Au Revoir to “Sacred Cows”? Assessing the Impact of the Nouvelle Droite in Britain

Abstract

This article assesses the impact of the Nouvelle Droite on the extreme right in contemporary Britain. Occupying a central focus is the role of Scorpion magazine, edited by Michael Walker. The author examines the promotion of the Nouvelle Droite by Scorpion, and in particular Walker's attempts to encourage the British far right to bury two of its “sacred cows”: conspiracy theory and biological racism. He then identifies how Nouvelle Droite thought influenced the ideology and discourse of the 1980s National Front, before moving on to discuss its impact on Nick Griffin's recent attempts to modernize the ideology of the British National Party.

Keywords:

• British National Party
• Fascism
• New Right

Notes

1. Harold T. Hewitson, “G.R.E.C.E. Right Side Up: Alain de Benoist Seen Through Anglo-Saxon Eyes,” The Scorpion, no. 10, Autumn 1986, 14.

2. On the recent electoral decline and fragmentation of the BNP, see Nigel Copsey, “Sustaining a Mortal Blow? The British National Party and the 2010 General and Local Elections,” Patterns of Prejudice 46, no. 1 (2012): 16–39.

3. See Nigel Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, 2^nd ed. (Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008).

4. See Jonathan Marcus, The National Front and French Politics (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995).

5. See review by Tony Lecomber of Jonathan Marcus's book in Patriot, no. 4, Spring 1999, 34.

6. Michael Newland, “The New Nationalism,” Patriot, no. 2, Winter 1997, 22.

7. Roger Eatwell gave the French Nouvelle Droite some attention in his chapter on “The Esoteric Ideology of the National Front in the 1980s,” in Michael Cronin, ed., The Failure of British Fascism: The Far Right and the Fight for Political Recognition (London: Macmillan, 1996), 99–117. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke discusses the Nouvelle Droite and Michael Walker in Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity (New York: New York University Press, 2002), 68–70.

8. On the modernization of the BNP, see Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism, 100–123; 156–165.

9. Two reasons probably account for this failure to identify the influence of the British National Front. The first is the tendency to stress French exceptionalism (the idea that the FN belongs to a specifically French national-populist tradition); the second is the idea that because of the FN's spectacular electoral breakthrough in 1984, it was the model for other parties to follow. For an excellent discussion of these points, see Andrea Mammone, “The Eternal Return? Faux Populism and Contemporization of Neo-Fascism across France, Britain and Italy,” Journal of Contemporary European Studies 17, no. 2 (2009): 171–192.

10. François Duprat, “La montee du Nationalisme en Grande Bretagne,” Supplement to the Revue d'Histoire du Fascisme, no. 23–24, June/July 1977, 35.

11. See Patterns of Prejudice 12, no. 2 (1978): 13.

12. John Bean, Many Shades of Black: Inside Britain's Far Right (London: New Millennium, 1999), 169.

13. See League Review 1, no. 26 (1979), 7.

14. On David Irving's Focus Policy Group initiative, see Searchlight, no. 81, March 1982, 6–10.

15. For an excellent overview of this debate, see Tamir Bar-On, Where Have All the Fascists Gone? (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), 115–138.

16. Michael Walker attended the National Front's Annual General Meeting in 1984 and seconded a motion calling for the Front to support and encourage “the preservation and revivial (sic) of the Celtic languages and English dialects,” Searchlight, no. 115, January 1985, 4.

17. See Michael Walker, “Spotlight on the French New Right,” The Scorpion, no. 10, Autumn 1986, 8.

18. Ibid., 14.

19. Alain de Benoist, “Racism and Totalitarianism,” National Democrat, no. 1, Winter 1981/82, 5–14, quoted at 8.

20. Ibid., 9.

21. Guillaume Faye, “The Power of Ideas,” National Democrat, no. 3, Winter 1982/83, 10–11, quoted at 11.

22. Michael Walker, “Spotlight on the French New Right,” 14.

23. See National Front, Introduction to the Movement (n.d.), 3.

24. Ibid.

25. See Derek Holland, “Our Radical Roots,” Nationalism Today, no. 19, 1983.

26. See Derek Holland, “The Suffering of the Terza Posizione,” Nationalism Today, no. 40, 1987.

27. See Julius Evola, “American “Civilization,” The Scorpion, no. 7, Summer 1984, 17–19.

28. See Alan Sykes, The Radical Right in Britain (Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005), 126.

29. Cited by Eatwell, “Esoteric Ideology,” 110.

30. National Front News, no. 102, February 1988, 6.

31. See Alain de Benoist”s letter published in The Scorpion, no. 15, Winter 1991/92, 50. De Benoist urged Walker not to publish letters from hardline right-extremists, such as Colin Jordan. Given that Walker urged the far right to adopt moderate positions, it is rather odd that he gave space to Holocaust revisionists, such as Robert Faurisson. However, Faurisson argued that his views had nothing to do with “conspiracy”; see The Scorpion, no. 18, Spring 1997, 40.

32. See Searchlight, no. 242, August 1995, 12.

33. Published in 1999, with a foreword by Professor Antony Flew, the subjects for the chapters included Chesterton, Belloc, Morris, Blatchford, Salisbury, Keynes, Buchan, Palmerston, Burke, and Powell.

34. See Eddy Butler, “Introduction,” in Jonathan Bowden and Eddy Butler, eds., Standardbearers: British Roots of the New Right (London: Bloomsbury Forum, 1999).

