Proportional Representation
We had a referendum on electoral reform in 2011 in which 67% of the electorate voted to keep the 'first-past-the-post' system. Inexplicably, the BNP, which was still a viable party at the time, campaigned against a change which would have been to its advantage.
Under the present system the Liberal Democrats have 14 seats in parliament but under a proportional representation system they would have over 100. The Tories would lose about 100 seats and the Labour Party would stay more or less where they are.
There are many different electoral systems, from pure PR, which they use in Israel, to the single transferable vote used in Australia. All of them are fairer than our system.
It's argued that PR leads to coalitions, but all parties are coalitions within themselves; there is a world of difference between the 'one nation' Tories represented by Ken Clarke, to the right-wing fanatics following Boris Johnson. And there is a similar gulf between the left-wing of the Labour Party represented by Diane Abbott and the moderates led by Keir Starmer.
PR would encourage minority parties, but a 5% threshold for parliamentary representation would keep out the Metric Martyrs, Hyperboreans, Anti-Vaxxers and Flat-Earthers, while parties like the British Democrats would have something to aim for. Minority parties have no hope of inclusion in a governing coalition under our present system, but if they had a realistic chance of making a difference it would encourage them to up their game.
Colin Jordan made a powerful point when he wrote 'Party Time Has Ended' - https://www.stormfront.org/forum/t693299/
But people have a right to be represented by candidates of their choice. If a general election was held under PR it would probably result in a hung parliament. The Labour and Conservative parties would get the most votes, but the LIb-Dems, the Greens, and the smaller parties would do a lot better than they do at present.
Writers I Have Known
It's nice to have pictures of your friends and family on your sideboard but it's even better to have their books on your bookshelves.
My friend Jeffrey Wallder wrote countless articles for 'Action', the Union Movement journal, and for 'Comrade', the Friends of Mosley magazine, under the nom de plume Gordon Beckwell. He compiled the Blackshirts in Kingston Project at the University of Sheffield, and he collaborated with the late John Warburton in compiling the Defence Regulation18B Detainees List which is posted on the Friends of Mosley website - oswaldmosley.com Thanks to his diligent research we know that over a thousand men were detained without charge or trial under the wartime legislation. Under the name JA Booker, he wrote 'Blackshirts On-Sea' (1999), and in 2015, under his real name, he published a novel 'Fragments of Tom'.
I first met Jeffrey Hamm (1915 - 1992) at his office in Rochester Row in 1974. He encouraged me to write for 'Action' which was the principle function of Union Movement at the time, and he introduced me to the works of Oswald Mosley. He wrote extensively for Union Movement publications, including 'Union', 'Action', and 'The European'. He edited 'Lodestar', under the name of Geoffrey Vernon. He wrote his autobiography 'Action Replay' (1983), 'Mosley's Blackshirts', and 'The Evil Good Men Do' (1986).
John Millican wrote the standard reference work on the history, uniforms and insignia of the BUF and Union Movement. 'Mosley's Men in Black' was originally published in 2004 and is now in its third edition. This meticulously researched book with many previously unpublished photographs is a must for students of extraparliamentary politics.
I was introduced to Oswald Mosley (1896 - 1980) and Diana Mitford (1910 - 2003) at a Union Movement dinner in 1976 but I cannot claim to have known them. Mosley was a prolific writer of books, articles and pamphlets. His pre-war works were; 'The Greater Britain', '100 Questions Answered' and 'Tomorrow We Live. His post-war works included 'The Alternative' (1947) 'Europe Faith and Plan' (1958), 'Mosley Right or Wrong' (1961), and his autobiography 'My Life', (1968).
