Meet Britain’s Leading Fascist
“]![Andrew Brons, MEP [BNP Photo]](http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/british-national-party-me-001-1.jpg "british-national-party-me-001-1")
The Guardian has an interesting profile of Andrew Brons, one of the two new Members of the European Parliament elected over the weekend by the neo-fascist British National Party:
The group he first joined included among its members people responsible for arson attacks on Jewish property and synagogues. According to the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight, which has been tracking his career for decades, Brons appears to have approved. In a letter to Jordan’s wife, Brons reported meeting an NSM member who “mentioned such activities as bombing synagogues”, to which Brons responded that “on this subject I have a dual view, in that I realise that he is well intentioned, I feel that our public image may suffer considerable damage as a result of these activities. I am however open to correction on this point.”
By the 1970s, Brons had moved on the National Front, then the leading far-right group in Britain. He was voted on to the NF’s national directorate in 1974 and, as the NF’s education officer, he hosted seminars on racial nationalism and tried to give its racism a more “scientific” basis. [...]
After drifting out of far-right politics, he became a lecturer in politics and law at a further education college in Harrogate. He joined the BNP in its current incarnation three years ago. Divorced, with two grown-up daughters and four granddaughters, his election platform was that he “would work to expose the activities and corruption of the EU to strengthen Britain’s case for withdrawal” and “would co-operate with patriots in other countries who seek to bring the EU to an end”.
The rise of the BNP is all the more shocking for the fact that UK voters already have a “mainstream” far-right option available to them in the form of the UK Independence Party, so it’s hard to rationalize BNP support as simply a sign of disgruntlement with the establishment options.
67 Responses to “Meet Britain’s Leading Fascist”
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June 8th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Yorkshire Nazis? I *hate* Yorkshire Nazis.
June 8th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
A question for the intellectually honest/curious, which leaves MattY out: who’s behind Searchlight? Can their opinion be trusted? I don’t know much of anything about the BNP; the (far-)far-left is probably overselling it as they do here.
However, I’m sure that a large part of their win is a reaction to unwanted policies being forced on people, just as the Dems and crooked Repubs do here.
June 8th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
This fellow sounds a lot like Steve “The Klansman” Sailer.
June 8th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Are UKIP really a ‘far-right’ party? Unless you think leaving the EU is necessarily a far-right activity. But now I seem to remember that some of their leaders had dubious backgrounds.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
24dot, seriously chief, the BNP is a notoriously racist and fascist party that goes back several decades. Most of the so-called British nationalists formed these groups when the UK allowed people from commonwealth countries like Jamaica to emigrate to England in the 1960’s. To this day, they don’t consider non-white Brits to be truly “British”. Late 70’s and early 80’s London skinheads who attacked black clubgoers and instigated race riots in Brixton and other places belonged to a sister organization of the BNP, the National Front.
If you want to go on pretending that there are no such things as racist right wing political parties in the UK, that’s your right. But it still means your ignorant.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
if they ar fashists, they ar liberuls, so U guys like Mattt should like them !
June 8th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Otto, not wanting to be in the EU isn’t what makes these groups so odious. It’s their rampant opposition to ANY form of immigration, their overt hatred of non-white people, and their Ron Paulian-style conspiracy mongering about Jewish people makes them racist right-wing hate groups.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
“he became a lecturer in politics and law at a further education college in Harrogate”
I wonder where David Horowitz stands on this guy. On the one hand fascist, on the other hand antisemite . . .
June 8th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
“it’s hard to rationalize BNP support as simply a sign of disgruntlement with the establishment options. ”
Well the BNP is picking up most of it’s support from what would be normally be labour areas, and the main reason is that the BNP’s economic and social policies are actually pretty left wing(much more left wing than labour) and designed to appeal to the urban white working (or not working) class.They then blame all the problems of said working class on immigrants and foreigners and promise to magically make these foreigners and immigrants go away.
The UKIP (which i wouldn’t describe as “far-right”,although some of its members are) is much more of a tory/libertarian party with the main aim of getting the UK to leave the EU, which is why the UKIP normally does best in tory areas as their a much better ‘fit’ in terms of policies to the tory party and the UKIP voter can send a message about the EU to the tories without risking the labour party winning the seat.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
er, BNP certainly fits that description, but does UKIP really engage in Ron Paulian-style conspiracy mongering about Jewish people?
