Monday 27 August 2012

Issue 93, July 2012


Nation Revisited 
# 93, July 2012. 
 
Fears and Expectations
 
In the vintage TV series Dad’s Army Private James Frazer played by John Laurie constantly warned his comrades, “We’re all doomed.” He came from the cold and windy Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides and his outlook was as bleak as his homeland. If Private Frazer was alive today he would probably be a member of one of the far-right parties. They are chronically pessimistic and believe that the country is dying, the white race is dying, and we’re all doomed.
 
This pessimism started years ago when we expected the Soviet Union to launch an attack on the West. A popular song of the time was “It’s Good News Week – someone dropped a bomb somewhere, contaminating the atmosphere and blackening the sky.” The nuclear threat has passed into history but we are now threatened with Afro-Asian inundation, global warming and sovereign debt. But instead of offering solutions to these problems the far-right likes to frighten everybody.
 
It hasn’t dawned on them that people are reluctant to vote for parties that promise nothing but death and destruction. If they offered even a glimmer of hope it might get them a few votes but that would mean dropping their apocalyptic message. They have been preaching gloom and doom for so long that they believe it themselves. And they have never understood the public’s adverse reaction to their histrionics.

A respectable pensioner who was once a member of John Tyndall’s para-military Spearhead formation tells a story from 1962. The Tyndall gang was fighting a mock battle in the Kentish countryside when a father and his son wandered by. The boy turned to his father and said, “Look dad, it’s those barmy blokes again.” The lad had perfectly grasped the situation. Fifty years later “Those barmy blokes” are still fighting amongst themselves and their image has hardly improved. 

The BNP that was founded by John Tyndall and modernised by Nick Griffin has been eclipsed by Ukip. They have captured the right-wing vote and with the help of the popular press they are trying to tear us away from Europe. They predict a rosy future for Britain once we quit the EU. But if their go-it-alone gamble fails our isolated country will be in more trouble than we are already. The pound is stable at the moment but if our economy shrinks and our deficit grows the rating agencies will force up the cost of borrowing and the quitters will discover that xenophobia and swaggering bravado are no substitutes for guaranteed markets. A medium sized country with over sixty million mouths to feed cannot survive on nostalgia. 

We need to be part of a sustainable economy with the means to feed and defend ourselves. Those wanting to leave the EU should remember how bad thing were before we joined it. 
 
Economic Myths
 
Keynesians believe in spending their way out of recession but followers of Milton Friedman do not. Both systems were tried in the 1930s when Britain went for austerity and Germany went for reconstruction and rearmament. The experiments were interrupted by the outbreak of war but Adolf Hitler was credited with curing the German inflation that saw people going shopping with wheelbarrows full of banknotes.
 
In fact the hyperinflation of 1922-23 ended when Chancellor Gustav Stresemann used a massive loan from a consortium led by JP Morgan to recapitalize the Reichsbank and stabilize the currency. This was so successful that by 1925 the government had a surplus and the currency was restored to its 1914 value of 4.2 to the dollar. It was the global crash of 1929 that derailed the Weimar boom and propelled Hitler to power, not the terrible inflation of six years earlier. The National Socialist economy was initially backed by international capitalists like Warburg, WA Harriman and Sir Henri Deterding. Germany had been off the Gold Standard since 1914. Hitler appointed the mysterious figure of Hjamar Schacht as President of the Reichsbank and entrusted the economy to the industrial giants; Thyssen, Krupp, IG Farben and Siemens. The Fuhrer suspended reparations and reformed the banking and trading system but at the outbreak of WW2 Germany had a non-Versailles national debt of RM40 billion – a lot of money in 1939.

Another myth is that the British Empire was brought down by international finance. Britain fought WW1 on borrowed money and by 1929 we were broke. Oswald Mosley wanted to create jobs with public works projects but Ramsay MacDonald refused to borrow any more money. During WW2 the whole country was employed on the war effort. But after the war Britain was bankrupt again and John Maynard Keynes was sent to America to accept a massive loan on condition that the pound was tied to the dollar. That kept us going until the Nixon Shock of 1971 when the pound was untied from the dollar and immediately sank. Our situation was already desperate when the price of oil rocketed in 1973 and the London Stock Exchange lost 45% of its value. We were bailed out by the IMF and lived to fight another day.

We keep hearing about the sovereign debt crisis but Europe has the commercial and political power to renegotiate loans and reach agreement with the international bankers. The eurozone has massive gold and foreign exchange reserves and so have the non-euro states, the EFTA states and Switzerland. The reunification of Germany shows what can be done with targeted investment. East Germany was ruined by years of inefficient communist rule but has now been transformed. A European government with the power to act could use its vast resources to restore all of her member states to prosperity. In alliance with Russia we can create a self-sufficient economy that breaks the stranglehold of international finance. But first we must think and act like Europeans and rise above the divisive tribalism of the popular press. Unity is strength.
 