35. Bowden was also a supporter of The Scorpion. Very briefly in the mid-1980s, Millson had also been associated with Tyndall's BNP.

36. See “An Interview with Jonathan Bowden conducted by Troy Southgate,” http://www.jonathanbowden.co.uk/interview.html (accessed August 29, 2008).

37. Eddy Butler was the architect of the BNP's “Rights for Whites” campaign in Tower Hamlets in the early 1990s; Michael Newland was the BNP's press officer.

38. See Nick Griffin, “BNP-Freedom Party,” Patriot, Spring 1999, 3–8, quoted at 7.

39. See Mark Deavin, “Politics of Persuasion,” Spearhead, no. 351, May 1998, 14–17, quoted at 15.

40. See “Editorial,” Identity, no. 1, January/February 2000, 2.

41. See Nick Griffin, “Chairman's Article,” Identity, no. 55, June 2005, 6–7.

42. See BNP, Rebuilding British Democracy, General Election Manifesto 2005 (Powys: British National Party, 2005), 9.

43. Michael Walker, “Against All Totalitarianisms,” The Scorpion, no. 10, Autumn 1986, 3–6, quoted at 6.

44. See Michael O'Meara, New Culture, New Right: Anti-Liberalism in Postmodern Europe (Bloomington, IN: Bloomington 1^st Books, 2004).

45. British National Party Local Government Manifesto 2007 (Worcester: British National Party, 2007), 7.

46. See Michael Fishwick, “The Structure of Folk Government,” Nationalism Today, no. 36, February 1986, 14–15. The NF proposed a five-tier structure consisting of community government; local government; area government; regional government; and finally, national government for “England, Scotland, Wales, Ulster and Ireland when she eventually rejoins our family, from her own free will.”

47. BNP, Rebuilding British Democracy, 19.

48. Michael Walker, “Spotlight on the French New Right,” 10. Emphasis as in original.

49. BNP, Rebuilding British Democracy, 17–18.

50. See Alain de Benoist, “Racism and Totalitarianism,” esp. 10–14.

51. BNP, Rebuilding British Democracy, 18.

52. See Tim Heydon, “The Defence of Christian Civilisation,” Identity, no. 87, February 2008, 10–13.

53. BNP, Rebuilding British Democracy, 51.

54. See “American Presidential Elections,” Identity, no. 89, April 2008, 12–15.

55. See The Scorpion, no. 7, Summer 1984, 19.

56. See BNP, Rebuilding British Democracy, 50.

57. See Lee Barnes, “A Europe of Folk Nations,” Identity, no. 69, August 2006, 10–13.

58. See “Folk and Nation—Underpinning the Ethnostate,” BNP Voting Membership Booklet No. 1 (Worcester: British National Party, n.d.), 8–9.

59. See Statement of Principles, BNP Activists' & Organisers' Handbook (BNP Education & Training, n.d.).

60. See Lee Barnes, “Blake and the Vision of Albion,” Identity, no. 54, April 2005, 8–9.

61. See BNP, Rebuilding British Democracy, 11.

62. Statement of Principles, BNP Activists' & Organisers' Handbook. Emphasis as in original.

63. On the origins of the Freedom Party, see Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism, 119–121.

64. Adrian Davies, a co-founder of the Bloomsbury Forum, contested the South Staffordshire constituency. Davies, a solicitor, represented David Irving in his appeal against the failed libel action against Deborah Lipstadt.

65. See “An Interview with Jonathan Bowden conducted by Troy Southgate,” http://www.jonathanbowden.co.uk/interview.html (accessed July 29, 2008).

66. See “An Interview with Troy Southgate conducted by Graham Macklin,” http://www.rosenoire.org/interviews/nrf_troy.php (accessed January 26, 2009). Southgate also contributed to the readers' symposium in The Scorpion (see, for example, issue 18, Spring 1997, 39). On Troy Southgate, see Graham Macklin, “Co-opting the Counter Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction,” Patterns of Prejudice 39, no. 3 (2005): 301–326.

67. In 2011, prior to Bowden's death, tensions within the New Right had resulted in the emergence of a parallel group, the London IONA forum, led by Jeremy Bedford-Turner.

68. Nick Griffin, “Our Fight in the Culture Clash,” Identity, no. 64, March 2006, 8.

69. “Folk and Nation—Underpinning the Ethnostate,” BNP Voting Membership Booklet No. 1, 6.

70. Nick Griffin, “BNP—Freedom Party,” 5. Emphasis as in original.

71. BNP, Language & Concepts Discipline Manual, BNP Policy Research, July 2005. Emphasis as in original.

72. BNP, Who Are the MIND-BENDERS? The People Who Rule Britain Through Control of the Mass Media (1997), 4. Emphasis as in original.

73. See, for instance, Nick Ryan, Homeland: Into a World of Hate (Edinburgh and London: Mainstream Publishing, 2003), 64–66.

74. Michael Walker, “The Power and the Glory,” The Scorpion, no. 18, Spring 1997, 9.

75. It is telling that in his speech to the 12^th meeting of the New Right Committee in November 2007, Jonathan Bowden recalled having recommended to Tony Hancock—a leading purveyor of Holocaust denial material—that he should give this material “to the Muslim world. Because it will then come back into the West in a way which does not seem congruent with the radical right within the West. That's one of the ways in order to do this.” See transcript of Jonathan Bowden's speech “Revisionism: Left & Right, Hard & Soft,” November 3, 2007, http://www.counter-currents.com/2012/05/revisionism/#more-26581 (accessed November 5, 2012).