, Victorious, Vigilant and Vengeance. Each vessel displaces 16,000 tonnes and carries 16 Trident ballistic missiles with multiple warheads. The future of Trident will be decided in 2016. The cost of upgrading the submarines, missiles and warheads is estimated at £20 bn by the government and £100 bn by Greenpeace. The true figure is somewhere in between.

We are more than capable of defending ourselves and in cooperation with our European partners we are developing affordable domestic materiel. Typhoon multi-role aircraft, Augusta Westland combat helicopters, Sea Viper and Storm Shadow missiles, Spearfish torpedoes, Sampson radar, and Airbus A400 transport planes put us in the forefront of military technology and provide valuable jobs for British workers.

The Housing Crisis

It cannot be right that the seventh richest country on earth has a desperate housing shortage. There are 4.5 million people in the UK waiting to be housed and 3,960 families living in emergency bed and breakfast accommodation (National Housing Federation). Between 1951 and 1954 Harold Macmillan the Minister for Housing in Winston Churchill’s government built 300,000 houses per year. But we only managed to build 7,090 houses in 2012 (National House Building Council). In 2007 Gordon Brown pledged to build one million affordable houses but at the present rate of progress this will only amount to 400,000, less than half, by 2020 (The Guardian).

The UK housing shortage has been made worst by immigration and the financial constraints on local authorities. But with interest rates at rock bottom now is the right time to be building; and it would be cheaper than keeping people in B&Bs. There is no reason why social housing should not be profitable. Houses built at volume and sold or rented at realistic prices should cover the cost of construction and maintenance.

When Margaret Thatcher started selling off council houses the Labour Party protested but it soon became obvious that Labour Councilors were at the front of the queue. The Labour Party is good at talking socialism but it took a true-blue aristocrat like Harold Macmillan to set the record for house building. He is hated by Labour for saying that we had “never had it so good”, and he is hated by the Tories for his “Winds of Change” speech. In fact, he had an understanding of geopolitics and a rapport with the people that is sadly lacking in Dave Cameron.

A national house building programme would get families out of inadequate and expensive accommodation, get unemployed construction workers off the dole and give the economy a boost. Defenders of the free market are against government intervention but the private sector has completely failed to provide affordable homes. Banks are restrained from granting mortgages by new rules governing lending and property developers are hampered by planning permission. 

Oswald Mosley’s Union Movement had an extensive range of policies including housing. These were set out in their many books and pamphlets and all of them were covered in Mosley: Right or Wrong - (available from www.amazon.com  at £9.00).

“Housing must be treated as a national problem. To leave it in the hands of local authorities is another case of stage-coach politics. You do not fight wars by farming out the job to local authorities. Why will present government never take anything seriously except fighting a war? It is only then that we have a national effort. The housing of the people should be taken seriously, and treated like a problem of war. Many of the same slums disgrace us today (1961) as when I entered politics. We have got to clean up the British housing problem in double quick time.”

Ukip blames the housing crisis on our membership of the European Union. They claim that the housing shortage is caused by immigration and pledge to solve the problem by getting Britain out of Europe. But this is simply not true. Apart from Citizens of the Irish Republic who are covered by the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1923 the majority of immigrants come from South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Quitting the EU would do nothing to control them.

The less respectable nationalist parties follow the same line. They are dedicated to the mantra that was carved in stone when the National Front was founded in 1967: “Stop immigration, start repatriation, and get Britain out of the Common Market.”

We have had a housing shortage since the Second World War but apart from Harold Macmillan’s commendable effort in the fifties not enough has been done about it.  People bought their own houses during the boom but now they can’t get mortgages and the present government is torn between its duty to provide housing and its commitment to reducing the budget deficit.

Immigration did not cause the housing problem but it has aggravated it and continues to do so. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown imported 2.5 million immigrants in pursuit of their dream of a multiracial Britain; and in the hope that they would vote Labour. They never considered the availability of houses, jobs, schools and hospitals. They should have been charged with criminal negligence instead of being rewarded with prime ministerial pensions. Some say they should have been charged with treason.

