Bill Bailie, The Nation Revisited # 136 February 2018:
The British Aerospace Industry
Hundreds of jobs at BAE Systems are threatened by a lack of orders. Unfortunately, the Typhoon multi-role aircraft is not suitable for use on our new aircraft carriers which require planes capable of short take-off and vertical landing. Instead of developing our own aircraft we have ordered fourteen F35B’s from Lockheed Martin at a cost of £2.5 billion. We will eventually buy 48 planes, the cost of which will escalate as the pound falls against the dollar. We must also consider the cost of putting British aerospace engineers on the dole.
Our former Defence Minister, Michael Fallon, suggested that we support America by sending our new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to North Korea before she is properly commissioned and without aircraft. Perhaps he wants to ram the first North Korean ship that we encounter?
The government has wasted billions of pounds on two aircraft carriers with no means of launching or landing aircraft. Nuclear ships use steam to power ‘cat and trap’ equipment, but our new ships are diesels which generate no steam. We, therefore, have to use STOVL aircraft which are not readily available.
When we get our expensive American planes we will be capable of fighting all over the world but what we really need are more destroyers and frigates to defend the homeland. We are a European country with no empire to defend.
Michael Heseltine resigned from the Cabinet over the Westland helicopter affair in 1986. Margaret Thatcher wanted to sell the company to America but he insisted on keeping it in Britain. Today, Westland is part of Leonardo, an Italian company employing 3,300 workers in the UK
Airbus is a French company which employs 15,000 workers in the UK. They have just signed an order for thirty-six A320 superjumbos with the Emirates.
Bombardier is a Canadian company that employs 25,000 workers making trains and aircraft in the UK and Northern Ireland.
The industry is led by BAE, a British company which employs 82,5000 workers making ships, tanks, missiles and aircraft. These companies employ British workers and pay their taxes. They are a vital part of our economy.
The Far Right
The first fascist movement in Britain was the British Fascists, founded by Miss Rotha Lintorn-Orman in 1923. They were fiercely anti-communist and pro-monarchist. Arnold Leese, a former BF councillor for Stamford, called them “Tories with knobs on.” In 1929 he founded a rival movement called the Imperial Fascist League which was openly anti-Semitic. According to folklore, when Ron Hargrave applied to join the IFL Arnold Leese first measured his head with a tape measure and told him to report back in a week’s time. When he returned Leese said, “A lot of people here don’t like the look of you but I have decided to let you in.”
Ron Hargrave guarding the platform for JT in 1960.
In 1932 Oswald Mosley founded the British Union of Fascist which quickly became a mass movement but in 1940 it was banned and over a thousand Blackshirts were rounded up and thrown into prison under Defence Regulation 18B. After the war, he founded Union Movement to fight for ‘Europe a Nation’. He died in 1980 and UM was wound up in the nineties. Union Movement was never far-right but because it opposed Commonwealth immigration it was branded as such by the media.
The National Front was founded in 1967 to stop immigration, start repatriation, and get Britain out of the Common Market. It peaked in 1979 and its successor movement the BNP peaked in 2010. Both movements were eclipsed by UKIP which is now in steep decline.
The term ‘far-right’ includes everything from traditional conservatives to neo-Nazis. They command about ten to fifteen percent of the vote in most of Europe. Britain’s first-past-the-post system keeps them out of Parliament but in Germany, the AFD has won 94 seats in the Bundestag, in Austria the Freedom Party is part of the coalition government, and in the United States, Donald Trump, a billionaire Zionist warmonger, has promised to build a wall on the Mexican border and make America great again.
There is a crying need for a sensible patriotic movement to fight for Britain in Europe. Ukip and the remnants of the NF and the BNP are stuck in the past and incapable of change. Most of their members have got one foot in the grave and it’s only a matter of time before a new party emerges to cater for the younger generation.
Readers who are suffering from mental health problems, including paranoia, should ask their doctor for help. Conspiracy theory can be cured by talking therapy. If you think that “they are out to get you”, do not despair. The first step is to admit that you have a problem.
What is Nationalism?
