Various British right-wing groupsicles are having arguments, in part apparently facilitated by this blog’s recent entries on the Springbok Club and the London Swinton Circles (sic). It’s somewhat bitty, so I’ve divided the post up.
Part One
Firstly, comments have come in from “London Swinton Circle”, who is either Springbok chairman Alan Harvey or someone close to him. The poster complains that I mentioned Harvey’s former membership of the National Front, to which he rejoins
Alan Harvey may have briefly been a member of the National Front in his naive youth, but what you conveniently don’t mention is that this was only for 15 months from October 1974 until December 1975 – i.e. over a third of a century ago! Furthermore he resigned in December 1975 PRECISELY because he opposed the neo-fascism of the Tyndall/Griffin clique who had usurped control of the previous democtratically-led party!
OK, but this “conveniently doesn’t mention” Harvey’s next project: editing the South African Patriot magazine, which he memorialises fondly on his website:
S.A.Patriot magazine was founded in Durban in 1980 by the White Rhino Club, and continued publication in South Africa under the editorship of A.D.Harvey until 1987. Following the fall of civilized rule in South Africa it was re-established as S.A.Patriot-in-Exile in the UK under the same editorial team in 1991. Since its foundations, and in both forms, the magazine has been consistent in its editorial stance, namely:-
To Support
CAPITALISM
BRITISH AND EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM
PATRIOTISM
SEPARATE RACIAL DEVELOPMENT
CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
GLOBAL WHITE LEADERSHIPTo Reject
COMMUNISM
NAZISM
LIBERAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
MULTI-CULTURAL SOCIETIES
EXPANSIONIST ISLAM
THIRD WORLD TYRANTS
It should be noted that since my last posting on the subject “SEPARATE RACIAL DEVELOPMENT” has been amended to “SEPARATE DEVELOPMENT” “GLOBAL WHITE LEADERSHIP” has been amended to “GLOBAL WESTERN LEADERSHIP” (see Wayback).
Part Two
“London Swinton Circle” is also perturbed by my pointing out that the Springbok Club website carries an essay attacking Nelson Mandela, by the pro-BNP blogger “Sarah Maid of Albion”:
If it can be proven that “Sarah, Maid of Albion” harbours anti-Semitic sentiments and/or is connected to the Hitlerite BNP, then her article will definitely be removed from the SC web-site – but we need proof.
Sarah is annoyed by this:
With respect the fact that you refer to the BNP as “Hitlerite” says more about you than it does about them…I am not a member of the BNP as I do not agree with them on many issues…I have a link to the BNP news site on my blog, and am a guest contributor to the Green Arrow which is a BNP supporting site.
In fact, BNP leaders only praise Hitler when they think they’re not being filmed; Mark Collett famously told a BBC journalist that “Hitler will live forever; and maybe I will” when he mistakenly thought he was off camera (and later smugly told the journalist that there was “no evidence” he had said such a thing).
“London Swinton Circle”, however, is sceptical of this posting:
I’m afraid that we’d need some firmer evidence – far more evidence – to confirm that the “Sarah” who wrote this latest posting is actually one and the same person as “Sarah, Maid of Albion” who wrote the original excellent article.
Yes, I’m sure it’s quite possible that someone is impersonating a pro-BNP blogger with pro-BNP statements on an obscure blog just to make Alan Harvey look bad.
Part Three
Meanwhile, there is also a posting from “Swinton Circle“, as distinct from “London Swinton Circle” (it’s curious that the spokespersons for both factions prefer not to post their names):
Please note that the person – styling himself “London Swinton Circle” above does not represent the London Swinton Circle.
1) The Swinton Circle held its AGM in November 2008. At the AGM Swinton Circle members confirmed the removal of Alan Harvey as Chairman of the Circle and the suspension of his membership because of his actions; Alan Harvey was also requested to stop pretending that he was the London Swinton Circle. As Alan Harvey chose not to comply, the Swinton Circle was eventually left with no choice but to expel Alan Harvey from the Circle.
2) Whilst the London Swinton Circle did indeed at one time hold joint meetings with the Springbok Club it no longer does so.
A riposte from “London Swinton Circle” follows:
There was no AGM of the LSC held in November 2008. It was simply a factional meeting called by Allan Robertson which had no constitutional validity whatsoever…Robertson’s paranoid and hysterical hatred of Alan Harvey (the LSC Chairman) is well known, and all outpourings spewn from his festering mouth should therefore be dismissed with the contempt which they deserve.