June 8th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
By UK standards, the UKIP is pretty far out of the mainstream–whether they’re on balance far enough to the right to be called “far-right” is a matter of line drawing. They support a flat personal income tax, the abolition of the inheritance tax, and reduced corporate taxes; they are against national ID cards and are for school vouchers; they are pro-nuclear and anti-wind. FWIW, they have a gay MEP, and have run a few minority candidates.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Nick Griffin is Britain’s leading fascist, dumbo.
And UKIP are less ‘mainstream far-right’ that a one-issue party. I’m not sure why Euroscepticism is of its essence far-right.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
When someone else linked to Searchlight a few months ago, it took me all of a minute to find out the ideology of who runs it. Obviously, that’s too much for some.
Regarding what the BNP is or isn’t, I don’t really care since I’m here not there. However, considering all the other things that the far-left and their buddies slightly to the right have lied about, it’s difficult to take their word for anything.
Tip for next time: stop lying so much about so many things.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
From Nick Robinson’s blog:
The collpse in labour’s vote allowed the BNP to get in with fewer votes, so the BNP isn’t especially popular. The reason they aren’t doing well is indeed because of the far-right UKIP as Matt says.
This is bad news. The BBC and other media outlets have no choice but to start interviewing them and the BNP now can claim a ton of money from the EU, as UKIP have done very successfully.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Ooops, I meant to put in the link to Nick Robinson’s blog.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I don’t know much of anything about the BNP;
And yet Lonewacko is always first off the blocks to give avowed racists the benefit of the doubt. Funny, that.
Are UKIP really a ‘far-right’ party?
In terms of its history, yes; its founder Alan Sked resigned in 1997 because he felt it was becoming “infected” by the far right, and the way it campaigned in previous Euro elections did nothing to disprove his concerns. That it has evolved a Free-Democrat-ish domestic manifesto doesn’t mean much, since it has only made a mark in European elections.
kb’s pretty accurate in describing why the two aren’t interchangeable. UKIP is for Tories who don’t like the French but take their holidays in the Dordogne; the BNP is for traditional Labour voters who don’t like non-whites and Eastern Europeans but take their holidays in Mallorca.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
The intellectual arm of the British ultra-right differentiates itself from the proletarian BNP by the absurd claim that left is the new right. Melanie Phillips, intellectual leader of the crazed ultra-right, writes:
Funny that, since the only feature distinguishing the BNP from the rest of the British ultra-right is their opinion of Jews.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Regarding what the BNP is or isn’t, I don’t really care since I’m here not there.
Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
It’s fascinating what you can find on YouTube, though.
The collpse in labour’s vote allowed the BNP to get in with fewer votes, so the BNP isn’t especially popular.
It made no impact in Scotland or Wales, though, which means that the ‘B’ doesn’t count for much.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
the BNP is for traditional Labour voters who don’t like non-whites and Eastern Europeans but take their holidays in Mallorca.
Well, the English don’t know people from the South West of Europe are not really “white”.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
and their Ron Paulian-style conspiracy mongering about Jewish people makes them racist right-wing hate groups.
How is antisemitic conspiracy-mongering “Ron Paulian?” When has Ron Paul ever engaged in antisemitic conspiracy-mongering?
June 8th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
How is antisemitic conspiracy-mongering “Ron Paulian?” When has Ron Paul ever engaged in antisemitic conspiracy-mongering?
Presumably he’s talking about the same type of Stormfront/tea party types that Ron Paul generally attracts, rather than the man himself.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
This isn’t something that new in British politics, the National Front had a following in the terrible economic times that lasted in the early 1980s, in fact BNP is a spin-off of the NF. It’s worrying, but I wouldn’t go apoplectic about it.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
While the BNP achieving 2 seats to the EU Parliament is bad, things should be put in perspective.
The BNP haven’t won any votes compared with former elections and those 2 seats they won because of the UK electorate being sick and tired of current parties and not caring to vote.
Scarier are the results in places like Autria (2 votes for the far-right) and Romania (8.7% votes) but again, all that data must be tempered with actual turnout, local political landscape etc.