When we built 300,000 houses per year just after the war we were short of materials, money and manpower. With modern construction methods, and rock bottom interest rates, we could build enough affordable houses for all our people. It would take a great national effort and it would upset profiteering bankers, landlords and estate agents but it can, and must be done.

The Dismantling of a Democracy

(Reprinted from The Flame August 2011 – http://theflameuk.com

People are claiming today that Britain has become an obedient poodle at the beck and call of the United States. This is nothing new Winston Churchill put us in this position in the 1930s.

In 1948 the British government signed away more of our freedoms when it signed the United Nations Charter and bound us to its terms. Alger Hiss, an American convicted communist and Soviet agent, together with Andrei Gromyko, a senior Soviet official, saw to it that Britain became embroiled in this trickster’s charter. The UN Act binds Parliament to a body over which it has no control.

Politicians must be the world’s greatest illusionists; for while they tell the public they are doing something good, they are usually getting away with the reverse, and few spot how this is done. Since 1937 plotters have been at work methodically getting rid of all the public safeguards which were built into our constitution. For instance they have gradually reduced the ability of the Sovereign (Crown) to defend her subjects, while dismissing all free and independent critics from the House of Lords. This has for the first time given Parliament a free hand to do just as it wants.

A letter from the Home Secretary dated 31^st May 1988 appears in the Independent newspaper on Monday 17^th June 1988. This document made it clear that her Majesty the Queen is prepared to place at the disposal of Parliament of her remaining prerogatives, including the power to make war or peace. The letter was signed by Douglas Hurd, while serving in Margaret Thatcher’s government. This has left Parliament and their non-elected partners the ability to decide where and when they deploy our armed forces.

With neither the Queen, nor the House of Lords able to place restraints on the government – or to be precise, the cabinet and their advisers – we now have a virtual elected dictatorship. Which is why, Tony Blair felt free to drag Britain into an unjustified and illegal assault on the sovereign nation of Iraq. To make matters worse he involved us in another illegal attack, by allowing American warplanes carrying bombs for the devastation of the Lebanon, to pass through the UK.

As there is no effective opposition party in the House of Commons, it is now left to journalists and the public to try and keep Parliament in check by using whatever means remain. Families who had their sons illegally killed while serving in Iraq have called for a public enquiry into the justification for war. It is possible that Tony Blair and Lord Goldsmith may, one day have to give evidence under oath. The Iraq conflict was not only morally wrong, but the reasons given for the engagement were fabricated.

However, a more pertinent point not generally raised is that servicemen sign up to fight for the defence of our nation, not to be lent out as mercenaries and placed at the disposal of that private organization that calls itself “The New World Order”. In fact our armed forces were commandeered in 1939 by a world government group led by Winston Churchill, and as yet they haven’t been returned. This is why our army and air force are constantly being used in wars which have absolutely nothing to do with us, while our shores and airports are continually used as points of arrival for an illegal invasion.

Editor: The United Kingdom has been militarily dependent on the USA since 1917 and economically dependent on them since 1944. We need to seriously consider our links with America, Europe and the rest of the world.

Five Questions Answered by Claire Khaw

We asked our readers the following five questions. Who are you? What do you believe in? If you could direct government policy what would you do? What are you proud of and what do you regret? How would you like to be remembered? Interested readers should e-mail their replies to: nationrevisited@gmail.com

So far we have had replies from John Bean of the British Democrats # 76, Robert Edwards of European Action # 77, Bill Baillie of Nation Revisited # 78, Michael Woodbrige of Western Springs # 96, Eddy Morrison of the NF 97, Robert Best of the League of St George # 98, Arlette Baldacchino of Viva Malta # 99, Alex Morana from North America # 100, Rufus of News from Atlantis # 101, Pete Williamson of The White Way Home # 103. Here is Claire Khaw of The Voice of Reason.

 http://thevoiceofreasonann.blogspot.co.uk/

Who are you?