Part Four
Meanwhile again, my posts have caught the attention of the Traditional Britain Forum, where former Monday Clubbers and members of the (recently disbanded) Conservative Democratic Alliance hang out to discuss the issues of the day and mull over old times. Many of the posters there are anti-Harvey, and one forum moderator, Mike Keith Smith, has apparently threatened Harvey with a libel action for reasons that are obscure. Following my last post on the Springbok Club, Smith asked:
Why has Michael Shrimpton recently addressed a meeting of the pro-apartheid Springbok Club chaired by Alan Harvey, sometime distributor of Holocaust Denial literature, who has recently been expelled from the London Swinton Circle for gross misconduct?
Postings then appeared in the name Shrimpton (a barrister noted for anti-German conspiracy theories). Here are some highlights:
The Springbok Club is not a fascist organisation and apartheid ended in 1991. To describe it as pro-apartheid, in 2008, seems to me to be a nonsense. To describe it as fascist in writing seems to me to be recklessly irresponsible and a potential libel on its members. No facsist or pro-apartheid views were expressed at the meeting.
…As you should know apartheid was a European concept, implemented mainly by the Afrikaners – the Springbok Club is very much English-speaking and in the traditions of Smuts and the Union of South Africa, with its multi-racial suffrage, not the apartheid, anti-British RSA. It is not pro-ANC on the whole, but that does not make it ‘pro-apartheid,’ a pretty silly allegation to make some might think, 17 years after that inglorious chapter in South African history came to an end.
…So far as I can tell Alan Harvey is being attacked because he is opposed to the BNP taking over Swinton Circle, hardly fascism.
…What I find most baffling is your apparent assumption that I was or am pro-apartheid, when I found the whole concept deeply offensive, and stupid, and spent many years fighting it. I am sure the Swinton Circle and Springbok Club were well aware of my record of anti-apartheid activism when they invited me.
[UPDATE: A new posting in the name of Shrimpton declares that the above quotes are “fraudulent”] I will add once again that there is no evidence that speakers at the Springbok Club either knew of Harvey’s views or agreed with them. And I will similarly add that it is not here alleged that any of Harvey’s opponents have far-right links.
As well as these responses apparently from Shrimpton, a poster called (just to add to the confusion) “The Real Swinton Circle” has also left messages on the TBF site, challenging the authenticity of the Shrimpton posts (everyone keeping up?). There is also an attack on Smith:
You too are a coward and you are a racist…I have the digusting things you have said about Black races and having researched the CDA online seems you are very much an active racist…
Smith has admitted to in the past having held “bigoted” views that he has now repudiated following some kind of religious experience involving “an African man of God”; he believes “The Real Swinton Circle” may perhaps be the woman he successfully sued for libel in 2006, as she runs another forum, which heaps all manner of insults on Smith. This is despite a court injunction that followed the libel defeat, and Smith claims that
…I could apply to have Tracy Williams jailed at any time and it has nothing to do with the CPS. The question is; is she worth the effort?
Part Five
Meanwhile yet again, “Sarah Maid of Albion” is also annoyed by the suggestion (made by left-liberal blogger Edmund Standing) that the fact she cites an American neo-Nazi website as a news source for information about the Anti-Defamation League might in some way reflect poorly on her:
If you would be so good as to direct me to any main stream news site which publishes the fact that YouTube is cooperating with the ADL in order remove so called hate speech from its archives, I would be happy to link to it.
However, I suspect that you will find, as I did that it is almost impossible to trace any mention of this in the heavily self censored main stream media.
I linked to a story on a news site. you will also find links on my blog to the Daily Mail and the New York Times, and I am certainly not in the business of promoting either. You will also find links to the UAF, does that make me a Communist or Stalinist, because some of their supporters are?.
I pointed out that both the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz carried pieces on the ADL YouTube story, and that both can be found very quickly via Google. Sarah responds:
It is interesting to note that it is Haaretz and the Jerusalem press who are the only people reporting what I was saying, yet I am accused of anti-semitism.
So, the media are “heavily self censored” – presumably so as not to offend Jews (what other possible way is there to read this?), but the fact that Israeli media are covering the story somehow confirms, rather than undermines, her suggestion of some kind of conspiracy of silence. We can only speculate as to why she was unable to find these sources, yet was able to unearth an obscure neo-Nazi piece on the subject that adds ramblings about Jews controlling pornography.
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