Another Three Years
After three and a half years of bitter argument Boris Johnson has agreed a divorce settlement with the European Union. We were supposed to leave on October 31st but this has been extended by three months to allow for a general election on December 12th. Whatever happens we still have to negotiate a post-Brexit trade deal with Michel Barnier that could take another three years.
The Brexiteers will have to wait a little bit longer. They are fond of waving union flags and proclaiming their patriotism but a You Guv poll shows that 60% of them think that leaving the EU is more important than keeping the UK together. They are prepared to dump Northern Ireland and Scotland just to get their own way.
The Brexiteers will have to wait a little bit longer. They are fond of waving union flags and proclaiming their patriotism but a You Guv poll shows that 60% of them think that leaving the EU is more important than keeping the UK together. They are prepared to dump Northern Ireland and Scotland just to get their own way.
The latest 'false news' doing the rounds concerns the Lisbon Treaty 2020. This supposedly takes away our rebate, enforces the Euro, and makes it impossible to leave the EU. There is no such treaty! The actual Lisbon Treaty was signed in 2007 and came into force in 2009, it has no major amendments and makes no reference to "2020."
The good news is that we are still Europeans by blood, culture, history and geography, and there's nothing that the Brexiteers can do about it. A nation adjacent to a continent of half a billion souls can't be truly independent.
Mussolini’s Last Interview
In March 1945 Benito Mussolini gave an
interview to Magdalena Mollier. He said:
"Why do you come to interview me signora?
I am dead. Look at what remains of me…Go for a swim in the lake, sunbath, enjoy
your liberty and all the beautiful things that life reserves for you; don’t
concern yourself with a ghost…This morning in my room a little swallow got
trapped. It flew about, it flew desperately, until it fell exhausted on my bed;
a little trembling creature. I caressed it and gradually, it calmed down; and
in the end it dared to look at me. I went to the window, I opened my hand. It
still stunned, did not understand immediately…then it opened its wings and,
with a cry of joy, it flew to liberty…I will never forget that cry of joy. The
only doors that will open for me are those of death. And it is also just. I
have erred and I shall pay…I have never made a mistake following my instinct,
but always when I obeyed reason…I do not blame anyone, I do not reproach anyone
apart from myself. I am responsible, just as much for the things that I did
well, that the world can never deny me, as for my weaknesses and my decline…My
star has set. I work and make an effort, even though knowing that everything is
a farce…My star has set, but I did not have the strength or the courage to
retire in time…Have you ever seen a prudent, calculating dictator? They all
become mad, they lose their equilibrium in the clouds, in quivering ambitions
and obsessions. And it is actually that mad passion which brought them to where
they are. A bravo borghese would never discomfort himself so much…There is no
doubt that we are heading towards, in short, a Socialist époque…I see the
salvation of Europe only in a socialist union of European states. A formidable
block that will defend our civilization and existence against the red
materialism of the Bolsheviks and for us more or less damaging experiments of
the American type. Soon the German, French, Spanish, Italian etc. question will
be of no interest; only Europe will be of interest. Everyone will realize it.
If in time or not, who knows?"
Days later he spoke to the journalist Ivanoe Fossani. He
said:
"If
England, instead of sending the knights of St George to create discord and
unquenchable hatreds, had fused Europe into a block of ideals and interests,
our position would be unassailable…Before entering into the Pact of Steel I
tried everything to reach an understanding with the other side…England didn’t
want it. It wanted our neutrality and our ports at its disposal…But Italy’s
geography meant it had to choose war, either with one side or the other…Our
geographical position is outside the orbit of neutrality. Either accept war or
become an encampment of enemy armies…The only socialism workable
socialistically is corperativism, the point of confluence, equilibrium and
justice for private interests in respect of the collective interests."