So yes, nazis in the EU parliament – bad. But it’s not as if they’d be able to do anything more than spoiling the image of the institution.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
I love it—24Ahead’s first instinct about a group he knows nothing about is to wonder whether they’re really fascist (they are), for no reason other than to disagree with Matt. And, of course, to comment and share his ignorant speculations. Matt should put up a post entitled “Sunshine is good for flowers,” just to see 24Ahead contradict him.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
There is a racist and fascist element in many Western democracies; it’s just a matter of whether the mainstream conservative parties accommodate them or not. In the USA the Republicans give them a comfortable home so they have no need to form their own party, but in the UK the Conservatives won’t tolerate them, thus their need to make a go of it independently.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
#19:
Well, the English don’t know people from the South West of Europe are not really “white”.
Say what?
June 8th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
#19:
Well, the English don’t know people from the South West of Europe are not really “white”.
Say what?
Cue Polish plumbers.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Pete: hear, hear! No wishy-washy language on this one – the BNP are just straight-up fascists.
mhcastrillon – “the UK electorate being sick and tired of current parties and not caring to vote.” This part depresses me almost as much as the BNP, for all the fact that their seats were a side-effect of plunging turnout. If people can’t be bothered to rule themselves, they’re in big trouble.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
mhcastrillon, my post was ironic. Pseudonymous seemed to imply BNP voters would consider Spain a land of “non-whites”; but I don’t think the English even use the term ‘Hispanics’.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
…the term ‘Hispanics’ used to distinguish a different race, I mean.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
#29 – they use the term “wogs.” As in, “the wogs begin at Calais.”
June 8th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
kb’s pretty accurate in describing why the two aren’t interchangeable. UKIP is for Tories who don’t like the French but take their holidays in the Dordogne; the BNP is for traditional Labour voters who don’t like non-whites and Eastern Europeans but take their holidays in Mallorca.
There has always been an undercurrent of Tory ultras, who are economically and diplomatically far to the right of anything the American GOP ever could conjure up. They haven’t been too content with the current direction of the Conservatives, and essentially jumped to the UKIP to act as a pressure group to force the Conservatives to be more right and prevent them from going too far left. UKIP actually is rather full of them.
Nigel Farage is a bit of a classic. Old Alleynian (Dulwich College alumnus), commodities trader, ran his own trading firm, ex-Tory. Essentially a new-generation public schoolboy.
I also note that among UKIP’s MEP’s elected last night were a chap named Campbell-Bannerman, who’s deputy leader, and distantly related to the Liberal PM Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman; also ex-Tory.
And there is another MEP chap named the 10th Earl of Dartmouth; ex-Tory. Enough said.
That’s among a grand total of 13 MEP’s. And there are quite a few more of a similar type.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Pseudonymous seemed to imply BNP voters would consider Spain a land of “non-whites”
Ah, I wasn’t intending that. A bleakly wittier ending to the sentence would have been “go on drunken stag weekends to Vilnius to prove it.”
June 8th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
When nations become afraid of hearing legitimate dissent – voices like Geert Wilders – they often get complete nutcases instead. This is the end game of political correctness.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Ah, I wasn’t intending that. A bleakly wittier ending to the sentence would have been “go on drunken stag weekends to Vilnius to prove it.”
I heard it’s quite fun, and very reasonably priced. I think I ought to try it myself sometime. Round up a few guys, and fly (inexpensively) to Vilnius, and enjoy myself.
I daresay, I proposed Moscow and St. Petersburg as a spring break destination when my (male) prep school was organising trips. Unfortunately it fell through.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
There has always been an undercurrent of Tory ultras, who are economically and diplomatically far to the right of anything the American GOP ever could conjure up.
Though they’re not always Little Englanders. The Telegraph and Mail devote large parts of their websites to expats (generally retired people in France and Spain) who start up cricket leagues and generally try to recreate a bucolic image of English village life. The idea that they might be “immigrants” who “keep among their own kind” never seems to enter the picture.
James Robertson: stop refreshing Jihadwatch and read some of what Ian Buruma has to say on Wilders.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Where’s MattY’s dutiful paen to the parliamentary system that empowers jokers like this?
Mike
June 8th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
We have a booming trade in dissent in this country – a whole news network devoted to running down the president – and we still keep getting right wing nutcases walking into churches and committing political murder.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I don’t read JihadWatch; Spencer jumped the shark a long while back as far as I’m concerned.
We aren’t going to get anywhere by trying to ban “hate speech” – all we’ll get is the nutcases being seen as reasonable by people frustrated by their inability to dissent in any other way.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
OK. Don’t ban hate speech.
