My mini-autobiography concludes with this issue.
A New Start
In 1980 my rocky marriage finally came to an end when my long suffering wife Margaret left me. I don't blame her at all, I spent far too much time at work or in the pub. But it was a traumatic time.
I had lived in South Woodford for ten years but I never felt at home north of the River Thames. As soon as I was able to I moved back to South London where I was raised. When I was a boy the old folks referred to North London as "over the water", as though it was a foreign county.
Bill Barnes died in 1981 and to cheer ourselves up Paul and I decided to have a holiday in Wales. John Bean and another close friend came with us. We climbed Pen Y Fan and walked miles through the Brecon Beacons. This was in the summer when the weather was good but I wouldn't like to be out there in the winter, when the SAS do their training. For a born and bred Londoner the landscape in Brecon was desolate. Years later I worked in Cardiff and thoroughly enjoyed it but I didn't care for Brecon.
After the disaster of the 1979 general election the National Front split into various factions. John Tyndall resigned from the leadership of the Party in 1980 and founded the New National Front, soon to be renamed the British National Party. In 1989 there were two rival NF candidates standing in the Vauxhall by-election. Pat Harrington of the Official NF got 127 votes and Ted Budden of the Flag Group got 83 votes.
Union Movement had become Action Society which concentrated on publishing. They still held occasional socials but there was little political activity.
Oswald Mosley: the man who tried to change the System
In 1976 at a private function held at the Eccleston Hotel in Victoria to celebrate Oswald Mosley's 80th birthday, I was introduced to him. He was talking to a group of friends about the danger of atomic weapons and speculated that it might all have happened before. He said that mankind might have reached the atomic age thousands of years ago, only to wipe themselves out in an atomic war. I was impressed by his original thinking and wondered what he must have been like in his prime.
The Coming of the Internet
In 1986 a EU directive made it compulsory for construction managers to be qualified. I had left school without any qualifications so it was with some trepidation that I took my NVQ and Health and Safety tests. I passed them and in doing so I made my first use of computers.
About the same time my old friend Terry Savage got a computer and so did John Bean who started a blog called 'Beanstalk'. He kept this going until he was appointed editor of 'Identity' the glossy magazine of Nick Griffin's BNP. I took advantage of John Bean's editorship of 'Identity' to get a couple of letters published in support of the Poles. The BNP took an insular line on immigration that didn't distinguish between Norwegians and Nigerians. My argument was that if we needed immigrants we should chose those of our own race and culture rather than Africans and Asians: this is not racism, it's kinship.
I have sold political papers on street corners, usually in the rain, and gone from door to door giving out leaflets, but now I could reach people without leaving home. In September 2005 I started sending 'Nation Revisited' by e-mail. That was limited to how many e-mail addresses I had, but in September 2013 I went online and reached far more people. I was greatly assisted in this by Rufus from the 'News From Atlantis' blog.
The Internet has changed communications forever. I still take a childish delight when looking for something on a search engine to be directed to one of my blogs..
In 2013 I was temporarily locked out of 'Nation Revisited', so I started a new blog called 'European Outlook'. When I regained access to my original blog I decided to keep both of them.
The experience of blogging has brought me great satisfaction and made many new friends. On the other hand, I have been contacted by all sorts of conspiracy theorists, religious maniacs, and poor deluded citizens crying for help. There really are people who believe that the Royal Family are lizards, and that the Coronavirus was launched by Bill Gates to collect data. I have tried reasoning with them but it's a waste of time. Whatever explanation you give them they will say "that's what they want you to think."
Growing Up
In 1999 I was grossly overweight and suffering from blackouts, palpitations, gout, swollen legs, and bronchial congestion. My doctor told me that he could do nothing for me until I quit smoking and drinking. Outside his surgery I prayed to God and vowed to mend my ways. That was on 4th July 1999, and since then I have not touched a cigarette or a drink. The effect on my physical and mental health was immediately beneficial. I grew up at the age of 54. I stopped blaming everybody else for my own failures and took responsibility for my actions. Twenty-two years later I am not exactly in tip top condition but I am still alive. When we are young we think we are immortal but as we grow old we realise how vulnerable we are.
Rita Barnes and me in our local pub the Beehive
In 2005 my friend and confidante Rita Barnes died. She was the widow of Bill Barnes. Rita nagged me to stop drinking and smoking and encouraged me to write. She changed my life for the better and to comply with her wishes I took her ashes to Waterford in Ireland to be buried in her family plot. I miss her more than I can say.
In 2010 I was interviewed by the American historian Ryan Shaffer. I took this as recognition from a serious academic. I was warned that he would be hostile but I found him polite and considerate, He interviewed several people in the UK and his impressions are recorded in his book 'Music, Youth and International Links in Post-War British Fascism'.
In 2011 I started attending meetings of the Friends of Mosley organisation and writing articles for their magazine 'Comrade'. Unfortunately, it ceased publication on the retirement of its editor in 2017. FOM is still going but the passing of the years has sadly depleted our ranks
We have to thank Troy Southgate for hosting the New Right meeting that brought the various strains of nationalism together. This was going well until 2011 when the London Forum was established. Shortly afterwards Troy moved to PortugaI where he continues his prolific writing
I attended most of the London Forum meeting where I heard some brilliant speakers. I also suffered a great many cranks and misfits. These included a Spanish professor who thought that the Large Hadron Collider is Switzerland was a time machine that could take the world back to 1939. And an ex-BNP councillor from Liverpool who seemed to believe in every known conspiracy theory.
Since Jez Turner was sent to prison for upsetting the Jews there have been no more meetings of the London Forum. And now we have the lockdown to contend with, but it's to be hoped that one day we can exercise our right of free speech.
Michael Woodbridge, Bill Baillie, John Bean, Jez Turner
The saddest part of my story is the loss of so many friends. The trouble with knowing elderly people is that they tend to pop their clogs. Up to a few years ago there were still some old comrades from before the war, but they have all gone and so have most of the activists from the Fifties and Sixties. In the past ten years I have gone to far too many funerals. Recently we lost Richard Edmonds and Eddy Morrison, but there have been so many that I will list only my personal friends.
Paul Barnes my boyhood friend died suddenly in 2012 following a motor accident. We had shared the fear and excitement of street politics in the Sixties and we were enjoying our retirement. I stayed with Paul and his wife Shannon in their villa in Sicily and I was looking forward to future visits, but it was not to be.
Roger Clare died in 2016 at his home in Ramsgate. He was a Union Movement activist from the late Fifties to its demise. At the famous anti-apartheid counter demonstration of 1960 in Trafalgar Square he was charged with attacking two policemen with his camera tripod. Oswald Mosley and Jeffrey Hamm appeared as witnesses and he got off with a small fine. In the Seventies he gave film shows at the New Focus cinema club in North London.
Carl Harley the man who recruited John Bean
Carl Harley died in 2019 at the age of 88. He was the Union Movement organiser for Lewisham who recruited John Bean just after the war. He had been friends with John Bean ever since. I first met Carl at the BNP camp in 1962, but I was unable to go to his funeral because of my health and the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.
Frank Walsh was a talented man who produced a unique blog combining artwork, poetry, songs and prose. He died this year at the age of 95. He was once known as the King of Speakers Corner where he defied the Reds with his fiery oratory for many years. I only met Frank at the London Forum meetings but I was very fond of him.
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