Quotations from
Mussolini, A New Life by Nicholas Farrell, Phoenix 2003
Take Your Pick
If you are an old-fashioned British Nationalist you have plenty of parties to chose from. They range from right-wingers such as the Traditional Britain Group, to left-wing National Socialists like British Movement, and centrists like the National Liberal Party which combines Liberalism with Nationalism. Most of these groups would strongly object to being listed with the others, but they are all related to each other by history. The following groups, listed alphabetically, have active websites but there are probably a few more that can't afford to go online.
Britain First is led by Paul Golding.
British Democratic Party is led by James Lewthwaite.
British Movement was founded by Colin Jordan and is led by Stephen Frost.
British National Party was founded by John Tyndall, rose and fell under Nick Griffin, and is currently led by Adam Walker.
British Unity is led by Nick Griffin.
European Knights Project is led by Jack Sen.
For Britain is led by Ann Marie Waters.
Knights Templar is connected to former BNP fundraiser Jim Dowson.
League of St George is led by "a president."
National Front is led by Tony Martin who is currently challenged by his deputy Jordan Pont.
National Liberal Party is led by a National Council which includes Graham Williamson.
Patria is led by Dr Andrew Emmerson.
Patriotic Alternative is led by Mark Collett.
Traditional Britain Group is led by Lord Sudeley.
Western Spring is led by Max Musson.
There are also several independent far-Right magazines and websites;
'Candour' founded by AK Chesterton in 1953 and edited by Colin Todd, who is currently detained.
'Heritage and Destiny' edited by Mark Cotterill.
'Blood and Honour' founded by Ian Stuart Donaldson in 1987.
'White Voice' edited by veteran campaigner Eddy Morrison.
All of them believe in conspiracy theories, strict immigration controls, and national independence. Membership figures can't be verified because few of them are registered with the Electoral Commission. Attempts to unite them into a single movement have not succeeded. This is not due to politics but to their leaders who take themselves far too seriously.
At its peak in the 1970s, the National Front had thousands of members, but they never achieved electoral success. The movement was practically destroyed just before the 1979 general election by Margaret Thatcher's brilliantly-timed statement that she understood people's fears of being "swamped" by immigration.
A generation later the British National Party boasted two MEPs, over a hundred local councillors, and a seat on the London Assembly, but following Nick Griffin's disappointing performance on Question Time the movement collapsed. Today, the BNP is just another little party.
When the Brexit fiasco is finally settled we will need a sensible patriotic party with achievable political and economic objectives, led by a capable leader with his feet on the ground. No more fantasies about rounding up established immigrants and shipping them back where they came from. No more ridiculous conspiracy theories about the Americans blowing up the World Trade Centre, or Elvis Presley shooting JFK, and no more dreams of reviving the British Empire.
We have a shamefully unequal society, a desperate housing shortage and failing social services. We need an educational system to produce the scientists and technicians necessary to run a modern country. We need to acknowledge our place in the world and stop pretending to be a super power. And above all we need to stop the influx of economic refugees from the Third World.
But if you want to see the same old faces in the back room of a run-down pub and listen to a lot of paranoid nonsense, you can take your pick.
Distributism: An Idea Whose Time Has Come - from Eddy Morrison's bulletin 'White Voice'.
The idea of distributism arose out of Catholicism in the 19th century. And in fact, the current Pope, Francis, has said:
"Just as the commandment 'Thou shall not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say: 'thou shall not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills... A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. To all of this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which has taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits."
In the early 20th century it was generally seen as more of a right-wing than a left-wing idea, coming as it did from religion, opposing state ownership (the dominant socialist model) and promoting individuals, family and local community rather than the large-scale collective.
Then GK Chesterton ( pictured right) and Hilaire Belloc (pictured left) began to promote distributism as a political ideology in opposition to both capitalism and socialism, using the experience of the co-operative movement in northern England. Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers Movement also adopted distributism, helping to build a larger following on the left.