The luck of the Irish
 
According to an article posted on the UKIP website the sovereign debt crisis has been deliberately engineered to bring about fiscal union. They think that German reluctance to take the lead is a cunning plan to distract us from their real objective - the creation of a United States of Europe with a federal government. That might seem like a perfectly reasonable proposition to most people but Ukippers think that it’s a diabolical plot by unreformed Nazis to enslave us in a Fourth Reich.  
 
The Irish people have voted to accept the fiscal compact against the advice of Gerry Adams who dreams of an independent Ireland with little girls dancing on the village green in their white socks. Ukip doesn’t operate in Ireland but the local eurosceptics are represented by Sinn Fein; an unholy alliance of psychopaths and traditionalists who miss the rare old times when Guinness came in barrels and was delivered by horse and cart. Fortunately Ukip haven’t got an armed wing but their pernicious nationalism is just as dangerous.

We lost our military independence in 1917 when we welcomed American troops to Europe. We lost our economic independence in 1931 when we abandoned the Gold Standard. We lost our international credibility in 1942 when we surrendered to the Japanese at Singapore. We lost our political independence when we signed the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944. And all of these developments were confirmed when we were ordered out of Suez in 1956. In less than 40 years we went from being a great global empire to being an average European country.

It’s no wonder that people seek the reassurance offered by Ukip and the right-wing of the Tory Party. Dave Cameron promises to “protect” us from Europe and derides the idea of Europatriotism. He is the prime minister of the United Kingdom - a federation of four nations - but he cannot understand the concept of extended patriotism. 
 
The result of the Irish referendum would probably be reversed in the UK where the media is hostile to all things European. The great British public voted for the Blair/Brown circus three general elections in a row because Rupert Murdoch told them to. And given the chance they would do his bidding on Europe. But leaving the EU will not solve our problems. Our staggering national debt of £1.2 trillion is rising. The economy is static and attempts to revive it have been undone by punitive taxation. The coalition government has failed to stop immigration – mostly from South Asia. And the Bank of Scotland has hinted that they might need another bailout. None of these problems are caused by the EU. We are crying out for leadership and direction but all that we are offered is jingoistic bluster. The government needs to drastically reduce public spending and leave people with enough money to live on. We are not a global power and its time we stopped pretending to be one; let’s start by sacking William Hague.

                     Another Warmonger
 
William Hague is a proven failure who led his party to humiliating defeat in the 2001 general election. He was quickly dumped as leader of the Conservative Party but he has been recycled as Foreign Secretary. This job enables him to strut around the world threatening countries that are not sufficiently subservient to America. He was instrumental in the bloody removal of Colonel Gaddafi of Libya. Britain sided with rebels that committed unspeakable atrocities throughout the Libyan civil war including sticking a bayonet up the rectum of the old dictator before they killed him.
 
He is now seeking to repeat the performance with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The West has encouraged wars and revolutions in the Middle East by arming rebel groups and providing them with air cover, money and military intelligence. William Hague tries to justify our criminal intervention with torrents of hypocritical propaganda that would have impressed the late Dr Joseph Goebbels. As he condemns the Syrian government for fighting al-Qaeda the neighbouring state of Israel is killing and mistreating Palestinians at will. But he ignores Zionist atrocities because he is member of the Conservative Friends of Israel.
 
Critics of the Americans often accuse them of pursuing selfish foreign policy objectives. But they don’t seem to know what they are doing or who the good guys are. They fought the Korean War to a stalemate; deposed the elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran, lost the Vietnam War, got thrown out of Somalia, destroyed Iraq, and they are currently fighting an unwinnable war in Afghanistan.
 
None of these adventures did much for America. Communism has morphed into capitalism; except for the weird hereditary regime in North Korea that’s on its last legs. The Shah of Iran – the Light of the Aryans - was deposed in 1979. America stole billions of barrels oil from Iraq but the invasion probably cost them just as much; Cruise missiles cost a million dollars apiece and the US Army was reported to be firing them like artillery shells. And they never expected the Afghan campaign to drag on for a decade and spread to Pakistan.
 
Where America goes their lickspittle allies follow. Creatures like William Hague who is salivating at the prospect of attacking Iran. At Nuremburg the Nazi leaders were found guilty and executed for “waging aggressive war.” According to UN law the only justification for war is in defence. But none of the latest wars have been defensive – they have all been in pursuit of American foreign policy. Tony Blair should be brought before the International Court of Justice for his part in the Iraq War. He lied to Parliament about “weapons of mass destruction” and made war on a practically defenceless country weakened by ten years of sanctions. Tony Blair the war criminal should certainly be in the dock with the unspeakable William Hague beside him. 
 
