Oswald Mosley's 1961 book 'Mosley: Right or Wrong' covered almost everything but he couldn't know that the Soviet Union would collapse, or that the Whites would desert Africa so quickly.
All movements have their books. We had Mosley's many works, the National Front had John Tyndall's 'Six Principles of British Nationalism', and the National Socialist Movement had 'The Protocols of the Learned Elder of Zion', which first appeared in Russia in 1903. It's supposed to be the minutes of a meeting held by the Jews to plan their conquest of the world. Henry Ford was so impressed by it that he had thousands of copies distributed, but most historians dismiss it as a Tsarist forgery.
Many books and authors are misunderstood. Oswald Spengler's gloomy forecasts are based on culture. This put him at odds with the Nazis who were obsessed with 'racial purity'. In fact, he was in the same camp as Nietzsche, Evola, Mosley, Yockey and Dugin, who all rejected strictly biological racism.
Those who dream of a Golden Age with knights in shining armour defended fair damsels, often gravitate to Tolkien with his dwarves and Hobbits. Tolkien once subscribed to 'Candour' but that doesn't prove anything. His strange world of fantasy has got nothing to do with the economic forces driving the modern world. Those who are opposed to plutocracy cannot seek refuge in fantasy.
The 'Wizard of Oz' was a landmark film released in 1939, based on the book by Lyman Frank Baum published in 1900. It tells the story of Dorothy and her friends, the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man. They follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City in search of the Wizard of Oz. On their way, they encounter the terrible Witch of the West. At first sight, this is just a children's story, but Dorothy and her friends were really pilgrims in search of the truth, the Yellow Brick Road was life itself, the Wizard represented Good and the wicked witch Evil. And in the end, they discovered that: "There's No Place Like Home".
The Bible can be used to endorse all sorts of things. The Afrikaners used to quote passages from the Bible in support of apartheid, and so did the Southern Baptists. I am not familiar with the holy books of other religions but I imagine that they are also open to interpretation.
Apart from the Jews, who cling to the ridiculous idea that they are God's Chosen People, all religions preach equality. But that doesn't stop Christians from disrespecting blacks, and it doesn't stop Muslim Arabs from trading in black slaves, or Buddhist Myanmar soldiers from butchering Rohingya refugees.
Humanity is united by cruelty and hypocrisy. Britain lectures the world on human rights but we presided over the Irish Famine and the Bengal Famine. We used starvation as a weapon of war and we prosecuted the Germans at Nuremberg for doing the same.
Books impart knowledge which motivates civilisation. We have the resources and technology to feed the world but we rely on political systems that belong to the past. Only by studying history and economics can we hope to achieve our potential,
The Parliamentary Oath
Newly elected members of the UK Parliament are required to take the Oath of Allegiance to the monarch. This is supposed to date back to Magna Carta when the Barons swore allegiance to King John. In fact, the Promissory Oath Act was passed in 1868.
God-fearing members promise: I (name of member) swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and her heirs and successors, according to law. So help me God.
Non-believers say: I (name of member) do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law.
The oath can be said in Welsh, Cornish or Scottish Gaelic and it can be sworn on the Bible, the Koran, or the Torah.
Note that there is no mention of the country or the constituents who voted for the new MP. He, or she, promises to be loyal to the monarch but they make no such promise to the mugs who elected them.
Many Members of Parliament have no intention of keeping their promise. Over the years we have had self-confessed republicans, enemy agents and saboteurs representing us, but this meaningless oath of loyalty to the monarch prevents elected members of Sinn Fein from taking their seats.
Traditionalists will cry "treason" because they are pathologically opposed to change, but it would make sense to scrap this medieval nonsense and replace it with a promise for MPs to serve their constituents. We may not agree with Sinn Fein but if they have been duly elected they deserve to take their place in Parliament.