There was a fantastic debate in 1928 between GK Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw, chaired by Hilaire Belloc. Remember that this was when Stalin was just consolidating his power within the Soviet Union. Bernard Shaw's point was that power needed to be concentrated at the top of the state, to counter the global power of capitalism, and bring freedom to working people. Chesterton's opinion was that a man like Stalin would abuse that concentration of power to benefit not the workers, but the people at the top of the communist party, and totally destroy any hope of democracy or freedom for ordinary people. Hindsight has proven Chesterton right, how do we do it?
We distribute power economically - so we set up and support family businesses, small farms, independent shops, craftspeople - butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, self-employment, credit unions, co-ops (yes the early right-wing distributists mentioned them specifically), smallholdings - all the kind of things that lowimpact.org has been promoting.
We use small businesses, and also start them, to provide a viable alternative to corporations and the state. Then the thinly-dispersed power units network to ensure everyone's safety and freedom. No business would be 'too big to fail', and require taxpayers' money to bail them out.
Distributism means that ordinary people control the means of production in a direct way, rather than through the state. If someone owns a few acres, or a machine, or their own skills and tools, then they decide what to do with them - not the state, and not a corporation. Corporate capitalism kills democracy, and state socialism kills entrepreneurship. But we can be greedy, and have both, along with stronger, safer communities, more interesting work, more interesting High Streets, unique localities and a more egalitarian and free society.
It's an imperfect model of course. Some businesses led themselves to being small - market gardens, small shops, window cleaners. But what about car or computer manufacture, airlines or oil? Well, let's start where we can. Let's pledge never to buy vegetables from a supermarket again. Get a veg box delivered instead, or use your local market or small, independent shops, or even grow your own. Let's start somewhere. GK Chesterton said that coal was an example of an industry in which power can't be distributed - it has to be run by corporations or the state. I disagree. Groups of miners can form co-operatives to run individual mines. Better still, they could close the mines and start a community renewables group instead, generating electricity from solar panels, wind turbines or micro-hydro. We can cross the difficult bridges when we come to them - but let's start with the things that can be provided by small companies.
However, distributism is an economic rather than a political idea, but we need politicians to be talking about ways to limit the size of businesses. We're far from that, and under the current political system, any attempt at truly distributing wealth and power may result in a backlash, from the state or from the corporate empire - or more likely a combination of the two. So we have to start talking about how to get round that by introducing political change.
So - small businesses and talking to each other. I give you distributism.
European Outlook Comment: Ideas like Distributism and Social Credit are important but complex businesses such as aerospace and pharmaceuticals spend billions of pounds on research and development and couldn't be run as co-operatives. What we really need is ethical capitalism.
Ireland's Right to Unite - Oswald Mosley, from "Union" 15th May 1948
What interest has an Englishman in Ireland? The answer is that this Englishman proved his interest in Ireland and friendship for her people when as the youngest member of the British Parliament, he became Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee which opposed the operations of the Black and Tans and demanded peace with Ireland. We succeeded at any rate in bringing the Black and Tan inquiry to an end, but we were only partially successful in winning peace for Ireland, because the Government of the day dismembered Ireland. The original Tory demand was for a six county Ulster divided from Ireland, which would have subjected a 65% Catholic majority to the Protestant minority in these counties. The final "partition" of six counties still included predominately Catholic areas.
The rule which followed has been a disgrace to Britain. What a bitter irony for the British war time Prime Minister to advocate the union of Europe at the Hague and renunciate as his basic principle "freedom from fear of the policeman's knock" in a period when the "policeman's knock" is still the only means by which the Tory Party can maintain its rule in Ulster. For the six Counties are the first police state in Europe: they have always had arrest and imprisonment without trial.
Their equivalent of 18B was not confined to war time: it is their regular method of government in Northern Ireland. The rounding up of Catholics and holding them in prison without trial through the best years of their young manhood is a commonplace of this system. Freedom from "fear of the policeman's knock" indeed. We had arrest and imprisonment without trial in England during the war: we have it still in Ulster today.