Wanted – A Sensible Party
 
The people of the UK have a variety of political parties to choose from but they are all lacking in commonsense. The Tory Party is dominated by anti-Europeans; not just   anti-federalists but fully fledged Europe haters. The prime minister and most of his cabinet are eurosceptics and pro-European MPs are under threat of deselection. The reactionary “bastard” faction that helped to destroy John Major’s government in 1997 are still undermining the Tory Party and they are they are prepared to bring down the coalition government just to get their own way.
 
The Labour Party went mad just after the last war when they decided to turn Britain black. They brought in the 1948 Nationality Act to bring in millions of black and brown people and they have succeeded in swamping most of our major cities. The Tories watched this experiment with detachment because they have got nothing against Third World immigrants; it’s just Europeans that they hate.
 
The Liberal Democrats are fairly harmless but they are obliged to support either the Labour or Tory Party. At the moment they are propping up the Tories.
 
The Green Party is led by the attractive and intelligent Caroline Lucas MP. She is committed to noble causes but most of them are unaffordable. Pippa Bartolotti of the Welsh Green Party is an outspoken supporter of the Palestinian cause.
 
The Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties point to Norway as an example of a successful independent country with a small population but they forget to mention the oil. Alex Salmond used to talk glowingly about Ireland and Iceland being “an arc of prosperity in the North” but since they ran out of money he has kept his mouth shut. And the near collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland has been another setback.
 
Outside of Parliament we have the lunatic-left and the reactionary-right. Ukip, the BNP and the National Front want to quit the EU and nationalize the banks. The various left-wing parties agree with them. Apart from the matter of immigration the extremes of left and right share the same tortured view of a world.

We desperately need a party that embraces Europe and has sensible plans for the future. But we don’t need one that believes in conspiracies and fantasizes about Britain abandoning Europe to lead a resurrected Commonwealth. Under our “democratic” system millions of pounds are required to fund a political party. The Tories are backed by big business and the Labour Party by the trade unions. The other parties depend on their members to support them. This structure favours the old gang parties and makes it very difficult for minor parties to gain representation. But the Greens and Respect have shown that it can be done. Please step forward a charismatic and fearless billionaire who loves his country and is not stuck in the past. 
 
Tony Hancock
 
(John Tyndall’s report in Spearhead is reprinted as a tribute to Tony Hancock, founder of the Historical Review Press, who died 11 June 2012.)
 
An historic day – Thursday, 5th September 2002 and the scene is Leeds Crown Court No Four. Tony Hancock, printer of the pamphlet Merrie England, written by veteran nationalist Colin Jordan, is cleared of all charges under Britain’s infamous ‘race’ laws. This is a tremendous victory for the cause in the United Kingdom.
 
The vindictive system – despite the fact that Colin Jordan was never tried or convicted for producing the pamphlet – was determined to have its pound of flesh. So the totally innocent Tony Hancock, who only printed it, was hauled into court; his only crime, printing, which is his business. They dressed-up this gross attack on individual freedom by charging him with ‘aiding and abetting’ Colin Jordan in producing a pamphlet calculated (or ‘likely’ to cause) racial hatred.

Mr Hancock’s barrister, Adrian Davies, brilliantly defended him. Witnesses brought by the prosecution were left-wing Labour MPs – who, needless to say, expressed their ‘outrage’ at receiving the pamphlet Merrie England. They were joined by David Michael Whine, a leading light in the Board of Deputies of British Jews. His evidence was effectively demolished by defence counsel. Whine had a hard job explaining his definition of who and what constitutes a Jewish person, and the whole charade of race laws was shown as the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ piece of legislation that it is.
 
The twists and turns of the prosecution case and the statements of the witnesses in court were mind-boggling in the efforts to prove ‘racial hatred’. The judge, who seemed impartial and fair throughout the trial, when giving his summing-up to the jury stated very forcefully that the whole area of race legislation was particularly difficult. He stated that if the jury thought that if the defendant had the right to express his opinion in the light of a decent society being able to tolerate’ extreme’ views, they should acquit him. The judge also stressed that the right of freedom of speech was reinforced by European human rights legislation, now part of British law.
 
The learned Judge was right. Not only is the race legislation unjust, it is ridiculous. The race acts and public order acts laws governing race are forever being amended and strengthened and leave very little scope for rational and sensible debate on the extremely important issues of race and immigration, and of course on issues concerning the Jewish community and its power. Tony Hancock was tried by twelve true Britons who exercised their common sense above the vagaries and iniquities of unjust legislation and brought out a verdict of “Not Guilty”! The day was a great victory for white nationalism and our freedom. Tony Hancock should be saluted for his firm stand and unflinching courage in winning through against all the system could throw at him!