My old friend Terry Savage wrote an article in the BNP magazine 'Identity' in 2006 about Charles Bradlaugh (1883-1891), the social reformer and founder of the National Secular Society who was elected to Parliament as the Liberal MP for Northampton in 1880. He was denied his seat because he refused to swear on the Bible. After being repeatedly thrown out, fined and arrested, he eventually made his affirmation and took his seat in 1886. There were 3,000 mourners at his funeral.
A republican atheist like Charles Bradlaugh (pictured) may seem an unlikely hero for a BNP man but Terry Savage believed in free speech.
The law was changed and it could be changed again. If a meteor struck Buckingham Palace at tea time it could wipe out most of the Royal Family and leave us with an 'heir and successor' that we have never heard of. We might end up with the Duke of Hackney on the throne. He might be a cross-dresser, a raving lunatic or a hopeless drug addict but our MPs would have to bow down to him. Let's make an effort to join the 21st century by scrapping the loyal oath.
Accepting Reality
The United States is a superpower with massive armed forces and enough nuclear missiles to destroy the planet. The US economy is based on defence spending and their foreign policy supports it. That is the reality.
The UK is America's loyal ally and we follow them blindly, but we simply can't afford it. We now have two aircraft carriers and a fleet of nuclear missile submarines. We would be better off with more frigates and destroyers to defend the homeland, but we maintain a high seas fleet to promote the fantasy that 'Britannia Rules the Waves'.
Given our government's addiction to fantasy it's not surprising that so many people believe in expanding our armed forces, deporting all the immigrants, bringing back national service, reintroducing the death penalty, and asserting our independence. Of course, none of these things will happen. We should settle for armed forces capable of defending the homeland, an immigration policy that favours skilled workers, an educational system that teaches respect, a criminal code that protects the public, and our status as a European power.
Nostalgia is a powerful thing. There used to be a famous whitewashed slogan on the approach to Paddington Station which said: "Far away is near at hand in dreams of long ago." Peter Simple, in the Daily Telegraph, called its author 'The Master of Paddington."
If people are seriously interested in politics they should stop dreaming of past glories and start campaigning for more houses, increased wages, improved working conditions, a better National Health Service, and a representative system of government. We are a modern European nation and a world leader in science and technology. We can do great things but we must know our limitations. Such is the acceptance of reality.
Pressure
In the days of steam engines, they used to fit valves that would open to reduce the pressure and save the boiler from exploding. Global capitalism has a similar device to reduce pressure, it's called a recession. Goods and services are sold and money is generated at such a rate that the economy becomes overheated. At that point recession kicks in and the system returns to normal.
During this cycle businesses go broke, nations are ruined, people commit suicide, and the price of bananas rises. Politicians and journalists, who do not know what they are talking about, assure us that all will be well, but they have no influence on a system that is self-propelled.
The Communists tried to avoid the inner conflict of capitalism by building a centrally planned economy. The Soviet Union was big enough and productive enough for it to work but the experiment was wrecked by foreign interference, corruption, inefficiency, and massive spending on armaments. It was not systemic failure that brought down Communism but the Arms Race.
In the West, we rely on 'market forces' to regulate the system. Every time that the working man starts to feel comfortable he is hit with a recession. The last one was triggered by the sub-prime mortgage racket. We don't know what will cause the next financial disaster but pundits from Gordon Brown to Mark Carney are predicting another one. IMF director Christine Lagarde has warned that we must 'fix the roof while the sun is shining", by cutting deficits, improving banking capital, and maximising exchange rate flexibility.
It's not beyond the wit of man to devise a fair economic system. Global capitalism started with the East India Company when slavery was widespread and poverty was the natural condition for most of humanity. Today, we can feed the world, but first, we must abandon protectionism, embrace the latest scientific methods, and regulate capitalism.
President Trump is ruling the world, but some of his tactics have already gone wrong. He has slapped a punitive tax on Russian aluminium which the American drinks industry depends on for its cans. World trade is complex and he will discover that protectionist policies are a dangerous short-term measure that can go horribly wrong.