We are familiar with Irish, Scottish and Welsh nationalism but less so with English nationalism. My generation was brought up on imperialism which embraced the four nations of the British Isles and even included Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, and Canadians. We were all subjects of the British Empire.
I was proud to salute the Union Jack in the school playground on Empire Day but the Second World War had already destroyed the British Empire. One of the first men to realise it was Oswald Mosley who proclaimed ‘Europe a Nation’ in his book ‘The Alternative’ in 1947. Those of us who share his vision of a united continent with a progressive government are European Socialists.
Nationalism is a mixed blessing. At its best, it’s a love of country, but at its worst, it’s a fear and hatred of foreigners. Celebrating sporting achievements and holidays is a harmless expression of patriotism but beating up immigrants is entirely negative.
Some people believe in a ‘Confederation of Europe’, in which fiercely independent nation-states would co-exist with each other. But history tells a different story. The German Nazis murdered the Austrian leader Englebert Dollfuss, and the Italian Fascists invaded Greece, which was a fascist state under General Metaxas. Nationalist states do not live happily with their neighbours; they invariably attack them.
Little states tend to swagger and act tough, but great empires are self-confident. In the Roman Empire every citizen was protected by the declaration: “Civis Romanus Sum”- I am a Roman Citizen. In 1850 Lord Palmerston stated in Parliament that every citizen of the British Empire should enjoy the same protection. Britain is going through a painful divorce from the European Union but we will still be Europeans, and when the current outbreak of tribalism has subsided, it will only be necessary to say “I am a European”.
Living on Borrowed Money
Many desperate families are in debt to banks and loan sharks because they can’t live on their wages.The construction giant Carillion has collapsed, the National Health Service is virtually bankrupt, and the government borrows nearly fifty billion pounds a year just to keep going.
Some of the unfortunate people who find themselves in debt are poorly educated and come from a culture of poverty and ignorance. But the leaders of our nation have been to university and many of them have their own businesses. They know that you cannot get out of debt by borrowing money.
Idealists promise a debt-free society when socialism is established, but while we are waiting there are practical measures that can be taken. For a start, we should recognise that we are not a world power and stop acting like one. Our campaign in Afghanistan was a waste of lives and money. Helmand province, for which we were responsible, is now a Taliban stronghold with a thriving opium industry. And our military adventures in Iraq, Libya and Syria were just as futile.
Our new aircraft carriers and the Polaris missile system are vanity projects that we cannot afford and don’t need. The main threats to this country are illegal immigration and terrorism, but we cannot stop illegal immigrants or terrorists with aircraft carriers or nuclear submarines.
The House of Lords should be transformed into a Senate charged with monitoring government spending. The US manages with 100 senators and we should follow their example. It should be illegal for the government to spend beyond the budget, except in time of war or national emergency. This would upset the various lobby groups that champion railways, roads, and other expensive projects, but it would reduce our crippling national debt.
When we have invested sufficiently in health, housing and education, we can think about defence spending. But until then we should act like a modern European country and stop pretending to be a great world power.
The Abuse of Power
Harvey Weinstein is not the first film producer to take advantage of his wealth and power. Hollywood has always been notorious for the ‘casting couch’ that gave us some of our favourite stars. When Marilyn Monroe was awarded a big film part a reporter asked her what it meant to her, she replied: “it means I will never have to suck another Jewish cock.” (Dennis McDougal - The Last Mogul, Crown Publishing, New York)
But this kind of behaviour is not confined to the film industry. Rich and powerful men have always exploited their positions and ambitious young women have always co-operated with them. In the 2008 BBC television drama “Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley” the ‘Iron Lady’ was shown offering herself to Ted Heath when he was in charge of selecting Tory candidates and she was an aspiring MP. Ted Heath didn’t fancy her, but how many female MPs got their jobs by sleeping around?
Feminism is now de rigueur. Hardly a speech is made nowadays that does not promote women, blacks and gays. Our leaders are determined to shield them from hurtful words or actions, and they have introduced legislation to protect them. It’s alright to dismiss elderly white men as “pale, stale and male” but being disrespectful to women, homosexuals or ethnic minorities will not be tolerated.
