Bnp Leaflets

[Nitro]

Nope i haven't had a leaflet eithier!

[Bandit]

R.E. the Daily Mail,

 

The Fascist Daily Mail - Steve Lowe & Alan Mcarthur

 

The Mail is very keen on tradition, heritage and 'never forgetting' all sorts of heroic British endeavours. Unfortunately, the great publishing institution appears to have accidentally forgotten one particular heroic aspect of its own heritage - viz. their wholehearted support for the fascism of Hitler, Mussolini and Oswald Mosley. How terribly absent-minded of them.

 

Acclaim for Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists kicked off on 8 Jan 1934 with the unequivocal headline: 'Hurrah the Blackshirts!' Some Mail staff even wore black shirts to work. Lord Rothermere, the paper's owner, wrote of the BUF(today the BNP, more or less) in the 15 January 1934 issue that they were 'a well-organised party of the Right ready to take over responsibility for social affairs with the same directness of purpose and energy of method as Hitler & Mussolini displayed'. Oh, good.

 

Rothermere and the Mail broke with Mosley in June 1934, when the Blackshirts brutally suppressed(that is, kicked the shit out of) Communist party supporters who disrupted a BUF meeting at the giant Olympia hall in Kensington, London - although not after investing(and now losing) £70,000 in New Epoch Products Ltd, a business arrangement with Mosley whereby the Blackshirts were to sell cigarettes made by Rothermere.

 

Towards Mussolini, meanwhile, the Mail was 'always friendly' (S.J.Taylor, The Great Outsider: Northcliffe, Rothermere and the Daily Mail). In Novemeber 1926, Italy's fascist supremo dropped a handwritten line to G. Ward Price, the paper's Chief Correspondant, congratulating him on his appointment as a director: 'Mr Dear Price, I am glad you have become a Director at the Daily Mail, and i am sure that your very popular and widely circulated newspaper will continue to be a sincere friend of fascist Italy. With best wishes and greetings, Mussolini.' (On my photocopy of the letter there is a PS - 'How's the bunions? Up the Arsenal!' - although, to be fair, i did pencil that in myself.)

 

Through the 30's, the Mail was ;the only major British daily to take a consistently pro-Nazi line': it 'stuck out like a sore thumb' (Richard Griffiths, Fellow Travellers of the Right: British Enthusiasts for Nazi Germany 1933-1939).. Rothermere penned a July 1933 leader, 'Youth Triumphant', praising the Nazi regime for it's 'accomplishments, both spiritual and material'. True, he admitted, there were 'minor misdeeds of individual Nazis', but these would certainly be 'submerged by the immense benefits that the new regime is already bestowing on Germany'. So complimentary was the article, the Nazis used it as propaganda.

 

Rothermere eventually struck up a friendship with Hitler - or 'my Dear Fuhrer' as he invariably began his regular correspondences - and visited him numerous times. Rothermere and Ward Price were among only three or four foreigners invited to Hitler's first ever dinner party at his official Berlin residence. Rothermere, ever the gent, presented the Fuhrer with some Ferroro Rocher... Probably...

 

In 1937, Ward Price - who 'was believed to be Rothermere's mouthpiece not only by the public but by Ward Price himself' (Taylor) - publishes a chatty memoir about his great mates Hitler and Mussolini entitled 'I know these Dictators'(that is completely true - believe it or not!). Last revised and reprinted in August 1938 - when fascism's dark intents were obvious to even the most ardent reactionary - the book called Mussolini 'a succesful man of the world who is expert at his job and enjoys doing it' and spoke warmly of Hitler's 'human, pleasant personality'. the Chapter 'The Human Side of Hitler' (not a phrase you here very often) revealed that, alongside his affection for kiddies and doggies, the great dictator wa also partial to the odd chocolate eclair: 'Naughty bu nice', as the Fuhrer used to say.

 

Price urged readers of 'I know these Dictators' to keep an 'open mind' on fascism. Of Hitler's initial wave of repression on gaining power, he wrote: 'The Germans were made to feel the firm hand of the new master. Being Germans, they liked it.'

 

The concentration camps - about which 'gross and reckless accusations [have been] made' - were full of dirty Reds. The Night of the Long Knives, when Hitler took on his party rivals - by killing them all - was a sensible bit of forward planning avoiding the need for lots of silly arguments later on. Overall, 'in every respect of the German nation's life the constructive influence of the Nazi regime [was] seen'. The only people who suffered were the few troublesome 'minorities'. Like, for instance, the Jews..

 

In the chapter 'Germany's Jewish problem' (the title's something of a giveaway, Price explains how the Jews only had themselves to blame as there had been far too large a Jewish immigration to Germany following World War I: 'The cause of this migration was the collapse of the German currency, which gave the Jews of neighbouring countries a chance after their own heart to make big profits.'

 

Lord Rothermere last visited Hitler in May 1938. While other papers condemned the regime's brutality and oppression, the Mail still claimes Germany was 'in the forefront of nations' and Hitler was 'stronger than ever and more popular with his countrymen'. On 1 October 1938, after the signing of the Munich treaty in which Britain and France appeased Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia's disputed Sudetenland region, Rothmere sent a telegram to Hitler: 'MY DEAR FUHRER EVERYONE IN ENGLAND IS PROFOUNDLY MOVED BY THIS BLOODLESS SOLUTION OF THE CZECKOSLOVAKIAN PROBLEM STOP PEOPLE NOT SO MUCH CONCERNED WITH TERRITORIAL READJUSTMENT AS WITH THE DREAD OF ANOTHER WAR WITH ITS ACCOMPANYING BLOODBATH STOP FREDERICK THE GREAT A GREAT POPULAR FIGURE IN ENGLAND MANY NOT ADOLF THE GREAT BECOME EQUALLY POPULAR FIGURE STOP I SALUTE YOUR EXCELLENCY'S STAR WHICH RISES HIGHER AND HIGHER.'

