Nation Revisited # 186 April 2022

What We Fight For:

When I first got interested in politics, sixty years ago, the main threat was Communism. The Soviet Union was backing guerilla armies in Asia and Africa and financing left wing movements throughout the world. Our fears were fed by American propaganda that warned of an atomic war. Eventually the threat subsided and the superpowers started talking to each other, but thirty years after the fall of the Soviet Union the Russians are still seen as the enemy. What President Eisenhower called the Military-Industrial Complex still needs Cold War hostility to stay in business. Arms sales depend on tension.

China claims to be a Communist country but it's really an authoritarian capitalist state. The Chinese have invested massively in the United States and America depends on Chinese exports. The world's two biggest economies are in fact interdependent. 

The next issue was immigration. The UK simply ran out of Irishmen and was forced to look elsewhere for labour. The government found an abundant source of manpower in the West Indies, so they rushed through the British Nationality Act in 1948 to allow Commonwealth subjects to come to the UK. In those days it would have been possible to send them home with fares paid, but now there are too many here to dream of mass deportation. We haven't got the manpower, the ships, the planes, or the determination, and there's no guarantee that their homelands would take them back.

At the same time we realised that the Empire was disintegrating; India became independent in 1947 and  decolonisation was in progress when prime minister Harold Macmillan made his famous "Winds of Change" speech in Capetown in 1960. His speech was recieved with outrage, but he was only speaking the truth. Within a decade the empire on which the Sun never set was no more.      

So, if Communism is a dead duck, immigration is a done deal, and the Empire has passed into history, what exactly are we fighting for? The answer is a complete reform of the capitalist system.  Companies that make an honest profit and treat their workers with respect should be encouraged, but the exploiters must be closed down. 

It's widely held that the Jews are responsible, but some of the worst capitalists are to be found in China and the Gulf States, where Jews are few in number. International capitalists don't belong to any particular race or religion. Bill Gates of Microsoft is an American of Scots and Irish heritage. Zong Shanshan, the richest man in China, has amassed a fortune of $77.5 billion by selling mineral water and Chinese medicine. And King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud is reputedly worth trillions of dollars. But none of them are Jewish. There are certainly many rich and influential Jews, especially in Europe and the US, but the Shylock model is out-of-date. 

The UK is a G7 nation with a high standard of living but millions of our people are living in poverty. The gap between rich and poor is unacceptable. We must build a better Britain where housing, health and education are freely available. And we must reject the worst aspects of capitalism, such as the disgraceful 'Fire and Rehire' policy inflicted on the P&O seamen. Such a  change in society would involve tax breaks for parents and generous allowances for children. It would allow fathers to support their families and mothers to raise their children properly instead of letting them roam the streets. 

We are grateful to America for helping us during the two world wars, but we must stand on our own feet, take pride in our achievements, and protect our European culture.  

We fight for; national pride, cultural survival, social equality, and regulated capitalism.

Vic Sarson

Yes, for many the twenties were hard but the thirties, following the Wall Street crash, were even harder; my father (1900-1976) remembered those days well. The average industrial weekly wage was £1.50 until1938 when war preperations took off. Coincident with that the country went through a period of deflation where prices of goods went down by as much as 25%. That may sound good but deflation, especially when so dramatic a drop, is as bad for the economy as the very high inflation we experienced during the 1970s.

Regarding the war, the cost of a new Spitfire was £20,000, £8,000 for a Hurricane. Training a pilot was £5,000. Government expediture was £1 million per day at the beginning and £3 million by the end. The state of emergency of course was not rescinded until the late Autumn of 1947.

What The Papers Say

In 2005 a new book was published in Britain concerning racial issues. Normally such publications are either an anti-racist rant or a socialogical treatise so boring that bus timetables are more stimulating. This one was different: called The New East End and authored by Geoff Dench, Kate Gavron and Michael Young. In parts it was a quasi-honest attempt to explain what happened to White East London over a 25 year period, circa 1980-2005. Media headlines about this book were interesting: 'Labour's Love Lost, 'London's East End - The Simmering Pot', 'Ignored, Angry and Anxious; The World of The White Working Class'. Candour, August-Sept 2021. www.candour.org.uk 

So, why are we heading for a national crisis? Aside from Covid, there are three key areas. The migration crisis, the looming health crisis, and the cost of living. Those three will trump everything during the coming year. Already we are being told if you want a hip operation, wait another year or go private. The NHS simply can't cope because there are now twenty million more people waiting to use it -  due to post-war Tory and Labour immigration policies - than it was built for. Heritage and Destiny, Jan - Feb 2022  www.heritageanddestiny.com 

Our congratulations to the Danish government for their positive action in taking back their Homeland from foreign invaders. A government spokesman outlined Denmark's new approach to the invaders is: "genuine asylum seekers should register in the first safe country they reach after leaving their war-torn homelands. This is often Italy or Greece. If they attempt to move to Denmark or Great Britain they lose their asylum seekers  status and simply become economic migrants." Congratulations also to the Social Democrat prime minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, who said: "Denmark will aim to have zero asylum seekers." League Sentinel, Autumn 2021. www.leaguestgeorge.org 

This series (Ridley Road) is based on the 2016 novel by Jewish author Jo Bloom which glorifies the actions in the early 1960s of the violent anti-fascist organisation the '62 Group'. This BBC adaptation is not historically accurate. The portrayal of the character of Colin Jordan by the actor Rory Kinnear is highly negative and not historically accurate nor is the depiction of the NSM and its activist off-shoot the Spearhead. Broadsword, October 2021. www.britishmovement.info  

Enlightened Brexiteers

My attitude to Europe is straight forward. I believe in a united Europe and I see the EU as a step in that direction. Those nationalist groups derived from the National Front are anti-European but there are individuals within them that are in favour of European solidarity. Unfortunately the two examples that spring to mind have recently passed away, but there must be others who share their views.

