Nigel Copsey

Changing course or changing clothes? Reflections on the ideological evolution of the British National Party 1999–2006

ABSTRACT Copsey examines the ideological development of the British National Party (BNP) under the leadership of Nick Griffin. Until recently, Griffins programme of ‘modernization’ had considered ideology a secondary concern. Ideological debates were put to one side as Griffin looked to transform the BNP from a political pariah into a respectable electoral party capable of entering Britains mainstream. At first, the BNP simply borrowed from the discursive and organizational style of more moderate continental national-populist parties, in particular the French Front National. However, the failure of the BNP to bring about a historic breakthrough at the European and local elections in 2004 occasioned an ideological overhaul and, while Griffin characterizes it as ‘popular nationalism’, Copsey questions whether the BNP has really transformed itself into a party of the national-populist right. At the outset, he offers some conceptual clarifications regarding fascism, national-populism and neo-fascism before discussing the nature of Griffins ‘modernization’ project and the circumstances behind his decision to revamp the partys ideology. He then moves on to a critical examination of the partys new ideological position as revealed in its 2005 general election manifesto Rebuilding British Democracy. He concludes that ideological renewal under Griffin constitutes a recalibration of fascism rather than a fundamental break in ideological continuity. All the same, the partys ideological face-lift lends support to Griffins broader normalization strategy, which, as the results of the 2006 local elections confirm, is contributing to its electoral success.

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

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 Walkers 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 Griffins recent attempts to modernize the ideology of the British National Party.

Sustaining a mortal blow? The British National Party and the 2010 general and local elections

ABSTRACT In this article Nigel Copsey explores the British National Partys 2010 general and local election campaign and the political responses to it in two key BNP target constituencies (Barking and Stoke-on-Trent Central). As he shows, despite fractious legal action brought against the party by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, and a negligent attitude towards local activity, the BNP had approached the 2010 general and local elections in confident mood. In the biggest electoral push by an extreme-right party in British history, the BNP stood a record 338 parliamentary candidates, and no fewer than 739 local election candidates. Nick Griffin promised a major electoral breakthrough with the party expecting to make a serious challenge for the Barking parliamentary seat and to emerge as the largest single party on Barking and Dagenham council. When the results of the elections were announced, contemporary opinion had it that the BNP had taken a hammer blow, and was smashed into electoral oblivion. As Copsey reveals, the BNP was in part the author of its own electoral misfortune, but a resurgent Labour vote and a sophisticated anti-fascist campaign that created space for Labour to reconnect with its constituency were other key factors. Even though the 2010 general election was the partys best ever, the BNP sustained a major blow to its expectations. The results were a bitter pill for party members to swallow and the fortunes of Britains leading extreme-right party have continued on a downward slide since.

Opposition to the New Party: An Incipient Anti-Fascism or a Defence Against ‘Mosleyitis’?

Within histories of British fascism and anti-fascism, opposition to the New Party has attracted scant attention. The preamble to more serious episodes of conflict between Mosleys Blackshirts and their anti-fascist opponents, typically invites only the most cursory of accounts. However, as this article demonstrates, labour movement opposition to the New Party should not be dealt with simply as a form of embryonic anti-fascism. The author argues that it was a dual-faceted phenomenon, and whilst it did share obvious similarities with later campaigns against the British Union of Fascists, it was also dissimilar in other respects.

‘Fascism… but with an open mind.’ Reflections on the Contemporary Far Right in (Western) Europe

The political science community would have us believe that since the 1980s something entirely detached from historical or neo-fascism has emerged in (Western) Europe - a populist radicalization of mainstream concerns - a novel form of ‘radical right-wing populism.’ Yet the concept of ‘radical right-wing populism’ is deeply problematic because it suggests that (Western) Europe’s contemporary far right has become essentially different from forms of right-wing extremism that preceded it, and from forms of right-wing extremism that continue to exist alongside it. Such an approach, as this First Lecture on Fascism argues, fails to appreciate the critical role that neo-fascism has played, and still plays, in adapting Europe’s contemporary far right to the norms and realities of multi-ethnic, liberal-democratic society. Political scientists should fixate less on novelty and the quest for neat typologies, and instead engage far more seriously with (neo) fascism studies.

Into the Political Mainstream? The 2001 General Election and After

With an average vote of 17.3 per cent across the seats contested, and some 13 council seats won, the local elections of May 2003 brought the British National Party a level of electoral success hitherto unknown on Britain’s far right. During the 1930s Mosley’s British Union of Fascists had managed to win just one council seat, whilst in the 1970s Britain’s largest postwar fascist organisation, the National Front, had failed to secure election to any office.1 On 2 May 2003, almost a decade after its solitary win in Millwall, the British National Party could lay claim to no fewer than 16 councillors. It had now outperformed all its predecessors by far. The jewel in the crown was the East Lancashire town of Burnley where it had come second to Labour and formed the official opposition. As the Lancashire Evening Telegraph’s headline writer put it, with right-extremists holding a grand total of eight seats in the town, Burnley had become the ‘BNP CAPITAL OF BRITAIN’.2 But such attention-grabbing headlines can be deceptive. Of all the seats that were up for election in May 2003, the BNP only managed to win one-tenth of 1 per cent. Nonetheless, even if its influence proved local rather than national, the electoral ground that it had captured was undoubtedly significant. As a result, the party found itself tantalisingly close to a national electoral breakthrough — an opportunity that it expected to seize in 2004 when, at the same time as elections to the European Parliament and the London mayoral elections, entire councils would be up for election in a raft of metropolitan districts across the country.3

