The Flag Group was a British
far-right political party, formed from one of the two wings of the
National Front in the 1980s. Formed in opposition to the
Political Soldier wing of the
Official National Front
The Official National Front (ONF) was one of two far-right groups to emerge in the United Kingdom in 1986 following a split within the National Front. Following ideological paths that were mostly new to the British far-right, the ONF stood oppos ...
, it took its name from ''The Flag'', a newspaper the followers of this faction formed after leaving and regrouping outside the main and diminishing rump of the rest of the party.
Emergence
During the early 1980s the Political Soldier wing of the NF held sway within the party and was on good terms with chairman
Andrew Brons
Andrew Henry William Brons (born 3 June 1947) is a British politician and former MEP. Long active in far-right politics in Britain, he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber for the British National ...
who, although a
Strasserite
Strasserism (german: Strasserismus or ''Straßerismus'') is a strand of Nazism calling for a more radical, mass-action and worker-based form of the ideology, espousing economic antisemitism above other antisemitic forms, to achieve a national ...
by conviction rather than a disciple of
Julius Evola
Giulio Cesare Andrea "Julius" Evola (; 19 May 1898 – 11 June 1974) was an Italian philosopher, poet, painter, esotericist, and radical-right ideologue. Evola regarded his values as aristocratic, masculine, traditionalist, heroic, and defiant ...
and ruralism, largely supported the young radicals and co-operated with them to remove
Martin Webster
Martin Guy Alan Webster (born 14 May 1943) is a British neo-nazi, a former leading figure on the far-right in the United Kingdom. An early member of the National Labour Party, he was John Tyndall's closest ally, and followed him in joining t ...
, the former ally of Brons' predecessor
John Tyndall, from the party in 1984. However cracks between the two factions soon began to show and a power struggle ensued. This culminated in 1986 when the two wings of the party split, with around 3000 of the 5000 registered NF members breaking away with Brons to form a new separate group.
[Gable, 'The Far Right in Contemporary Britain', p. 255] The immediate actual cause of the split had been the refusal of the Political Soldiers to contest elections and the Brons group made this the issue on which they started their own group, initially called the National Front Support Group before adopting their more usual Flag Group moniker. Activists such as
Martin Wingfield
Martin Wingfield (born 1951) is a British far-right politician. Wingfield is long-standing figure in the British nationalist movement, he and his wife, Tina Wingfield, having contested several elections since the 1980s.
Biography National Front ...
,
Ian Anderson,
Joseph Pearce
Joseph Pearce (born February 12, 1961), is an English-born American writer, and Director of the Center for Faith and Culture at Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee, before which he held positions at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in ...
and Tom Acton emerged as the new leading figures within this group and the Flag Group initially grew at a much faster rate than the Official National Front, although this was in part due to the Political Soldiers closing off membership of their wing.
Ideology
The Flag Group rejected the mysticism of the Political Soldiers and the ONF's technique of establishing contacts with non-white groups such as
Black Power and
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism has been defined as a puritanical, revivalist, and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam. Islamic fundamentalists are of the view that Muslim-majority countries should return ...
activists. Despite these differences with the ONF the Flag Group was not a direct copy of the earlier NF as it was also influenced by '
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
' economics ideals of
Strasserism
Strasserism (german: Strasserismus or ''Straßerismus'') is a strand of Nazism calling for a more radical, mass-action and worker-based form of the ideology, espousing economic antisemitism above other antisemitic forms, to achieve a national ...
, albeit whilst emphasising
anti-immigration
Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, has become a significant political ideology in many countries. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory ...
and
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
alongside this. As time went on and Brons was sidelined in favour of Wingfield and Anderson the Flag Group began to look more towards the
populism of the ''
Front National
The National Rally (french: Rassemblement National, ; RN), until 2018 known as the National Front (french: link=no, Front National, ; FN), is a far-rightAbridged list of reliable sources that refer to National Rally as far-right:
Academic:
...
'', which was enjoying comparative success in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
at the time, resulting in a return to more basic
racist sentiments and less emphasis on economics as opposed to Strasserism.
[European Parliament, ''Committee of Inquiry on Racism and Xenophobia - Report on the Findings of the Inquiry'', Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1991, p. 38] Amongst their more crudely racialist policies the Flag Group stressed the importance of having large families and included ideas about the
white race
White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view.
Description of populations as ...
being bred out of existence in their election literature. Steve Brady, formerly a leading figure in the
National Party, championed this idea within the Flag Group although his other favoured idea, his opposition to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
in particular and religion in general and his desire to see a purely secular basis for Flag Group nationalism, was not taken up. Wingfield's strategy for growth included recruiting new members at
football grounds, a tactic that initially paid dividends.