John Bean was a member of the British Democratic Party which is firmly pro-Brexit, but he believed in a European Confederation which is surely what the EU is; a union of sovereign states bound together by treaty.

Richard Edmonds spoke French and German and travelled frequently to the Continent. He finished his days in the National Front but although he belonged to a pro-Brexit party he never shared their outdated petty nationalism.

I am not the only one to notice this change. Robert Best wrote two years ago:

"Michael Walsh McLoughlin is far more pro-Mosley than he was in the 1970s/80s British Movement, so is Stephen Frost (BM national secretary) and Richard Edmonds (NF) - who all used to support Leese!" 

As Brexit unravels the British public will realise that they have been conned. None of Boris Johnson's promises have been kept: immigration is out-of-control, prices are rising, labour shortages are crippling the economy, and the Northern Ireland problem is unresolved.

If the little parties of the far-right want to be taken seriously they must abandon the dogma of the past and accept the revision of public opinion. As the great economist John Maynard Keynes said: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir."

The French National Rally (Rassemblement National)  formerly the National Front, used to be against the EU and the euro, but they have realised that although the French electorate support them on immigration they are turned off by anti-European rhetoric. Public opinion in France is similar to the UK, but the majority are Remainers. Marin Le Pen (pictured) proposed the rebranding of the party and the change of policy. She announced in 2021 that she wanted to stay in the Schengen Area citing: "an attachment to the European spirit."

Making Money

One of the most cherished misconceptions of the far-right is that banks are all powerful. They are certaily greedy and unsympathetic but they are subject to the rules of commerce and, without government intervention, some of them would fail. If the banks could have created money out of nothing Lehman Brothers and Northern Rock would not have gone broke.

It's true that they lend money in excess of their reserves but since the financial crisis of 2008 governments all over the world have introduced Capital Requirements to prevent overtrading.

The British Government raises money in addition to taxation by selling interest-bearing bonds, mostly to insurance companies and pension funds. Only 27% of bonds are sold to overseas investors, the vast majority go to British buyers.

When the Subprime Mortgage crisis crossed the Atlantic in 2008 the Government lent the banks £137 billion to stop them from failing. This was criticised at the time but a banking collapse would have been catastrophic for the economy. This vast sum of money is being paid back with interest, and when the transaction is complete the Government will have made a profit. 

The same system is being used to compensate companies and individuals affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. Our Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been praised for his generosity but he did not become a billionaire by giving money away. Every penny will have to be paid back. 

There is nothing mysterious about the banking industry, no dark arts are involved and bankers are not part of some monstrous conspiracy. 

Usury is universally condemned but few things are free in the real world. Banks take a calculated risk when they lend money and they have legitimate expenses like any other business; rents, salaries, pensions, insurance, and taxes must be paid which is why they charge for their services. It's important that interest rates are strictly controlled but it would achieve nothing to hang all the bankers; except to please their bloodthirsty detractors.

The Money Power consists of huge international corporations like Microsoft and Google, and policy makers like George Soros or Klaus Schuab, that use their influence to control so-called sovereign states; the banks are only part of it. 

A Century of Change

The world has changed almost beyond recognition in the last hundred year but we can trace these changes back to their beginnings.

Cressida Dick the lesbian head of London's Metropolitan Police was recently sacked by Sadiq Khan the Muslim Mayor of London supported by Priti Patel the Hindu Home Secretary. A hundred years ago there were few Asians in the UK but our first Indian MP, Dadabhai Naoraji, was elected to represent Finsbury in central London in 1892. The first female police officer, Edith Smith, joined the force in Lincolnshire in 1915. Homosexuality was illegal in the UK until 1967 but lesbianism was permitted. The Covid 19 pandemic has swept the world killing thousands and wrecking national economies. But this is not the first time that we have faced such an emergency. The Spanish Flu pandemic during and after the First World War killed more people than the War itself. Like Covid it took about two years to run its course.

Microsoft and Google have announced record profits. Radio broadcasting started in the UK in 1920 when the Marconi station 2MT went on the air from Chelmsford, Essex. Television followed in 1936 when the BBC began broadcasting from Alexander Palace in London. Computers were developed during the Second World War, notably by Alan Turing, and the Internet was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.

The Civil War between the Whites and the Bolsheviks was raging in Russia and Ukraine in 1922. Some of the Ukrainians wanted a separate state but they were incorporated into the Soviet Union. 

The pace of change over the last hundred years has been rapid. American brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their first primitive airplane in 1903 in North Carolina. Eight years later Italian pilots were bombing Turkish targets in Libya. British officers Allcock and Brown made the first transatlantic flight in 1919. The Russians launched their first Sputnik in 1957 aboard an R7 rocket designed by Sergei Korelev. The Americans reached the Moon in 1969 and astronaut Neil Armstrong said: "that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

It seems that there's no limit to human achievements. I wonder what will happen in the next hundred years?

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Nation Revisited

All articles are by Bill Baillie unless otherwise stated. The opinions of guest writers are entirely their own. We seek reform by legal means according to 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 our ideas with other people."

    

   

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