Anti‐semitism and the Jewish community of Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne

After briefly outlining the historical development of the Jewish community in Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne, this article examines the extent to which anti‐Semitism was a major concern in the life of modern North‐East Jewry. The focus of this discussion is on the 1930s and 1940s, a period when anti‐Semitism assumed greater significance. What this artcle revals is that on Tyneside, even though the fear of anti‐Semitism gave rise to active responses from within the local Jewish community, anti‐Semitism remained small scale. The experience of Newcastles Jewish community should caution us against overstating the prevalence of anti‐Semitism in British society.

‘Never Again!’: Anti-Fascism, 1946–66

The human and material cost of the Second World War alongside revelations of the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities ensured that in the postwar world fascism was universally regarded as an evil obscenity, a doctrine of brutality, destruction, intolerance and genocide. More specifically, in Britain, anti-fascist attitudes became central to constructions of national identity, with animosity towards Nazi Germany and the heroic struggle against Hitler functioning as major sources of national loyalty and patriotic pride.1 Significantly, this fusion of anti-fascism with nationalism reinforced perceptions, dating from the inter-war period, that fascism was essentially an alien creed inimical to British culture and traditions. Whereas the British were ‘liberal’, ‘tolerant’ and ‘decent’, fascists were ‘foreign’ and ‘intolerant’, ‘fanatics’ who were intent on the physical extermination of Jewry. From this angle, fascism was viewed as an abhorrent foreign ideology that was incapable of ever taking root in British society. The failure of Mosley in the 1930s appeared to provide further confirmation that fascism was indeed antithetical to British cultural values. Therefore, it was widely assumed that given these conditions, fascist activity in postwar Britain could be safely ignored. In short, fascism was a thoroughly shameful ‘foreign import’, a futile effort destined for political failure.

‘The National Front is a Nazi Front!’: Opposition to the National Front, 1967–79

In all probability, the moment that opposition to the National Front (NF) is mentioned, it is the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) which springs to mind. This organisation, formed in late 1977, grew rapidly to become the Front’s most memorable opponent. In its first year, it recruited some 40,000–50,000 members, distributed over five million leaflets and sold around one million anti-Front badges and stickers. Such was the level of its popular support, the Anti-Nazi League was widely regarded as the largest extra-parliamentary movement since the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the early 1960s.1 By mobilising mass opposition to the National Front, and by smearing the Front with the lethal Nazi label, the Anti-Nazi League has been judged an unqualified success. Many claim that the ANL was largely responsible for the electoral demise of the National Front at the end of the 1970s and have urged others, such as opponents of the Front National in France, to follow its example.2 But in point of fact, support for the National Front may have already peaked by the time the Anti-Nazi League was launched. Moreover, the concentration on the activities of the Anti-Nazi League has meant that the work of other anti-fascist groups that either pre-dated or paralleled the ANL has been largely ignored. This narrow focus has also precluded wider consideration of other sources of anti-fascism. It may well have been the case, for instance, that hostility from the mainstream media impeded the National Front more than the activities of opposition groups. Certainly this was the view of the National Front, who after the 1979 general election identified the media and not the ANL as its ‘number one enemy’.3

Fighting Fascism in the 1980s and 1990s

At the beginning of the 1980s, with the National Front having fallen on hard times, the urgency that had rallied mass opposition to the NF between 1977 and 1979 disappeared. But not only had the threat of fascism abated, political space for anti-fascism had also been cut by the arrival of Margaret Thatcher whose austere, right-wing policies raised more pressing issues for the Left. In consequence, in the early 1980s anti-fascism lost momentum and petered out. Although a few local Anti-Nazi League groups continued to exist, the ANL wound down and dwindled to vanishing point.1 There were efforts to reinvigorate it during 1980–1 when the activities of the NF’s main rival, the British Movement, generated concerns about the rising popularity of the Nazi cult amongst working-class youth, but these efforts came to nothing and the ANL failed to establish a permanent presence.2 The size of the Anti-Nazi League picket at the founding press conference of the British National Party (BNP) in April 1982, when fewer than ten activists stood outside in the rain, confirmed that it had come to the end of its run. Already in October 1981, Searchlight had described a situation where there was ‘no anti-racist, anti-fascist movement to speak of’ and had called for the formation of a new, nationally co-ordinated organisation dedicated to the fight against fascism and racism.3 To this end, a meeting was convened in May 1981 to mark the first anniversary of the death of the Maurice Ludmer at which it was hoped that new initiatives to sustain the anti-fascist struggle might emerge. Yet with only 60 people in attendance in a hall that could seat 1,200, it was all too clear that the scale of the fascist threat had diminished to such an extent that the formation of a mass anti-fascist movement in the near future was an unlikely prospect.