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The Threat from the Far Right VOLAJRUme JOURNAL 10 NO.1 january 2010 The threat from the far right he BBC’s invitation to Nick Griffin, Lloyd George’s wartime coalition govern- leader of the British National ment; in 1917, the Balfour Declaration that T Party, to appear on Question bears his name designated Palestine as Time last October understandably raised the Jewish homeland.) concerns among the Jewish refugees Though the recent success of the BNP from Hitler in Britain about a potential in winning two seats in the European upsurge of support for the extreme right. Parliament, as well as a scattering of Might we not be going back to the 1930s, seats on local councils across England, when Fascism and Nazism were on the has alarming echoes of Mosley’s high- crest of their hideous wave, the streets of profile campaigns of the 1930s, the European cities resounded to the tramp differences between 1933 and 2010 are of marching jackboots and anti-Semitism The Battle of Cable Street, October 1936 very considerable. Mosley was dangerous was in full flood? because he was a skilled political operator A historical comparison between the Axis or neutral. In all cases, they were the who had already enjoyed a promising 1930s and the present decade – both enemies of this country, and Churchill political career as a rising star of notable times of economic crisis – may help to recognised them as such. gifts and energy; he was also very well answer the question, or at least to put it in Griffin also claimed that Churchill connected within the ruling British some perspective. An accurate historical would have supported the BNP’s policy on establishment. Elected to Parliament in perspective may help, for a start, to reveal immigration. Rubbish! Until 1905, Britain 1918 as a Conservative while still in his some of Griffin’s statements on Question operated no restrictions on immigration. early twenties, he established a reputation Time for the travesty of reality that they In that year, the Aliens Act was brought in, as one of the most accomplished and were. He claimed, for example, that to limit Jewish immigration from Eastern effective speakers in the Commons. Churchill, had he been alive today, would Europe. Churchill, who was a friend of But in 1924 he joined the Labour have been a member of the BNP. Rubbish! the Jews throughout his career, opposed Party, as a member of the radical left-wing As our wartime prime minister, Churchill the new immigration legislation. Indeed, Independent Labour Party. In the general had no hesitation in imprisoning members it was an issue that played a part in his election of 1924, he chose with charac- of Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union decision to leave the Conservatives for teristic bravado to challenge Neville of Fascists (BUF) – Mosley was held in the Liberal Party. (He returned to the Chamberlain in the latter’s Birmingham Holloway Prison – or detaining them on Tory fold in the 1920s, famously quipping constituency, losing a knife-edge cam- the Isle of Man, under Defence Regulation ‘Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain paign by 77 votes. When Labour returned 18B, brought in under the Emergency ingenuity to rerat.’) to power in 1929, Mosley became Chancel- Powers Act, 1939. In 1904, Arthur Balfour’s tottering lor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a ministerial From 1940 to 1945, when Churchill was Conservative government – headed for post, but one that he considered inferior locking them up, Griffin’s predecessors electoral disaster in 1906, a landslide to his merits, as it was not of cabinet rank. had the choice between remaining idle, Liberal victory comparable to the Labour A restless radical, Mosley left the Labour going to jail, or fleeing to Germany, as Party’s triumphs over the Conservatives government in 1931, when his proposals did the traitors John Amery and William in 1945 and 1997 – sought to bolster its for combating the effects of the Great De- Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw), both of whom position through the populist measure pression were rejected. He formed his own were executed by the British after the of restricting Jewish immigration from New Party, then, after a visit to Mussolini’s war, the latter after being captured by Eastern Europe. Churchill, who sat for Italy, the British Union of Fascists, notori- Jewish refugee Geoffrey Perry. Churchill a Manchester seat with a sizable Jewish ous for the rabble -rousing anti-Semitism recognised that the war against Hitler presence, opposed the immigration leg- that culminated in the so-called Battle was not, like the First World War, a war islation, in the name of Britain’s liberal of Cable Street of October 1936, when between nations, but a war between tradition as a refuge for the persecuted. ‘It Mosley’s attempt to lead his Fascists ideological systems in which the enemy violated that tradition of British hospitality through the streets of London’s East End – in Britain the BUF, the approximate of which