For long past it has been my practice not to attack anyone who sincerely and strenuously opposes Communism. I do not do so now, but I suggest that Europe cannot be united on a basis of humbug and that every Englishman is put in that position by the Ulster situation, if he advocates freedom from imprisonment without trial in the Europe of the future. For my part I have always stood for the principle of no imprisonment without trial. If a nation so desires, it can always alter the law to suit the facts of a new age and the conditions of a new civilisation. But no nation has the moral right to imprison any subject who has kept the law and can be charged with no breach of the law.
If the Government acts in this way it is guilty of a frame-up and a racket from which no one can be safe. Where is freedom if you say to the individual: "What you did yesterday was perfectly legal and according to law, but we are going to imprison you for having done it", or alternatively: "you have not broken the law but we fear you may commit some offence in future, so we are going to imprison you to prevent it." Under such formulae of mis-Government no one is safe from gaol and all freedom is a mockery. That was the war time system in England and it is the present system in Ulster. Soviet Russia and Ulster share the distinction of being the only two Police States in Europe to last for some 30 years. The first is run by International Communism and the second by the British Tory Party.
The Ulster disgrace must be brought to an end. Now is the time and opportunity to do it, all Western nations should soon have the chance to enter a wider Union of Europe. Admission to that wider community will bring a guarantee against the persecution of minorities which could not exist within the narrow hatreds of smaller societies. A minority of Protestants, of course, does exist in Northern Ireland. They have used their fear of persecution to secure from British Government the means to persecute an almost equal number of Catholics. Both the fear and the excuse will be removed on entry to the Union of Europe. The large community of the future can guarantee freedom from persecution to such minorities. No further reason or excuse exists for the separate life of the Ulster State. Therefore, Union Movement affirms the right of Ireland to unite and then, as a united people, to enter the wider Union of Europe.
Comments
Please use the facility at the end of this blog to leave your comments and see what others have to say.
European Outlook
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."
This blog will appear occasionally in support of Nation Revisited which is posted monthly. https://nationrevisited.blogspot.com
Take Your Pick
If you are an old-fashioned British Nationalist you have plenty of parties to chose from. They range from right-wingers such as the Traditional Britain Group, to left-wing National Socialists like British Movement, and centrists like the National Liberal Party which combines Liberalism with Nationalism. Most of these groups would strongly object to being listed with the others, but they are all related to each other by history. The following groups, listed alphabetically, have active websites but there are probably a few more that can't afford to go online.
Britain First is led by Paul Golding.
British Democratic Party is led by James Lewthwaite.
British Movement was founded by Colin Jordan and is led by Stephen Frost.
British National Party was founded by John Tyndall, rose and fell under Nick Griffin, and is currently led by Adam Walker.
British Unity is led by Nick Griffin.
European Knights Project is led by Jack Sen.
For Britain is led by Ann Marie Waters.
Knights Templar is connected to former BNP fundraiser Jim Dowson.
League of St George is led by "a president."
National Front is led by Tony Martin who is currently challenged by his deputy Jordan Pont.
National Liberal Party is led by a National Council which includes Graham Williamson.
Patria is led by Dr Andrew Emmerson.
Patriotic Alternative is led by Mark Collett.
Traditional Britain Group is led by Lord Sudeley.
Western Spring is led by Max Musson.
There are also several independent far-Right magazines and websites;
'Candour' founded by AK Chesterton in 1953 and edited by Colin Todd, who is currently detained.
'Heritage and Destiny' edited by Mark Cotterill.
'Blood and Honour' founded by Ian Stuart Donaldson in 1987.
'White Voice' edited by veteran campaigner Eddy Morrison.
All of them believe in conspiracy theories, strict immigration controls, and national independence. Membership figures can't be verified because few of them are registered with the Electoral Commission. Attempts to unite them into a single movement have not succeeded. This is not due to politics but to their leaders who take themselves far too seriously.
At its peak in the 1970s, the National Front had thousands of members, but they never achieved electoral success. The movement was practically destroyed just before the 1979 general election by Margaret Thatcher's brilliantly-timed statement that she understood people's fears of being "swamped" by immigration.