The Commonwealth Myth
The parties of the far-right all follow the economic policies outlined in John Tyndall's 1966 book "Six Principles of British Nationalism." They want to resurrect the Commonwealth and turn it into a free trade area under British control.
Ramsay MacDonald had the same idea in 1932 when he convened the Ottowa Conference. He wanted the Dominions to buy British manufactured goods and sell us their raw materials. Naturally, the Canadians and the Australians wanted to expand their own industries and they refused to agree to such a proposition. After the Second World War Britain was bankrupt and in no position to dictate trade terms. We carried on as best we could under the Bretton Woods Agreement until the Nixon Shock of 1972 unpegged the pound from the dollar and cut us adrift. Reluctantly, we joined the old Common Market which kept us in relative prosperity for the next forty years. Now we are about to go it alone but what used to be British colonies are now fully fledged nations in their own right, with their own markets and alliances.
There will be no Commonwealth revival. We can trade with whoever we like, subject to American approval, but we will not be buying Australia's vast output of coal and iron ore because we don't have the manufacturing industry to use it. And we can't compete with the United States as a market for Canadian produce.
Brexit is bound to be disruptive. We can survive with a reduced economy but the dream of independence will not be realised. John Tyndall's policy was unrealistic when he wrote it but half a century later it's totally impossible. If we leave the EU the pound will almost certainly go down against the dollar making imported goods dearer in our shops.
Throughout the Brexit fiasco, the government insisted that we must gain control of immigration. But most of our immigrants come from the Commonwealth. The latest immigration statistics for June 2018 show that net migrants from the EU numbered 74,000 but non-EU net migrants came to 248.000.
The people of the White dominions have fond feelings for the 'Motherland' but they will not risk their economies by joining a revived Commonwealth. Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, and South Africans will always be close to our hearts, as will Americans because we are sprung from the same stock. We must maintain the closest possible contact with them and defend those traditions that unite us, but the closeness of Europe, and our common history, will dictate our future.
Patriotism and Nationalism
Many readers took exception to my article on Xenophobia. But my remarks were not aimed at sensible nationalists but at 'little Englanders'. You will remember that Nigel Farage was upset by hearing people on a train speaking a foreign language. Language and religion are of little importance. You can learn a different language and adopt a different religion, but you cannot change your heritage.
The campaign against the East Europeans, which formed an important part of the Brexit movement, was disgraceful. The Poles did not rape our young women on an industrial scale, they did not riot and burn down our town centres, and they did not expect to live on social security. The peoples of Europe are related and easily assimilated into our society. I don't retract a word of my article but I discriminate between genuine nationalists imbued with the culture of Europe and petty nationalists who can't tell a Nigerian from a Norwegian.
The British Isles were populated after the Ice Age by tribes from the European mainland who followed the reindeer across the land bridge. Subsequent invasions brought Celts, Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans. Before the 1948 Nationality Act and the subsequent mass migration from the Commonwealth, we were entirely a White country.
Ukip and the popular press were frightened to campaign against immigration for fear of prosecution under the Race Relations Act. So, they concentrated on the East Europeans and ignored the Afro-Asians. They deliberately obscured the fact that the Poles are our fellow Europeans. To deliberately stir up trouble between us was divisive and those responsible should be ashamed of themselves. Unfortunately, the political parties concerned with immigration did nothing to educate their members. Only Union Movement called for European solidarity. Mosley explained:
"To become a European you must extend your patriotism and also your understanding. Both are now necessary. It is a very natural process. Not long ago in terms of history, our ancestors were hating any man in the next village, even taking the opportunity any dark night to cut his throat. It is just a matter of growing up, a process which continues all the time in the advance of humanity."
Statement
This blog, and our sister blog 'European Outlook', have no connection with suspected terrorists who are currently being rounded up by the police. We advocate reform by lawful means and unreservedly condemn groups promoting hatred and violence.
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All articles are by Bill Baillie unless otherwise stated. The opinions of guest writers are entirely their own. This blog is protected by the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19: "We all have the right to make up our own minds, to think what we like, to say what we think, and to share ideas with other people.
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