Nation Revisited # 188 June 2022

Traditional Britain Group

Gregory Lauder-Frost is a nationalist and a defender of inherited privilege. As a European Socialist I never expected to have much in common with him, but I agree with the opening lines of his Traditional Britain Group newsletter, March 2022:

Russo-Ukraine conflict

The TBG are completely opposed to any involvement whatsoever in eastern European affairs and the eternal squabbles there. We see no reason to take sides. Everything there has a historical context which 99% of western Europeans know nothing about. We oppose the sanctions of the UK government, who is not at war with Russia and maintains full diplomatic relations with them; we oppose OFCOM's action in revoking RT's broadcasting licence thus denying freedom of the press/media to present an alternative to the biased western narratives. These are the very actions of a totalitarian government, which the UK government claims to oppose. Aggravating a nuclear power to the extent that our government is doing makes the United Kingdom a potential target in any future war. This is something no-one should ignore. Britain is no longer a world power.

The Alien Colonisation

The government has continued to demonstrate clearly that they will continue to take asylum-seekers and 'refugees' on an increasingly threadbare basis into our overcrowded and unwillingly diversified country. Small boats of illegal aliens continue to cross the Channel daily with the open support of the laughably named 'Border Force' and RNLI. For instance, by March 20th over 2,200 illegals had come ashore in Kent. The foreign-origin Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has just today stated: "We want Ukrainian refugees to thrive here, just like the people 'we' (the government) have welcomed from Syria, Hong Kong and Afghanistan. They will have access to public services, from the (free) NHS and specialist mental health services (important), to education and benefits." So there you have it. The government is inviting millions of aliens into our country, without consulting us, the indigenous people, and offering them everything of ours which we have worked for in the past century. If that is not treachery on a mighty scale, what is?

Lastly, continuing reports state that thousands of Africans and Asians are now flooding through Ukraine, despite the conflict there, heading for the European Union (as a first stop) and telling border posts that they were in Ukraine as 'students', despite the fact that they cannot speak or write the language or produce any evidence.

Sam Dickson on Winston Churchill

This much quoted statement shares with a lot of other popular quotes the fact that it is so false, even silly, on its face.

Obviously so.

There is no survival "without victory?"

Really?

How many times in human history have nations suffered defeats and survived?

Contrary to what the drunken egomaniac said, defeats that were so devastating as to cause a nation to disappear almost never occur in history.

Greece has survived for almost 30 centuries. Defeats by the Romans and the Turks did not mean the Greek nation did not survive.

The sad fact of the matter is that Britain (and our larger White European family) may not survive precisely because of Churchill's stupid policy of fighting a war to the last penny and the last drop of blood instead of resolving the matter through a negociated peace...as had been done so often in European history.

One can drop this "Churchillian" eloquence into the toilet and flush it along with so many others, including but not limited to:

"...all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights..."

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

How many people are swept off their feet by nonsense like these 3 goofball statements remains a mystery to me despite 75 years of trying to figure it out.

Energy and the Green Agenda

The Russo-Ukrainian conflict has highlighted Europe's dependence on Russian gas and oil. The UK gets most of its gas and oil from the North Sea, Norway, or the Middle East; we still buy some from Russia but Germany and Italy are almost totally dependent on Russian supplies.

The UK used to generate electricity from domestic coal but when cheap gas became available in the 1980s the government closed down most of our coalmines and went over to gas. This suited Margaret Thatcher's anti-union policy and made billions of pounds for the newly privatised gas industry. 

It used to be thought that nuclear power was the cheapest way to generate electricity, until the cost of construction, decommissioning and radioactive storage was considered, then it turned out to be the dearest way. Not to mention the risk of a catastrophe like Chernobyl or Fukashima. At present, half of France's 56 nuclear power plants are shut down for safety checks.

We are currently switching to renewable sources of energy to conform to the Green Agenda. But wind turbines, tidal power, solar power, nuclear and other forms of 'clean' energy cannot meet our requirements.

There is no doubt that burning fossil fuels is bad for the environment, but we should copy the Chinese and the Australians by signing up to the Paris Agreement while continuing to use coal, oil and gas.

We are no longer a major manufacturing country and the amount of carbon that we release into the atmosphere is negligible compared to highly industrialized countries like India and China. It would be nice to do away with 'dirty' fuels but we must be realistic. We have a chilly maritime climate and a booming population. Our survival depends on adequate supplies of energy and we would be foolish to ignore the resources at our feet.

"This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organising genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time." Aneurin Bevan

What is Fascism?

Today, 'fascist' is a political swearword applied indiscriminately to any person or group outside the Liberal Consensus. Vladimir Putin calls the Ukrainian regime 'fascist' because some of its militias are descended from wartime groups that supported the Nazis. The Ukrainians return the compliment by accusing Putin of 'fascism' for invading their country. In fact, the Ukrainian regime is led by a Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelinsky, and Putin is the democratically elected president of a federative state with a market economy.

The first fascist group in the UK was the British Fascists. They were unashamed reactionaries, called by Arnold Leese: "Conservatives with knobs on." The BF newspaper British Lion explained their policies.

Arnold Leese quit the BFs to found the Imperial Fascist League, an obsessivly racist movement that hardly bothered with politics. Leese supported Adolf Hitler when he invaded Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, but he objected to the Nazi invasion of Norway: "A fellow Nordic nation."