this nation has been proud, and was thwarted by local resistance. equivalent of yesterday’s National Front for the practice of which it has at more Mosley’s Fascists, for all their black- and today’s BNP – was present on both than one period reaped a permanent shirted bluster, never posed a serious sides of the Channel and was active in advantage,’ he declared. (Arthur Balfour electoral threat; they managed to win some virtually every country in Europe – Allied, subsequently became foreign secretary in continued overleaf 1 AJR JOURNAL january 2010 the threat from the far right continued from page 1 20 per cent of the against Bolshevism, ground of British politics. vote in local elections OUR which they instinctively Griffin, too, barely has a toehold in in the East End at associated with Jews. the politically influential world of the the height of Fascist HISTORY They broadly approved governing establishment and, as Question a g i t a t i o n t h e r e , The first history of Hitler’s alleged re- Time amply demonstrated, has little of of the Jews who but coming a poor fled from Hitler establishment of ‘law Mosley’s oratorical skill and charisma. second in Bethnal and settled in and order’ and his The BNP does have a constituency Green was never Britain, Jewish apparent restoration among those disadvantaged sections Refugees from likely to provide Germany and of German national of the British working class that blame a springboard to Austria in Britain, unity and pride. Kazuo their plight on immigrants. But it seems power. They were 1933-1970: Their Image in Ishiguro memorably unlikely that a coalition of those who have ‘AJR Information’ by Anthony Grenville, unable to fight the is due to be published by Vallentine captured this type of lost out in the process of modernisation general election Mitchell shortly. The AJR has supported thinking in his novel and internationalisation can provide a of 1935. However, the publication of the book and has The Remains of the solid platform for the party’s rise to power. agreed with the publisher to make a Mosley’s ideas found limited number of copies available to AJR Day (1989), in the ‘Today Barking and Dagenham, tomorrow some sympathy in members at a very advantageous rate. figure of the politically the world’ is hardly a credible slogan. far more influential An order form is enclosed in this issue naïve aristocrat Lord anthony grenville of the Journal. quarters; before the D a r l i n g t o n , w h o utter discrediting attempts to broker a Holocaust of Nazism by the Second World War, deal between the British government and Memorial Day, 2010 Mosleyite Fascism seemed to not a the Nazi ambassador, von Ribbentrop. Ian Among events commemorating Holocaust few people in positions of influence Kershaw’s study of Lord Londonderry Memorial Day will be: to represent the path of the future, a shows how a real-life aristocrat and Tory AJR replacement for the allegedly worn- minister supported the policy of appeasing Thursday 28 January, 2 pm out and ineffectual model of Western Hitler, while displaying admiration for At Belsize Square Synagogue parliamentary democracy. some aspects of Nazi Germany. Dr James Smith, Co-founder of the Mosley’s first wife was Lady Cynthia However, Kershaw also shows the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre, will speak Curzon, daughter of Lord Curzon, one of limits to Londonderry’s sympathy for Hit- on the subject ‘The Legacy of Hope’. the great political figures of his day. Their ler. Having welcomed the Munich Agree- Rabbi Rodney Mariner will lead the wedding, in May 1920, was a major social ment of autumn 1938 as the long hoped-for service, during which AJR members will light memorial candles and event, attended by members of Europe’s resolution of Anglo-German differences, Kaddish will be recited. royal families, including George V and Londonderry was brutally disillusioned Queen Mary. Mosley was distantly related when Hitler broke the terms of Munich If you wish to attend, please complete the form enclosed with to the Bowes-Lyon family, and hence to less than six months later by invading this issue of the Journal. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the late Queen the rump of Czechoslovakia. Thereafter, Mother. Lady Cynthia was a convinced like many advocates of appeasement, University of Sussex, Centre socialist, but after her death Mosley he abandoned hope of a peaceful settle- for German-Jewish Studies married Diana Mitford, a fascist and ment between Britain and Germany, if Wednesday 27 January, 2.00 pm anti-Semite. reluctantly. By September 1939, the right- At University of Sussex, Mitford’s grandfather, the first wingers who retained their sympathy for Chowen Lecture Theatre, Baron Redesdale, was an admirer of the Nazism were the few hardliners grouped Brighton and Sussex Medical School renegade Englishman Houston Stewart in organisations like the Right Club, The Speaker: Freddie Knoller, author of Chamberlain, who went to Germany Link and the Anglo-German Fellowship.
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