Social attitudes change with time. We are being taken over by Puritans who see a racism and sexism wherever they look. We go through this cycle every hundred years or so, as the pendulum swings between liberalism and hypocrisy. But human nature never changes and people of all races, faiths, and genders will always misbehave.
The Degrading of Women - John Tyndall from Spearhead Nov 1999
John Tyndall was an old-fashioned nationalist who never came to terms with the loss of the British Empire. His “Economic Nationalism” was based on pre-war policies which had been rendered obsolete by the Second World War. When Nick Griffin admitted that a whites-only Britain was no longer possible he replied in ‘Spearhead’: “Contrary to all this nonsense, a whites-only Britain is indeed possible - through a BNP victory. And without such a victory not even any limited relief from the present multiracial horror will ever be possible.” JT lived in a world of his own but he was a brave man who occasionally hit the nail on the head.
Faithful to the canons of political correctness and to the great delight of the Blairs of this world, Britain is becoming a feminised society - feminised at least in respect of those spheres of life which have traditionally been seen as the domain of men. One symptom of this tendency has been the downgrading of masculine qualities and the proliferation of so-called ‘males’ in which these qualities are manifestly lacking. Another - equally repulsive - has been the attempt to induce women to play masculine roles - to become, as it were, ersatz and second-rate males instead of first-rate representatives of their own sex.
Nowhere has this latter tendency been pursued to the point of insanity more than in Britain’s armed forces - up till recently admired throughout the world for their toughness, discipline and professionalism, but now increasingly becoming just another experimental ground for social engineering, including the nutty theories of human equality - both racial and sexual.
Penny Rushton (24), from Cannock, Staffs., with her crew-cut, back-pack and rifle, is not a picture of feminity. She has served in the Royal Artillery but is now trying to get into the Royal Marine Commandos, one of the toughest military units in the world.
To win the Commandos’ famed Green Beret she must complete a ten-mile endurance course in 72 minutes in full kit. She must also do a nine-mile speed march and a 30-mile solo mission on Dartmoor in eight hours. Even half of the male trainees fail to make it in these tests, but Penny (5ft 2in and 8 1/2 stone) is determined to succeed.
An army spokesman talking to the press said: “A few years ago having a woman join the Commandos would have been unthinkable. This shows how far women have come in the forces. Penny is there on merit, She gets no special treatment.”
Well, if this is true and Penny Rushton does make it into the Commandos it can only mean one thing.
She will have gone a long way towards sacrificing those unique feminine qualities that make women special - and which in fact make the world go round.
Which no doubt would delight Tony and his ‘New Labour’ Government. This crew seem bent on turning women into half-men just as they want to turn men into half-women (some would say setting an excellent example themselves!)
Of course, we expect this kind of tomfoolery from politicians. But aren’t we entitled to hope that the chiefs of our armed services would know better?
Just who was the nitwit who, with apparent enthusiasm, told the newspapers that Penny gets “no special treatment”?
Women should indeed get special treatment - because women are not the same. Our ancestors knew it. Our nation was built upon it. In fact, every nation that has made any worthwhile mark on history has recognised it as an eternal truth.
And an essential part of the difference is that women should not be called upon to perform combat roles in the armed services. This is not because women have any less courage than men, but only because their courage is of a different kind, also because the physical and psychological hardships of life in the front line in wartime are hardships best suited to the male species - just as women, and women alone, are equipped to cope with the unique hardship of childbirth.
What the feminists (male and female) of New Labour seem incapable of understanding is that this kind of nonsense, far from raising the status of women and ‘liberating’ them, simply degrades and insults them into an environment in which they cannot possibly compete on fair terms with their men-folk. This is the same as degrading and insulting men by casting them into those areas of life that are the natural domain of women and where women perform best.
Britain will not get back on proper course until we rid ourselves of this madness and revert to a society in which men and women are valued equally but acknowledged as different.
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All articles are by Bill Baillie unless otherwise stated. The opinions of guest writers are entirely their own. This blog is protected by the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19:
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