The Leveson Inquiry

The anti-federalists are absolutely right when they say that political and economic union can only be achieved by the sacrifice of national sovereignty. They are also right when they say that the institutions of the EU are unelected. But nationality does not depend on political arrangements and the will of the people is not necessarily the wisest option. In the UK public opinion is formed by the mass media and its controllers are committed to the Atlantic Alliance and deeply suspicious of Europe.

John Major’s evidence to the Leveson Inquiry was clear enough. Rupert Murdoch demanded that the Tories change their policy on Europe before the 1997 general election and warned them that if they didn’t The Sun would put Tony Blair in power. But despite this revelation the anti-federalist lobby, led by Rupert Murdoch, still criticizes the EU for being undemocratic. 
 
Democracy has long been corrupted by big business. One hundred years ago Lloyd George’s Liberal government was rocked by the Marconi Scandal involving insider trading by Sir Rufus Isaacs and Herbert Samuel. This was revealed by Cecil Chesterton’s distributist newspaper New Witness.  During both world wars press magnate Lord Beaverbrook served as a government minister. And when Rupert Murdoch switched his support to Dave Cameron’s money-grubbing Tories they groveled to the master of misinformation just as Tony Blair’s New Labour had done before them.
 
We like to boast about our parliamentary system but its deputies fiddle their expenses, its parties are financed by tax exiles, its leaders make millions out of book deals and speaking tours and its image is promoted by the advertising industry. Compared to our MPs the appointed bureaucrats of Brussels are not so bad.

It’s time to take a good look at parliamentary democracy. The modern world needs managers and technicians more than well-dressed actors with capped teeth. And we need to plan for the future instead of stumbling drunkenly from one election to another. Government by amateurs has not been a success and our first-past-the-post system is unfair and inefficient. We would not expect an untrained worker to run a giant corporation and we should not expect an inexperienced young man to make a good prime minister just because he enjoyed an expensive education. 
 
The Leveson report is awaited but it’s obvious that the power of the press has been abused and most people trust their unelected dentists and bank managers more than their elected politicians. The established political parties recruit political advisors from the media and use their contacts to leak information. And the powerful press barons use their money and influence to advance policies. We are therefore governed by the press and the political parties are nothing but whores for hire. That is the hallowed democratic system that we seek to impose on others by force.
 
I didn’t get where I am today…
 
In The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin by David Nobbs, CJ the former head of Sunshine Desserts continues to give advice even though he is reduced to poverty. He still gives little speeches that begin: “I didn’t get where I am today.” The idea of a failed boss giving financial advice is funny but that’s exactly what Dave Cameron has been doing. He presides over a country with a flatlining economy and a rising national debt of £1.2 trillion but that doesn’t stop him from lecturing Angela Merkel who is one of the world’s most successful leaders.

Dave Cameron is urging the eurozone to move towards fiscal union. Unfortunately the founders of the EU did not have a brilliant man like Alexander Hamilton to insist on a strong central government when the union was set up. George Washington and his fellow revolutionaries wanted self-government for the original thirteen American colonies but Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), the son of a French mother and a Scottish father founded the Federalist Party because he saw the vital importance of a strong federal government with a central bank. He was killed in a duel but the USA can thank him for their political and economic union. If it wasn’t for their visionary Secretary of the Treasury the state of California and several other cash-strapped states would now be in the same position as Greece.
 
The Greeks have been through a period of chaos but they have elected Antonis Samaris leader of the pro-European New Democracy Party. They have done everything possible to reduce their deficit and install a viable government. The Germans are influenced by a nationalistic press and a racial memory of rampant inflation but they know that their prosperity depends on a European Union with a single market and a common currency. It’s in their own interest to cooperate with the new French government of Francois Hollande to manage the sovereign debt crisis that also affects the UK, Japan and the USA.

The nations of Europe will unite but the UK will probably remain outside for the foreseeable future. It took us two hundred years to adopt the Gregorian calendar and about the same time to accept decimalization and metrication. We have got used to the ‘new money’ but some people still cling to the past. They buy petrol in litres and potatoes in kilos because they have to but they consult conversion tables to find out if the weather is hot or cold. The British people have become cautious conservatives but this hasn’t always been the case. In earlier times we overcame obstacles, pioneered new technology and grew rich as a result. But a series of wars and recessions has left us shell-shocked and frightened to try anything new. We lack the confidence to fully embrace the European project. If we dropped our pointless hostility and stopped reading neurotic newspapers our neighbours might welcome our prime minister’s advice instead of finding it amusing.

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