Do you imagine that will be a controversial argument among liberals and progressives?
June 8th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
We aren’t going to get anywhere by trying to ban “hate speech”
And Wilders wanted to ban the Quran as hate speech. Your point being?
June 8th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Yes, I do think that banning hate speech is controversial with liberals and progressives. It’s the left side of the aisle that has created all of the speech codes on college campuses, and wants to brings the same thing to the rest of us.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Though they’re not always Little Englanders. The Telegraph and Mail devote large parts of their websites to expats (generally retired people in France and Spain) who start up cricket leagues and generally try to recreate a bucolic image of English village life. The idea that they might be “immigrants” who “keep among their own kind” never seems to enter the picture.
The distinction between modern-day Little Englanders and expats is rather a fine one. Expats today, in fact, comprise a lot of disgruntled Little Englanders who are unhappy about Great Britain having turned into a socialistic hellhole. In fact, the expats tend to be a bit more bellicose than the population at large, and significantly more conservative.
The type who moved to South Africa during the apartheid era is a perfect example of this.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
What’s funny (but not at all unexpected) is that one of the cowardly sockpuppets above discussing the BNP has previously – right on this site – made a series of anti-Catholic, anti-Irish comments, going as far as referring to the Irish as “bogtrotters”.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Plus, what makes you think the types of people who move to Dubai are not Eurosceptics?
I am a Eurosceptic myself, somewhat, except in monetary policy. Adopting the euro would be hugely beneficial, and give a much-needed boost, to British finance, as it would afford them a much stronger and dependable currency platform.
Prospectively, adoption the euro could lead to Britain being the financial centre of not only all Europe, but western Eurasia.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
The Telegraph and Mail devote large parts of their websites to expats (generally retired people in France and Spain) who start up cricket leagues and generally try to recreate a bucolic image of English village life.
I always wondered, for those who are families, how do they educate their kids? There are no French or Spanish equivalent of public schools, and the closest that comes are all in Confoederatio Helvetica.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Always good to be reminded that white folks hate brown folks world-wide, and not just in America.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Chancellor Sutler, I presume?
June 8th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
What’s hilarious is that kneejerk BNP defender Lonewacko is still trying to smear me after being humiliated here once more. I’m sure he’ll be going after Denis Leary and Graham Linehan next.
In best Lonewacko fashion, it’d be easy to say that Sonia Sotomayor (and perhaps himself, though I doubt it) is part of an organization that systematically prevents child abusers from the law. But that would be really stupid, which really says it all about someone who still hasn’t worked out what might engender a deep distaste for septic pustules like himself and Pat Buchanan.
So fuck off to your own shitty blog, Kelly: I’m sure Fred Dawes is complaining about being ruled by “monkeys” right this minute. Then make an appointment with a shrink.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
(It would be ungrammatical as well as a stupid assertion: “shields abusers from the law”. Slapping down the blogwhore is such a waste of energy, though it pales by comparison with a decade of monomaniacal bigoted blogwhoring.)
June 9th, 2009 at 12:12 am
As noted the success of the BNP has more to do with the failures of Labour (and the entire English political establishment) than a sudden rise in British Fascism though who would be surprised at a bit of that foolish reaction to the world wide recession alone?
Before we get all stone throwey perhaps we might remind ourselves that 80% of Americans (including of course Matty) got all evil on Iraq and Afghanistan.
Then a majority elected our very own still-in-Iraq-despite-his-promises ObaFuhrer.
June 9th, 2009 at 12:57 am
James “kill them all, kill them now” Robertson, your idiotic strawman argument has no more merit than your sociopathic screeds suggesting that the Iraqis had it coming because they “hit us back first.”
Let us take, for example, one of your most persistent critics. Someone who has often suggested that the best thing you can do for polite and sensible discourse is to shut the fuck up. Someone who will not hesitate to remind people that you are one of the fucktards who supported murdering foreigners and yet pay no consequences for such vile and hateful speech.
For those keeping score at home, that would be me (yes, I know everyone with at least a room temperature IQ had already figured that out, but I’m in a discussion with James, such a condition is obviously not in play).
What means, other than attempting to shame you (which is fruitless because someone who blithely accepts the wholesale murder of individuals for no rational reason is far beyond shame) have I attempted? Do you see me asking for so much as your banning? And, this isn’t verifiable, I have never suggested as much through any back channel.