Diana Mitford wrote for the mainstream magazine 'The Tatler' and she edited 'The European'. She also wrote several books including her autobiography 'A life of Contrasts' which was published in 1997. I can do no better than to quote from the cover:
"Diana Mitford is doubtless one of the most exceptional women of the twentieth century. Perhaps the only friend close to both Churchill and Hitler, she grew up at the heart of the glittering literary and aristocratic group surrounding the Mitfords - Evelyn Waugh was but one who fell in love with her. Divorcing her glamerous husband for the married Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, she notoriously became friends with Hitler, and Magda and Joseph Goebels. As a result she was detained in Holloway Prison. In these witty memoirs she describes her own life in inimitable Mitford fashion. Hers is a rare and extraordinary portrait of the twentieth century that is truly unique and unforgettable."
Before I saw the light on Europe I was a member of the League of Empire Loyalists. I knew AK Chesterton (1899 - 1973), who edited 'Candour' and wrote his biography of Mosley, 'Portrait of a Leader'(1937) and 'The New Unhappy Lords' (1965). I also knew Rosine de Bounevialle who wrote 'The Candour ABC of Politics' (2016) and Rodney Legg who wrote 'Legg Over Dorset' (2011).
Following my 'apprenticeship' in the LEL I moved on to John Bean's British National Party. JB's first book, 'Ten Miles From Anywhere' (1995) is a selection of extracts from the 'Wickhambrook Scene', the parish magazine which he edited. It describes life in rural west Suffolk and brings alive the characters and the atmosphere of that remote village. His second book 'Many Shades of Black' (1999) was written with a degree of journalistic license but it has become a reference work of the political periphery. His two novels 'Blood in the Square' (2014) and 'Trail of the Viking Finger' (2016) were not to my taste but I guess he enjoyed writing them.
I met Andrew Fountaine (1918 - 1970), the president of the BNP, at their 1962 camp. His critique of Winston Chirchill, 'The Meaning of an Enemy' was serialized in 'Combat' from 1960 - 1965. In 2012 John Bean and I got it published as a book by Ostara Publications.
I also met John Tyndall (1934 - 2005) who went on to lead the National Front and the contemporary BNP, both of which ultimately expelled him. His first effort was 'The Authoritarian State' (1962), but his magnum opus was 'The Eleventh Hour' (1998), in which he dreams of an empire comprised of the white dominions under the reactionary rule of a Britain purged of foreigners.
I first met Martin Webster in the days of the League of Empire Loyalists. He has written for numerous nationalist publications including 'Spearhead' and 'Choice'. He issues his email bulletins 'Electronic Loose Cannon' and 'Electronic Watch on Zion'. He also writes for the websites 'Anglo-Celtic' and 'Occidental Observer'. His rumoured autobiography is awaited.
I was privileged to know the veteran campaigner Frank Walsh, 'The King of Speakers Corner', who died in 2020 aged 95. He edited a blog, 'Our Folk's Voice', which was a unique mixture of artwork, poetry and prose. He also published a book entitled 'The Justiceans Millenia' (1996) which expounded his views on the Money Power.
I met Robert Best at London Forum meeting about ten years ago. He has written articles for various journals including 'Comrade' and 'The League Sentinel'. And he wrote 'Red Terror: The Crimes of Marxism' (2008) and 'Fascism and Religion' (2009), both published by the League of St George.
There are many other writers of my acquainance who have entertained, informed and influenced me: which is surely the point of reading unless you have a closed mind. All of them shared my opinions on immigration and capitalism but some of them clung to pre-war policies that no longer make sense. Nevertheless I remember them all with affection.
The Night of Want is Breaking, Day Will Find Their Route
Jackie Morton has written a moving account of the life of her uncle Frank Hamley. He was a Sheffield school teacher and the district organiser of British Union in south Yorkshire. Together with Oswald Mosley, Diana Mitford, and a thousand other political dissidents he was interned in 1940 under Defence Regulation 18B. None of them were ever charged with any crime, they were locked up under deplorable conditions simply for opposing the war,:
"Once at Walton prison, Frank was placed in a room with fifteen other men, with one unclean ill kept toilet and drinking water contaminated by by a pigeon's nest. He was dressed in the clothes he'd been arrested in. The conditions in Walton were generally tougher. The hostility of the prison officers described in Frank's letter to Winnie with one shouting at them "I would shoot the fxxking lot of you...you ought to be bloody well starved." They had porridge for breakfast and a mug of tea, potatoes that were black and meat that they thought was horse and when they asked for a knife and fork to eat their meals, they were told to 'use you fxxking fingers' which was difficult when given porridge. Many described the conditions as being treated worse than the common criminals. No sheets on the beds only frowsy stained blankets. It was ten days to a fortnight before any of the men could shave and by that time, their beards were thick. Each blade had to suffice for at least a dozen persons, so it was a painful and bloody operation."
