Friends and Family
In a video posted by the Irish Patriots - www.irishpatriots.com - Michael Walsh, the former leader of British Movement, and Nick Griffin, the former leader of the British National Party, both state that they had nothing to do with Oswald Mosley's Union Movement, but the movements they led could be traced back to the BFs.
The first fascist movement in the UK was the British Fascists (originally the British Fascisti) founded by Miss Rotha Lintorn-Orman in 1923. They spawned William Joyce who was hanged for 'treason' in 1946, Neil Francis Hawkins who took the bulk of the BF membership with him when he joined Oswald Mosley's BUF, and Arnold Leese who founded the Imperial Fascist League which influenced the post-war nationalist movements.
Michael Walsh took over British Movement from Colin Jordan, who had supported Jeffrey Hamm's British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women. Jeffrey Hamm took his group into Union Movement in 1948. Colin Jordan joined the League of Empire Loyalists, as did John Bean, John Tyndall and Martin Webster. The LEL was founded by AK Chesterton who had been a leading member of Oswald Mosley's BUF before the war. AKC also founded the National Front in 1967 together with John Bean who had been a member of Union Movement after the war. The NF was taken over by John Tyndall and Martin Webster. Nick Griffin joined it as a young man and later took over John Tyndall's British National Party.
Few nationalists admit it but they are all related politically. Some of them belonged to more than one party and despite warnings from the hierarchy, the same faces were seen at meetings and social gatherings. In his biography of Colin Jordan, 'Twaz a Good Fight', Steven Frost described the crowd at the NSM rally in Trafalgar Square in 1962:
"When Colin Jordan and the main speakers mounted the platform to begin their speeches, there was a crowd in front of them numbering about 2,000 people; some were political opponents, some were members of the press, some were NSM supporters or activists from the BNP or Union Movement who had come along for the excitement and the chance to 'mix it with the Reds', some were the merely curious, attracted by the controversy surrounding the event."
John Bean in his political memoir 'Many Shades of Black' recalls an anti-apartheid rally held in Trafalgar Square in 1961. I remember it well because I was there as a sixteen-year-old Empire Loyalist:
"The biggest meeting was in Trafalgar Square on Sunday February 28th, with the BNP not yet a week old. BNP members turned up with posters and leaflets proclaiming 'Stand by White South Africa', whilst a BNP loudspeaker van toured round the square with a similar message. Also in attendance were many Mosley supporters and Sir Oswald in person, with Bill Webster from St Pancras North standing by his side."
The main ideological difference was between Union Movement which favoured European unity and the nationalists who dreamed of reviving the British Empire. But we all supported South Africa and were opposed to the Money Power and non-European immigration.
Oswald Mosley does not mention meetings with nationalists in his biography, 'My Life', but they were reported by John Bean in 'Many Shades of Black', John Tyndall in 'Spearhead', Richard Thurlow in 'Fascism in Britain', Graham Macklin in 'Failed Fuhrers', and Martin Walker in 'The National Front'. The World Heritage Encyclopedia published by the Gutenberg Project states:
The NLP gained a few minor results in elections, but was always destined to be a small fringe movement and as a result Bean decided to merge his party with another LEL splinter group, the White Defence League in 1960 to form the British National Party. Bean was made leader of the party upon its foundation. Early in the group's life both Bean and former White Defence League leader Colin Jordan were approached by Oswald Mosley who offered them roles in his Union Movement if they agreed to it subsuming the BNP but both men rejected the offer.
John Tyndall wrote in Spearhead No 147, January 1981:
Our encounter lasted an hour, during which we argued the respective merits of Anglo-Saxon union and the Union of Europe. A devotee of the first, I did battle with perhaps the most formidable advocate of the second. The meeting, which had been arranged by a mutual friend who had hoped we might be able to join forces, was terminated by Mosley abruptly as the hour struck - and rightly, because it was clear that in loyalties we belonged to two different worlds which argument could not bridge. I expect he forgot me quickly after that but I certainly did not forget him. I have long believed that in this advanced crisis in our civilisation we can only be saved by exceptional men, and there was no doubt that Mosley was an exceptional man.