 

Oddly enough, 'Hitler the Great' never did become a popular figure in England or, indeed, any other part of the British Isles. When war was finally declared in September 1939, Rothermere reportedly uttered just two words 'Ah' and 'Bugger'.

 

Ward Price finally broke with Hitler following the March 1939 invasion of Czechoslovakia. Only a 'foreign policy issue' (Griffiths) could provoke this shift in his opinion: 'Germany's internal policies, even at the extreme moment of the Kristallnacht Pogrom, could never have had such an effect.'

 

Strangely, though, that's not how he remembered the whole thig afterwards. In this 1957 memoir, 'Extra-Special Correspondant', he 'recalls' how he always thought Hitler was weak and neurotic. Saw through it all from the start. Never owned a black shirt. Some of my best friends etc, etc....

 

Price was cleary suffering from an affliction still rife at the paper today: a version of false memory syndrome that makes you forget you used to be a bit of an old fascist.

 

It can only but make you wonder what would have happened if the Nazis had won the war. Presumably in the newly fascist Britain they would soon have found a collaborator in their old friend Rothermere. Then we might have ended up with a Daily Mail pouring forth reactionary bile against immigrants, gays, trade unionists, asylum seekers & women......

[Gladys]

I went to school with Oswald Mosley's granddaughter here, on the Island. Didn't make me, or her for that matter, a facist!

[David Shappy]

I attended a pact venue in Douglas last night for BNP meeting over 200 members and guests arrived to hear the plans for the forthcoming elections.

 

regards

David

[Nitro]

I attended a pact venue in Douglas last night for BNP meeting over 200 members and guests arrived to hear the plans for the forthcoming elections.

 

regards

David

 

200 packed!?

 

What happened to the 20,000 or so leaflets thats already been delivered?

[Jacqueline]

I went to a meeting in Douglas last night too. The annual pigeon fanciers AGM. There were over 300 there.

 

Not sure they're about to take over the world though.

 

Pact?

 

You'll go far.

[Lonan3]

I was at the local Luton Town F C supporters club - the telephone booth was 'pact' - and we're as likely to achieve power as the Boring Nazi Pansies!

[mojomonkey]

Does anyone know where to find the rules and restrictions about who can stand for election. Does someone have to have been a resident for a minimum amount of time?

[The Old Git]

I attended a pact venue in Douglas last night for BNP meeting

 

Suicide pact hopefully

[ans]

I attended a pact venue in Douglas last night for BNP meeting over 200 members and guests arrived to hear the plans for the forthcoming elections.

 

Congratulations on garnering 0.23% support of the Island's population.

 

Incidentally, from what my mate tells me (who went to laugh at you), there were no more than 100. But I guess that 0.12% isn't so impressive eh?

[nipper]

When I was a student (over 20 years ago) one of the engineering students went along to a BNP meeting to see what it was all about and yeah, for a laugh.

 

He was seen by the Socialist Workers Student Organisation who were protesting outside of the meeting. There was a meeting of the Students Union promptly called and he was banned from the Students Union for attending a BMP public meeting!

 

In those days, because engineering students didn't tend to be left wing drop-outs and went to University to study rather than bring down the government, SWSO saw him as an out and out Nazi, despite his protestations he was simply observing and had no sympathy whatsoever with the BNP.

 

I would have been curious to go along to the meeting last night too (had I known it was on) but think perhaps I would have been safer sat at home watching Coronation Street.

[localyokel]

I attended a pact venue in Douglas last night for BNP meeting over 200 members and guests arrived to hear the plans for the forthcoming elections.

 

regards

David

 

I'm trying to imagine a venue in Douglas that will take 200 people ... I'm assuming it was not at the Masonic Hall??

[nipper]

I am surprised the meeting wasn't advertised (?), even on here although that might have upset some.

 

I would like to go to a PAG meeting too, but I am even frightened about being branded as being one of them lot too.

[Ripsaw]

Government policy on immigration?

 

4.3 To ensure that tourism continues to develop and fulfils its potential as a contributor to the local economy it will be necessary, in partnership with other Government agencies and the private sector, to develop a properly structured staff recruitment and retention strategy including the employment of a significant number of international staff into the industry.

Source: Tourism Strategy

[Pat Ayres]

I'm still trying to work out what a "pact meeting" is, any ideas anyone?

As for 20,000 leaflets being delivered, on an island of 35,000 homes that is quite impressive. I, however, have not seen of or heard of any leaflets being delivered where I am.

I have personal experience of the BNP at election times ands at counts. Fairly predictable with them walking around, cocky and flash, in groups of up to three trying to be intimidating. Anyone daring to challenge them are met by a threat of police intervention and allegations of intimidation! The three I met in the toilets on one specific occassion were quite cute, nearly holding hands with each other, the 'leader' was a silly looking man in his mid thirties with a goatie, how sad, who could not put together in the right order such words as "twat. cxxt and wanker" all spoken to me to elicit a response. As I had hold of a sightly smaller prick at the time I could not really enter into debate easily. Basically, to cut a long story short, they responded as bullies do when confronted, they backed off. I could have got a good kicking easily, I didn't because they were idiots and bullies.

So, stand up to them, challenge them and don't let them go anywhere if you know who they are. I don't think many live on the island and will be very suprised if we see a BNP candidate in November.

Answer to a previous query, you need to have been on the electoral register for at least 5 years before you are allowed to stand for Tynwald.

It is a maxime that publicity is the fodder of extreme groups, how come this "pact meeting" wasn't advertised? Or was it, but under another name, as in the UK where no authority will hire them a halll and they appear under names like 'Sahara yachting association' ?