>Minority parties like to imagine that they will one day come to power. They talk about forming a government and implementing policies as though there’s a real chance of it happening. That’s probably why they attach such importance to points of policy and spend so much time writing detailed manifestos and expelling each other.The so-called far right has inherited the vacant spot left by fascism. Under an alphabet of initials they have been trying to take over the country since Miss Rotha Lintorn-Orman founded the British Fascisti in 1923.

Mosley’s British Union of Fascists was severely damaged by the Public Order Act of 1936 and shut down by Regulation 18B in 1940. It was a mass movement with a charismatic leader but a world war specifically against Fascism proved to be a severe handicap.
After the war the survivors of internment joined with returned servicemen to found Union Movement and fight for Europe a Nation. But those who could not accept the reality of national bankruptcy clung to the fast disappearing empire and founded the National Front.
By the mid Seventies the NF had grown into a nationwide movement that could put thousands of people on the streets and dominate the headlines. They looked set to change the face of British politics. But in 1979 Margaret Thatcher virtually destroyed them as a political force by saying that she understood people’s fears of being swamped by immigration.

The punters believed that the Tories would do something about immigration; they did – they opened the floodgates even wider and showed their total contempt for public opinion. The Tories wanted immigrants as cheap labour and the Labour Party wanted their votes.

Almost thirty years later the British National Party is the latest champion of the far right. They have got more than fifty local councilors and usually get 5-10% in parliamentary elections. Not enough to get elected but enough to annoy the establishment and show the people that someone is fighting for them.
This level of success has frightened the Labour Party into bringing in tougher immigration controls. It’s not so easy to shut down a properly constituted movement in peacetime so the government has attacked on two fronts.
On the one hand they are appeasing public opinion and on the other they are prosecuting members and supporters of the far right with repressive legislation.
The BNP have managed to push the government some way towards immigration control. In that respect they have been successful. But they still dream of coming to power and consider their manifesto to be cast in stone; even though their supporters are voting against immigration and do not study their policies. The electoral performance of the anti-immigration parties has hardly changed in fifty years and doesn’t seem to have anything to do with party labels. They are putting up more candidates but the percentages achieved are much the same:

Oswald Mosley got 8% in Kensington North in 1959 for Union Movement.

John Bean got 9% in Southall in 1964 for the original British National Party.

Colin Jordan got 2.5% in Birmingham Aston in 1970 for British Movement.

John Tyndall got 7% in Hackney South in 1979 for the National Front.

Political realities are changing fast. The big parties are not nearly as big as they used to be. The Tories can no longer count on the middle class vote or on the financial support of big business. The Labour Party has managed to change sides and now supports unbridled capitalism. This has won them the support of big business but they have lost members from the working class and are losing the immigrant vote to parties like Respect.The Liberal Democrats have made a comeback and the Greens and UKIP are threatening to make a parliamentary breakthrough. Loyalties are changing. The White working class is disaffected and most of them have lost the habit of voting; after all, it involves leaving the television or the pub to go to the polling station. Unfortunately it is the White working class that they need to attract.

The leaders and writers of the far right will not be manning the barricades in the near future. They will not be marching on the capital like Benito Mussolini at the head of his Blackshirts; they are not supported by millions of unemployed ex-servicemen like Adolf Hitler; and they cannot call on the army like Francisco Franco. Their only hope is the ballot box that is already rigged in favour of the powers that be.
So what’s the point? The point is that they can change things and have already started to do so. They should stop fantasising about coming to power and continue to concentrate on building a viable political movement that can influence events. They are unlikely to form a government but they can influence public opinion and government policy.
There’s nothing wrong with standing for parliament. It is good training for the troops, it gets publicity and it attracts donations. And if your candidate can divert enough votes to unseat an old gang MP so much the better. But it’s a foolish flight of fancy to think that Nick Griffin will ever come to power.