The Monday Club was a Tory pressure group founded in 1961 to oppose Harold Macmillan. When they held a meeting at Westminster Central Hall in 1972 to protest against immigration, one of the speakers was Harold Soref MP who had been a standard bearer at Oswald Mosley's 1934 meeting at Olympia. Gregory Lauder Frost, and Lord Sudeley were founder member of the Monday Club who now run the Traditional Britain Group. When Iain Douglas Smith outlawed the Monday Club some members turned their attention to the National Front. They tried to legitimise themselves by supporting Israel but they made little progress. 'Springfields' posted the following comment on European Outlook:
Labour MP Jo Cox was a member of Labour Friends of Palestine. She was murdered by Thomas Mair who subscribed to ex-National Front member and current Swinton Circle chairman Alan Harvey's pro-Zionist, pro-Israel, reactionary right wing Tory, pro-UKIP, Springbok Club magazine, and Mair had letters published in Harvey's rag.
British Nationalist movements, as distinct from Scottish, Irish and Welsh, thrive on adversity. Union Movement blossomed in the grim post-war years but struggled when things got better and premier Harold Macmillan was able to boast that we had "never had it so good." The National Front built a mass movement in the Seventies, when immigration had become an issue, but it imploded when Margaret Thatcher came to power promising to do something about it. The British National Party under the leadership of Nick Griffin (1999-2014) exploited the discontent of the white working class; it polled half a million votes in the 2010 election but was destroyed by the right-wing takeover of the Tory Party under Boris Johnson.
Such is the state of things today. We were recovering from the last recession when we were hit by the Coronavirus. We don't know how long it will be before we get back to normal but the national debt is approaching £2 trillion and our economy has contracted by 20%. It's time for another populist party to make its mark, and when it does, it will probably be able to trace its family tree all the way back to the original British Fascists.
Delusions
The coronavirus pandemic has sparked a wave of conspiracy theories about man-made viruses produced by the Chinese, the CIA, Mossad etc. The lack of evidence doesn't deter them, instead, they take it as proof of conspiracy. If you point out that the pandemic has effected Chinese, Americans, and Israelis, they will probably say: "that's what they want you to think."
Sufferers from paranoia hear voices, experience feelings of persecution and believe in bizarre conspiracy theories, such as the idea that shape-shifting lizard people are taking over the world. This mental disorder is most common in middle-aged women but men are also vulnerable. They can be helped but, like alcoholics and drug addicts, they must really want to recover. Unfortunately, most of them do not want to get better and they regard offers of help as part of the plot against them.
Some of them avoid having their photos taken or refuse to give their names and addresses, telephone numbers, or even their e-mail addresses. Others are reputed to wear tin-foil hats to stop the CIA from reading their minds. They can be recognised by their fanaticism and by the horrified reactions of their listeners who usually make an excuse and leave when they start spouting nonsense.
I realised the extent of paranoia when I attended a meeting held upstairs in a central London pub. The pub had a security system that included a camera. When an elderly member of the audience noticed it there was a great commotion as people tried to hide their faces or move out of range. The organiser calmed them down by placing a newspaper over the camera. I realise that political activities might endanger people's jobs, but these were mostly pensioners with no jobs to worry about.
Fear of identification and conspiracy theories go hand in hand and get worse with age. I accept that some international financiers are up to no good but I don't believe in shape-shifting lizard people and mind-controlling rays put out by the CIA. Such ideas are simply mad and those promoting them should consult a good Jewish psychiatrist.
Lord Haw Haw: The Full Story of William Joyce by JA Cole
This is the fifth biography of William Joyce that I have read. Rebecca West wrote 'The Meaning of Treason' in 1948 when it was almost impossible to be objective. Not surprisingly, she produced a spiteful account of her subject. Francis Selwyn did better in 'Hitler's Englishman' in 1987. Mary Kenny wrote the most sympathetic book so far, her 2003 biography of Joyce entitled 'Germany Calling'. And Colin Holmes produced the most scholarly work with 'Searching for Lord Haw-Haw' in 2016. JA Cole's excellent book was first published in 1964 but I have just discovered it.
Cole adds little to the story of William Joyce but he succeeds in treating his subject as a human being. One of my favourite anecdotes from his book is that William Joyce was sent off during a school Rugby match because the referee said that he did not know which side he was on.