A generation later the British National Party boasted two MEPs, over a hundred local councillors, and a seat on the London Assembly, but following Nick Griffin's disappointing performance on Question Time the movement collapsed. Today, the BNP is just another little party.
When the Brexit fiasco is finally settled we will need a sensible patriotic party with achievable political and economic objectives, led by a capable leader with his feet on the ground. No more fantasies about rounding up established immigrants and shipping them back where they came from. No more ridiculous conspiracy theories about the Americans blowing up the World Trade Centre, or Elvis Presley shooting JFK, and no more dreams of reviving the British Empire.
We have a shamefully unequal society, a desperate housing shortage and failing social services. We need an educational system to produce the scientists and technicians necessary to run a modern country. We need to acknowledge our place in the world and stop pretending to be a super power. And above all we need to stop the influx of economic refugees from the Third World.
But if you want to see the same old faces in the back room of a run-down pub and listen to a lot of paranoid nonsense, you can take your pick.
Distributism: An Idea Whose Time Has Come - from Eddy Morrison's bulletin 'White Voice'.
The idea of distributism arose out of Catholicism in the 19th century. And in fact, the current Pope, Francis, has said:
"Just as the commandment 'Thou shall not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say: 'thou shall not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills... A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. To all of this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which has taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits."
In the early 20th century it was generally seen as more of a right-wing than a left-wing idea, coming as it did from religion, opposing state ownership (the dominant socialist model) and promoting individuals, family and local community rather than the large-scale collective.
Then GK Chesterton ( pictured right) and Hilaire Belloc (pictured left) began to promote distributism as a political ideology in opposition to both capitalism and socialism, using the experience of the co-operative movement in northern England. Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers Movement also adopted distributism, helping to build a larger following on the left.
There was a fantastic debate in 1928 between GK Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw, chaired by Hilaire Belloc. Remember that this was when Stalin was just consolidating his power within the Soviet Union. Bernard Shaw's point was that power needed to be concentrated at the top of the state, to counter the global power of capitalism, and bring freedom to working people. Chesterton's opinion was that a man like Stalin would abuse that concentration of power to benefit not the workers, but the people at the top of the communist party, and totally destroy any hope of democracy or freedom for ordinary people. Hindsight has proven Chesterton right, how do we do it?
We distribute power economically - so we set up and support family businesses, small farms, independent shops, craftspeople - butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, self-employment, credit unions, co-ops (yes the early right-wing distributists mentioned them specifically), smallholdings - all the kind of things that lowimpact.org has been promoting.
We use small businesses, and also start them, to provide a viable alternative to corporations and the state. Then the thinly-dispersed power units network to ensure everyone's safety and freedom. No business would be 'too big to fail', and require taxpayers' money to bail them out.
Distributism means that ordinary people control the means of production in a direct way, rather than through the state. If someone owns a few acres, or a machine, or their own skills and tools, then they decide what to do with them - not the state, and not a corporation. Corporate capitalism kills democracy, and state socialism kills entrepreneurship. But we can be greedy, and have both, along with stronger, safer communities, more interesting work, more interesting High Streets, unique localities and a more egalitarian and free society.
It's an imperfect model of course. Some businesses led themselves to being small - market gardens, small shops, window cleaners. But what about car or computer manufacture, airlines or oil? Well, let's start where we can. Let's pledge never to buy vegetables from a supermarket again. Get a veg box delivered instead, or use your local market or small, independent shops, or even grow your own. Let's start somewhere. GK Chesterton said that coal was an example of an industry in which power can't be distributed - it has to be run by corporations or the state. I disagree. Groups of miners can form co-operatives to run individual mines. Better still, they could close the mines and start a community renewables group instead, generating electricity from solar panels, wind turbines or micro-hydro. We can cross the difficult bridges when we come to them - but let's start with the things that can be provided by small companies.