Female members of British Union and so-called 'enemy aliens' were treated just as badly. The following report from a German woman is from Hansard September 1944:
"Many of the internees had spent three months in Holloway prison, and there the most appalling things happened. For instance, all young children and babies were taken from their mothers on arrest. The mothers were not told of their whereabouts, and in spite of repeated promises by the Government that they would be restored to them, they did not see them again until the end of August , when what was called the 'Children's Transport' arrived at Port Erin. I spoke to one mother whose child was then eight month old and weighed less than when she was taken away three months previously. The child's diet was written down and pinned to her coat, and read: 'Two tablespoons of water and two of milk four times a day.' I cannot say if the instructions included the child's entire diet, but the lady struck me as quite a sincere and truthful person and full of indignation about her child's treatment. Another internee, English born, who stayed in the same house with me, told me of a young wife in the next cell to hers who was seven months pregnant. She began in labour during the night, and despite her repeatedly ringing the bell no one came to her. The child was born on the cell floor, dead. The mother was taken away on a stretcher, and nobody knew what became of her. All the internees were locked in their cells seventeen hours out of twenty-four, and received only the meanest prison food, all meals served without cutlery. The woman who was then our Camp Commandant, Dame Joanna Cruikshank, OBE, was utterly heartless and cruel. She was notified that the husband of one of the aliens was dying in Douglas Camp, and was asked to allow the wife to visit him, a request which she refused in cold blood. When I was interned, we spent the first night in Drummond Road School, Bradford, sleeping on iron stretchers three inches from the floor. Some mothers had three children and the scenes and cries of fear and panic were dreadful. We were taken to Liverpool early the next day and spent the whole day in Liverpool Boxing Stadium till 8 pm. We were not allowed to take our children to the door for fresh air, and I spoke to one mother with a child eleven days old. We each had a large baggage label on our lapel with a number on it, and as they marched us through the streets in the middle of the road, our babies in one arm and our luggage in the other, the crowds lined the pavements and spat on us as we passed. Then at 8pm we were crowded onto a small Isle of Man pleasure steamer, 1,800 of us, and the great majority of these helpless women and children spent the night lying on the deck without a pillow or a blanket. When one of my English-born acquaintances asked the captain where we were going, he replied, 'If I had my way you would all go to the bottom'. One woman with two children, five and six years old, lost her reason during the crossing, and was taken to Douglas Asylum. When I left, the husband who was interned at Douglas, had not been released, so that he could care for them. They were still at Port Erin alone, and the mother in the asylum."
Jackie Morton evokes the spiteful brutality of 18B and the desperate campaign waged by Frank and his wife Winnie to get him released. This was not achieved until 1943 after three years of inhuman treatment.
Frank Hamley joined Union Movement when it was founded in 1948 and soon became the Sheffield branch leader. He stood for UM in the council elections in Walkley ward Sheffield in 1961- 63, and in the 1966 general election in Ardwick, Manchester. He died in March 1985.
The book contains transcripts of the tribunals that heard Frank's appeals and copies of the letters he wrote to Winnie during his internment. This is the true story of a brave and dedicated man told by his respectful niece. It is available direct from the author - jaquimorton5gmail.com - price £16.99 + £4.00 postage.
Moon of Alabama
For objective reporting on the Ukraine war go to -https://www.moonofalabama.org/
European Outlook
Our sister blog European Outlook is posted - https://europeanoutlook.blogspot.com
Nation Revisited