Development
Brons had a history of low-level co-operation with the
British National Party
The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...
whilst he and BNP leader
John Tyndall went back to the early 1960s when they were both active in the
National Socialist Movement and so not long after the split Brons contacted Stanley Clayton-Garnett, the BNP's Northern leader, with a view to closer co-operation. Tyndall and Brons met formally in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
in May 1987 to discuss the formation of a 'Nationalist Alliance' to be organised along the lines of the
SDP–Liberal Alliance
The SDP–Liberal Alliance was a centrist and social liberal political and electoral alliance in the United Kingdom.
Formed by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Liberal Party, the SDP–Liberal Alliance was established in 1981, contest ...
in existence at the time. A Liaison Committee was set up as a result of this meeting and Brons put the idea to the Flag Group's steering committee that same July.
[Copsey, ''Contemporary British Fascism'', p. 37] The plan however came to nothing as it was rejected by the steering committee and so disavowed by Brons in October 1987. Within the Flag Group it was widely reported that the rejection had happened because of a fear that Tyndall intended only to swallow up the party and make himself sole leader whilst within the BNP it was suggested that the Flag Group's Strasserism made them incompatible with the party.
It has also been argued that ''Flag'' editor Martin Wingfield, who published an editorial denouncing notions of merger, sabotaged the move because he bore a grudge against Tyndall and his father-in-law
Charles Parker after Wingfiled had attempted, unsuccessfully, to replace the latter as NF organiser in
Sussex some years earlier, a struggle that resulted in Wingfield's temporary expulsion from the NF. Nonetheless the parties did continue to co-operate unofficially whilst Tom Acton also managed to win support for the Group from the influential publisher
Anthony Hancock who had initially favoured the ONF in the split. As well as their monthly newspaper ''The Flag'' the group also published a monthly magazine ''Vanguard'' and ''Lonheart'', a quarterly.
Decline
As a separate group, the Flag Group contested
Bristol East
Bristol East is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency recreated in 1983 covering the eastern part of the City of Bristol, represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of ...
in the
1987 general election.
[David Boothroyd, '']Politico's Guide to the History of British Political Parties
''The History of British Political Parties'', also referred to as ''Politico's Guide to the History of British Political Parties'', is a reference book about political parties in the United Kingdom. Written by David Boothroyd, it was published ...
'', 2001, p. 190 By the
1989 Vauxhall by-election, they had resumed using the National Front name, even though their candidate
Ted Budden Edward Budden (died 2000) was a British veteran of the far right who was well known in such circles for his satirical columns that appeared in a number of publications down the years.
Biography
Rivalled only by John Graeme Wood in terms of his ...
faced opposition from Official National Front candidate
Patrick Harrington.
Other elections contested included the
Epping Forest by-election of December 1988, the
European Parliament election of 1989 in which the
West Midlands seat was fought by Wingfield and the
Mid-Staffordshire by-election of March 1990 in which the party finished behind even parody candidate
Screaming Lord Sutch. This policy of contesting elections, invariably with very disappointing results, left the Flag Group with a significant funding shortage.
By 1989 the Flag Group had around 1,500 members with most activity centred on the
West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
.
[Copsey, ''Contemporary British Fascism'', p. 46] Another activity centre had been
Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally ...
although following the failure of the 'Nationalist Alliance' initiative this group, which included future BNP Campaign Director
Eddy Butler
Edward Mark Butler (born in Bloomsbury 13 November 1962) is a former National Elections Officer of the British National Party (BNP) and was dubbed the party's "elections guru" by its newspaper, ''Voice of Freedom'', until being suspended and expe ...
, switched en bloc to the BNP.
As the 1980s drew to a close, the ONF disintegrated with its place being taken by the
International Third Position
International Third Position (ITP) was a neo-fascist organisation formed by the breakaway faction of the British National Front, led by Roberto Fiore, an ex-member of the Italian far-right movement Third Position.
Development
Though a key formul ...
and the
Third Way
The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from a ...
. This allowed the Flag Group to assume sole control of the name, mantle and traditions of NF and effectively signalled the end of the Flag Group as a name.
[Ignazi, ''Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe'', p. 181] Soon they would attempt to relaunch the NF as the
National Democrats.
References
{{UK far right
National Front (UK) breakaway groups
Defunct political parties in the United Kingdom
Political parties established in 1986
Political parties disestablished in 1990
Far-right political parties in the United Kingdom
1986 establishments in the United Kingdom