However, distributism is an economic rather than a political idea, but we need politicians to be talking about ways to limit the size of businesses. We're far from that, and under the current political system, any attempt at truly distributing wealth and power may result in a backlash, from the state or from the corporate empire - or more likely a combination of the two. So we have to start talking about how to get round that by introducing political change.
So - small businesses and talking to each other. I give you distributism.
European Outlook Comment: Ideas like Distributism and Social Credit are important but complex businesses such as aerospace and pharmaceuticals spend billions of pounds on research and development and couldn't be run as co-operatives. What we really need is ethical capitalism.
Ireland's Right to Unite - Oswald Mosley, from "Union" 15th May 1948
What interest has an Englishman in Ireland? The answer is that this Englishman proved his interest in Ireland and friendship for her people when as the youngest member of the British Parliament, he became Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee which opposed the operations of the Black and Tans and demanded peace with Ireland. We succeeded at any rate in bringing the Black and Tan inquiry to an end, but we were only partially successful in winning peace for Ireland, because the Government of the day dismembered Ireland. The original Tory demand was for a six county Ulster divided from Ireland, which would have subjected a 65% Catholic majority to the Protestant minority in these counties. The final "partition" of six counties still included predominately Catholic areas.
The rule which followed has been a disgrace to Britain. What a bitter irony for the British war time Prime Minister to advocate the union of Europe at the Hague and renunciate as his basic principle "freedom from fear of the policeman's knock" in a period when the "policeman's knock" is still the only means by which the Tory Party can maintain its rule in Ulster. For the six Counties are the first police state in Europe: they have always had arrest and imprisonment without trial.
Their equivalent of 18B was not confined to war time: it is their regular method of government in Northern Ireland. The rounding up of Catholics and holding them in prison without trial through the best years of their young manhood is a commonplace of this system. Freedom from "fear of the policeman's knock" indeed. We had arrest and imprisonment without trial in England during the war: we have it still in Ulster today.
For long past it has been my practice not to attack anyone who sincerely and strenuously opposes Communism. I do not do so now, but I suggest that Europe cannot be united on a basis of humbug and that every Englishman is put in that position by the Ulster situation, if he advocates freedom from imprisonment without trial in the Europe of the future. For my part I have always stood for the principle of no imprisonment without trial. If a nation so desires, it can always alter the law to suit the facts of a new age and the conditions of a new civilisation. But no nation has the moral right to imprison any subject who has kept the law and can be charged with no breach of the law.
If the Government acts in this way it is guilty of a frame-up and a racket from which no one can be safe. Where is freedom if you say to the individual: "What you did yesterday was perfectly legal and according to law, but we are going to imprison you for having done it", or alternatively: "you have not broken the law but we fear you may commit some offence in future, so we are going to imprison you to prevent it." Under such formulae of mis-Government no one is safe from gaol and all freedom is a mockery. That was the war time system in England and it is the present system in Ulster. Soviet Russia and Ulster share the distinction of being the only two Police States in Europe to last for some 30 years. The first is run by International Communism and the second by the British Tory Party.
The Ulster disgrace must be brought to an end. Now is the time and opportunity to do it, all Western nations should soon have the chance to enter a wider Union of Europe. Admission to that wider community will bring a guarantee against the persecution of minorities which could not exist within the narrow hatreds of smaller societies. A minority of Protestants, of course, does exist in Northern Ireland. They have used their fear of persecution to secure from British Government the means to persecute an almost equal number of Catholics. Both the fear and the excuse will be removed on entry to the Union of Europe. The large community of the future can guarantee freedom from persecution to such minorities. No further reason or excuse exists for the separate life of the Ulster State. Therefore, Union Movement affirms the right of Ireland to unite and then, as a united people, to enter the wider Union of Europe.
Comments
Please use the facility at the end of this blog to leave your comments and see what others have to say.
European Outlook
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."
This blog will appear occasionally in support of Nation Revisited which is posted monthly. https://nationrevisited.blogspot.com
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