But he had been on the side of the British Empire since his days as a scout for the military in Ireland. And he maintained this contact during his career as a fascist agitator. My friend Bill Barnes (1912-1981) knew Joyce before the war and insisted that he had been set up by MI5 to go to Germany on the understanding that he would not be prosecuted. Barnes also thought that Joyce had kept his mouth shut in court to protect his wife.
Joyce was hanged because he once held a British passport and was therefore guilty of treason by broadcasting for the enemy during wartime. He was born in New York to an Irish father and naturalised as a German citizen. He never struck a blow against Britain, he only broadcast over the German radio in the hope of ending what he regarded as an unnecessary war. But Britain in the post-war years was not interested in fine points of law.
Since his trial we have had a succession of real spies and traitors; Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, John Cairncross, and Anthony Blunt betrayed vital information to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but none of them faced the hangman's noose.
The only other 'traitor' to be executed was John Amery, the son of Leo Amery the Secretary of State for India. He broadcast for the Axis powers and recruited British prisoners of war to fight with the Germans on the Russian front. He had been granted Spanish citizenship for his service to the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War but this was not recognised by the court. He was hanged in Wandsworth prison on 19th December 1945.
Joyce was hanged in Wandsworth Prison on 3rd January 1946. He was buried in the the prison grounds until 1976 when he was re-buried in Galway. His daughter, Mrs Heather Landolo, fought a long campaign to have his remains returned to Ireland where he grew up and first dedicated himself to politics.
Fortress Britain
When the present crisis is over it would make sense for us to be more self-reliant; to grow more crops, to produce more cars and domestic appliances, and to train our own workers, but we can't protect ourselves from viral infections by closing our borders. We may be an island but we are connected to the rest of the world. In 2018 we welcomed 37.9 million visitors who spent £22.9 billion. Many of us take our holidays abroad, we import half of our food and fuel and we have friends, relations, and business contacts all over the world who we need to visit.
The UK has announced a two week quarantine period for overseas visitors. This will help to control the coronavirus pandemic but it will kill tourism in this country together with hotels, theatres, restaurants, and bars. This would have been more effective if it had been done much earlier but thousands of people have already arrived here from infected countries. We are shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
The World Health Organisation points out that if every country eradicated the virus except one, it wouldn't take long for that country to re-infect the rest of the world. This pandemic is a global problem that requires a global approach. The petty nationalism of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson may be popular with readers of 'The Daily Mail' but it will not protect us. They hate the World Health Organisation because it's international and run by 'unelected foreigners', but it has eradicated the scourge of Smallpox. Together we conquered Smallpox and together we can conquer Coronavirus.
The Jews and the Holocaust
I have received several e-mails from readers regarding the Jews and the Holocaust. They have pointed me to websites ranging from serious revisionist history to outright anti-Semitism. Some of them are interesting but I don't intend to focus on the Jews in general or the Holocaust in particular.
The Jews are prominent in several industries including show business. They own many newspapers and TV stations, and, naturally, they support Israel. But they are not inherently evil; there are good and bad Jews, just as there are good and bad Gentiles.
The Holocaust happened 75 years ago and there's nothing that we can do about it now. To quote Jean-Marie Le Pen, it has become "a detail of history." There's no point in debating the exact number of victims, or endangering one's liberty by provoking the Law.
Anti-Semitism is unjust but criticism of Zionism is perfectly justified. The Israeli occupation of Palestine is inhuman and in contravention of UN Resolution 242, but eventually the American taxpayers will wake up and Israel-Palestine will become a single democratic state.
Eddy Morrison RIP
The Leeds-based poet and patriot Eddy Morrison died on Wednesday 10th June, aged 70. His lifelong fight for Race and Nation was recorded in his biography 'Memoirs of a Street Soldier'. He will be sadly missed by all his friends. Read his obituary in 'Heritage and Destiny'.
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This blog seeks reform by legal means. All articles are by Bill Baillie unless otherwise stated. The opinions of guest writers are entirely their own. We uphold the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19:
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"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."
European Outlook
Our sister blog is posted on - https.europeanoutlook.blogspot.com
Comments
Use the facility at the end of this blog to leave your comments and read what others have to say. But please don't post ad hominem attacks, we are interested in ideas not personalities.
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