For the good of the nation, for the good of your soul, assuming you have one, you should devote the rest of your life and all of your capital to the improvement of conditions in Iraq and eschew any further political “contributions.” But no one will make you. And the dead in Iraq do not thank you.
June 9th, 2009 at 1:13 am
There are no French or Spanish equivalent of public schools,
Do you mean “public schools” in the British sense of the word (i.e. private schools) or in the American sense of the word (i.e. government schools)?
June 9th, 2009 at 1:30 am
Do you mean “public schools” in the British sense of the word (i.e. private schools) or in the American sense of the word (i.e. government schools)?
British.
June 9th, 2009 at 1:31 am
And I meant as in prestige independent schools, not run-of-the-mill for-rich-kid-who-can’t-handle-a-regular-school type of private schools.
June 9th, 2009 at 3:09 am
I am truly speechless. Lonewacko’s self-pwning in this thread was epic even by his own lofty standards. Between this and the post about the cookbook, Matt’s really brought the goods today.
June 9th, 2009 at 3:29 am
@ Myles
I thought the great tradition among that class of Brit was ’send the children to school, but keep the dogs at home’?
In other words, isn’t it the spawn of tory expats who fill up the boarding schools of britain?
June 9th, 2009 at 3:46 am
Right, two representatives, big deal. They have their constituency (a bunch of racist swine) and why shouldn’t it be represented? Thank god there are so few of them so far.
But a thousand miles (or so) down south and somewhat east the same exactly ideology is in control of a whole country with nuclear weapons. Not to mention a shitload of hi-tech conventional weapons – and they use them every day murdering innocent people, plundering and pillaging. What do you think about that, mister?
June 9th, 2009 at 6:23 am
“mainstream” far-right option available to them in the form of the UK Independence Party, so it’s hard to rationalize BNP support as simply a sign of disgruntlement with the establishment options
Matt, please don’t opine on things you know nothing about. The ideology and thus the constituencies of UKIP and the BNP have minimal overlap. UKIP is a libertarian/classical liberal party that mainly attracts Tories who feel that party is too squishy on Europe and the (remnant of the) welfare state. The BNP is pitching state interventionism along the traditional Labour line, albeit with a heavy dose of blame directed towards supposedly greedy, shiftless immigrants who serve the same function in BNP discourse as the mythical ‘welfare queen’ did to the American right. The greater part of the BNP vote comes not from the traditional right, but from disgruntled working class Labour voters who feel the party has sold them out–which, of course, it has.
June 9th, 2009 at 7:54 am
And yet, there still aren’t any liberals or progressives who’ve commented in favor of them, only against them. How very odd – it’s almost as if you’ve invented a position and assigned it to people who don’t actually believe it.
I know, let’s check back later.
June 9th, 2009 at 9:22 am
If I lived in Britain, of course, I would vote for RESPECT, though I don’t know if they run candidates in every distrit. Galloway FOrever!
June 9th, 2009 at 9:40 am
But a thousand miles (or so) down south and somewhat east the same exactly ideology is in control of a whole country with nuclear weapons. Not to mention a shitload of hi-tech conventional weapons – and they use them every day murdering innocent people, plundering and pillaging.
(checks map)
Holy shit, Italy’s kept all that under the radar very successfully.
June 9th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Ajay,
Precisely. Hipsters are as ignorant about geography as they are about history.
June 9th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Aaah, now nice. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship for you, fellas.
June 9th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Ajay,
Abb1 meant Israel. But you knew that.
June 9th, 2009 at 11:19 am
[...] Its an old formula. Add xenophbia with a world wide fiinancial crunch and ultranationalism gets a bo…. If there is one thing that could bring back America’s twisted brand of fascism-lite conservatism, it is the combination of financial panic and Republican identity politics. [...]
June 9th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
James Robertson,
It has now been 19 hours since you wrote
And there is still not a single liberal or progressive who has defended them.
I think you base your understanding of your opponents’ position not on what they themselves argue and believe, but on what your fellow rightists tell you we argue and believe.
This is a very common intellectual failure of the political right, and I certainly hope you don’t ever change.
Uh…understanding what your opponents think is something that Muslims and gay people do. And hipsters. Definitely the hipsters. You don’t want to be like THEM!