 

We are defined by; (1) our sex, (2) our religion / political beliefs, (3) our class, (4) our race, (5) our nation. I am a non-white British middle class female social conservative.

What do you believe in?

I believe that; (1) representative democracy, (2) liberalism, (3) feminism, (4) the desecration of marriage, (5) atheism; will be the death of Western civilization.

 If you could direct government policy what would you do?

(1) Repeal the Equality Act 2010. (2) Repeal the European Communities Act 1972.

(3) Repeal the Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act 1965. (4) Repeal the Human Rights Act 1998. (5) Make it a requirement for couples to agree a marriage contract before they can marry.

What are you proud of and what do you regret?

I am proud of my understanding of the hearts and minds of the British people as well as my knowledge of their history, culture, religious differences and class system.

It is too early to say if I have any regrets. I will have a better picture of the regrettable things I have done in my life on my deathbed.

How would you like to be remembered?

I would like to be remembered for not being afraid to say what I believe to be the truth and for saying what I feel needs to be said, rather than what is merely socially acceptable to say. A mediocre politician is economical with the truth, while a great politician is generous with the truth and also praised for the telling of it. I hope I will at least be something in between.

Bill White: Enemy of the State

The former leader of the American National Socialist Workers’ Party is back in prison for giving an unauthorized radio interview to the American Free Press.  Bill White, a 36 year-old psychology graduate, has been in and out of federal prisons for the last five years although most of the original charges against him have been dropped. He is accused of provoking violence by addressing an audience that is “inherently violent”. His website used to get 150,000 hits before it was shut down under legislation intended to protect America against terrorism. His former lawyer dropped out when she was advised that representing him could be a federal offence. And a subsequent state-appointed lawyer failed to turn up. Nobody knows how long he will be detained, or even where.

The Washington Post was so determined to incriminate Bill White that they tried to blame his website for the Columbine High School massacre of 1999. When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot dead twelve students they suggested: “some police hate crime experts say privately it is not inconceivable that the teen-age gunmen in this case visited the site.” In fact White had merely said that the state education system endangered the mental health of its students. Even the FBI admitted that there was no evidence against him.

The British government used Defence Regulation 18B in 1940 to detain opponents of Churchill’s war without charge or trial. This emergency legislation was introduced to fight the IRA but it was used against Oswald Mosley and his supporters. The present government is preparing new legislation in response to recent terrorist outrages but they already have plenty of repressive laws at their disposal. Colin Jordan and Nick Griffin were prosecuted under the Race Relations Act and Simon Sheppard and Luke O’Farrell were given punitive sentences after being refused political asylum in the US. The British and American governments fully co-operate in locking up “enemies of the state.” The Atlantic Alliance is stronger than ever.

Bill White’s opinions are forthright but harsh words do not actually kill people. President Obama, on the other hand, speaks softly but backs the rebels in Syria and orders the killing of thousands of people throughout the world with missiles, bombs, heavy artillery and gunfire. The dissident writer is held in prison while the Commander in Chief enjoys all the comforts of the White House. Democracy is supposed to guarantee freedom of speech but criticizing the Money Power is obviously a freedom too far. In defence of “freedom” plutocratic governments are using all the instruments of oppression at their disposal.

You can access Bill White’s former website www.overthrow.com by visiting Way Back Machine at http://archive.org/web/web.php

The Great Divide

Those of us who opposed communism, global capitalism and unrestricted immigration in the fifties and sixties gravitated towards parties holding those views. But a clear division soon emerged between Oswald Mosley’s vision of Europe a Nation and the limited horizons of the petty nationalists. I wrote in Nation in 1973: “We are divided on Europe but agreed on the need to stop immigration and control the Money Power. We stand on the threshold of success.” Apart from the Panglossian final sentence the statement is still true.