The main pre-war fascist movement was Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. They were accused of antisemitism, but not by Arnold  Leese who called them "Kosher Fascists". The BUF had a full range of policies based on Keynsian economics and armed neutrality. They were closed down in 1940 under the infamous Defence Regulation 18B, but after the war they resurfaced as Union Movement; devoted to 'Europe a Nation'.

The contemporary populist movements are reactionary rather than fascist. They know nothing about the Corporate State or the advanced social policies of the original Fascists. They cling to pre-war policies that were made redundant by the demise of the British Empire. They are suspicious of foreigners and fanatically opposed to the European Union. The only thing fascist about them is their blustering rhetoric; one of their leaders proposed that the Royal Navy should open fire on refugees crossing the English Channel.

Benito Mussolini wrote in his autobiography:

"In some contingencies violence has a deep moral significance. In our land a leading class was neither present nor living. The Liberal Party had abdicated everything to the Socialists. There was no solid, modern, national unity.

Ignorance was still astride of the workmen and peasant masses. It was useless to attempt to blaze a trail by fine words, by sermons from chairs. It was neccesary to give timely, genial recognition to chivalrous violence. The only straight road was to beat the violent forces of evil on the very ground they had chosen.

With us were elements who knew what war meant. From them was born the organisation of 'Fasci di Combattimento' (fighting bands). Many also volunteered from our universities; they were students touched by the inspiration of idealism, who quit their studies to run to our call.

We knew that we must win this war too, throw into yesterday the period of cowardice and treachery. It was neccessary to make our way by violence, by sacrifice, by blood; it was neccessary to establish an order and a discipline wanted by the masses, but impossible to obtain through milk-and-water propaganda and by words, words, and more words, and parliamentary and journalistic sham battles.

We began our period of rescue and resurrection. Dead there were - but on the horizon all eyes saw the dawn of Italian rebirth." 

Fascism was a revolutionary movement supported by millions of unemployed ex-servicement from the First World War. It emerged at a time of grinding poverty and offered hope for the future. Unfortunately, Fascism as a political creed is forever tarnished by association with the Nazis. It was a product of its time, when discipline and loyalty were normal behaviours. Hence the Fascist slogan: "Credere, Obbedire, Combattere - Believe, Obey, Fight."

Mad Theories

Theoreticians can be dangerous. During the Second World War, when Britain faced starvation due to German attacks on our shipping, Dr Magnus Pyke (pictured), a scientific adviser to the Ministry of Health, came up witht the idea of slaughtering all the dogs in the UK and turning the poor creatures into sausages. Prime Minister Winston Churchill made many mistakes in his time but he was right to reject Pyke's advice.

Churchill's arch enemy Adolf Hitler had ideas about everything. When his soldiers were fighting and dying on the freezing Russian Front he came up with the idea of abolishing their tobacco ration. He rightly said that tobacco was expensive and bad for your health. His generals seldom went against him but this reccomendation was ignored.

When the government started rehousing people in the 1950s, their architects designed tower blocks with shared laundries, kitchens, dining halls, and heating systems. They thought that traditional houses with their own gardens were 'elitist' and anti-social. Thankfully, their communal monstrosities were never built but dangerous tower blocks still blight the landscape, and occasionally burst into flames.

We are currently experiencing the alleged benefits of Brexit, and Jacob Rees-Mogg has been appointed as Minister of Brexit Opportunities. By quitting the EU we were supposed to "get our country back" and be in charge of our borders, our trade and our money. But the truth is that all of these things are subject to the global economy. Illegal immigrants are still crossing the English Channel; energy and food prices are escalating, and the pound buys less in our supermarkets. 

But the the maddest idea is gender reassignment. If little girls play with trains, or little boys play with dolls, it doesn't mean that they need gender reassignment. If adults elect to have major surgery that's their business, but innocent children should be left alone. Of course we are sorry for people struggling with their sexual identity, but no one has the right to confuse children with the latest madness from 'experts' totally lacking in common sense.

Syndicalism

                                Juan and Evita Peron

I was recently taken to task by Geoff Wallder, who writes under the name of Gordon Beckwell. He objected to my contention that Sydicalism had never been tried. He pointed out that the Peronist regime in Argentina implemented syndicalist policies from 1946 until 1955. President Juan Peron nationalized the leading Argentine corporations and involved the trade unions in running the economy.

And as a reforming Minister of Labour, his wife, Evita Peron earned the devotion of the masses. She championed the cause of women and children and defended the poor; when she died in 1952 she was given a state funeral. 

But Peron's confrontation with big business and the Catholic Church led to his overthrow in a coup organised by the CIA. He returned from exile in Spain in 1973 but he died the following year. 

Since the overthrow of the original Peronist regime, Argentina has experienced a series of military dictatorships, several failed democratic governments, and a war that left the country bankrupt. Today, Argentina is still struggling to pay off her debts, even though the country is as big as India, with a population of 46.6 million, and is self-sufficient in food and oil.

Despite the Argentine experiment, I still think that ideas like syndicalism and social credit go against human nature. If the workers are put in charge of industry they will award themselves pay rises until they run out of money. And if the state pays people a guaranteed wage, if they are working or not, most of them will stay at home. 

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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:

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