Individuals and parties come and go but ideas are indestructible. We who believe in Europe are still divided from those chasing the fantasy of “national independence.” We know that the EU will not destroy the individual nations of Europe any more than the United Kingdom destroyed England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Nations are not destroyed by federation. France, Germany and Italy have been in the EU since it was founded by the Treaty of Rome in 1957, but they are still indisputably French, German and Italian.

This debate was revived by an article on Marine Le Pen by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard the dystopian business editor of the Daily Telegraph. He welcomed Marine Le Pen’s promise to destroy the euro by withdrawing France from the eurozone. Even its strongest critics acknowledge that the collapse of the euro would be catastrophic; not just for the eurozone but for the UK and the rest of Europe. But Ambrose Evans-Pritchard thinks it’s a good idea. No wonder the Daily Telegraph’s circulation has halved in the past decade. If the Barclay Brothers want their ailing newspaper to survive they should dump him and embrace reality.

The Front National did well in recent elections, but after 41 years of campaigning they only have 2 seats in the National Assembly and 3 in the European Parliament. They will probably do well in the coming European election; as will Ukip in the UK and the Freedom Party in the Netherlands. They will pick up protest votes but their only answer to the worldwide economic crisis is protectionism. This did not work in the 1930s and it will not work now. France will not prosper on her own and nor will Britain or the Netherlands; we are bound together by ties of blood, culture and historical inevitability. Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders and Nigel Farage may delay European unity but they will never stop it.

Markets always respond to changing circumstances. Rising wages and expectations in China and a reduction in spending power in Europe and North America will rebalance the economies of the world. The future is looking good for our expanding high-tech industries but an isolated Britain hiding behind protective tariffs and lacking dollars to buy gas and oil is not something to look forward to.

Views on the News

Veteran campaigner and Nation Revisited subscriber Roger Clare was briefly interviewed outside Charing Cross Station on Andrew Neil’s Daily Politics TV show on Thursday 27/06/13. Adam Fleming asked him what he thought about George Osborne’s spending review. Roger replied that the Chancellor should have looked at the foreign aid budget. He told me later that he is not completely opposed to foreign aid but doesn’t see why it should be ring-fenced.

Eric Pirie died in a Nottingham Hospital on 8^th July 2013. He was the younger brother of Denis Pirie. Both brothers were members of the original British National Party who followed Colin Jordan into the National Socialist Movement in 1962 and survived the riot that ended their inaugural rally in Trafalgar Square. RIP Eric.

Ted Davey died of cancer in a Bournemouth hospice on 8^th July 2013. He was an active member of Union Movement in the fifties, a supporter of the original BNP and later Colin Jordan in the sixties and a regular at Friends of Mosley socials in the eighties and nineties. He was an avid letter writer with many contacts at home and abroad. RIP Ted.

Ten years after the death of weapons inspector Dr David Kelly a group of doctors led by radiologist Stephen Frost are calling for an inquest. The Hutton Inquiry found that he had committed suicide but this has been widely disputed. Courts of Inquiry usually find in favour of governments. But in the age of the Internet and the Freedom of Information Act it’s getting harder to manipulate the truth. Recent inquiries have uncovered corruption in high places. The Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War is due to report next year but the government is still refusing to release official documents. Lord Hutton’s verdict may be right but only a proper inquest by a trained coroner will settle the matter.

Dave Cameron has announced a crackdown on child pornography and plans to force Internet providers to install filters to stop children from accessing porn sites. But filters can be switched off by computer savvy children; and perverts can send pictures by e-mail. This is yet another empty Tory gesture to go with charging foreigners to use the National Health Service and advising illegal immigrants to go home. We need vigilant border guards to stop illegal immigrants and we need courts ready and willing to convict criminals. We cannot turn Internet providers, social workers, doctors and nurses into policemen. This government is addicted to gestures. They have promised a referendum on Europe to appease Ukip but they have no intention of acting on it. They promised to combat terrorism but openly supported the rebels in Syria. And they talk about stopping immigration and then tell us that we need another 7 million immigrants. Almost everything this government does is a deception involving smoke and mirrors. It’s time we got rid of them.